antix 8.5

I recently installed antix on an old PC, I think it is great.

I would like to try/use the ability to boot antix from a usb stick, however, this pc is old and isn't configured to boot from a usb stick.

I have seen other distributions in which folks created a cd that, when installed in the machine,"interrupted" the boot process and made the machine decide to boot from the usb stick.

Is there such a cd out there for antix 8.5?

Or - it there an alternative approach I should be trying out?

Thanks.

You could try plop.

using-plop-boot-manager-to-boot-antix-from-pendrive-t2248.html?hilit=plop

PLoP works great. I have it here 'embedded' in my GRUB(2), but it can be run from floppy, cd, GRUB legacy (as in antiX), from Windows or be the main bootloader itself.
The problem is no one has been able to boot antiX-USB with a USB 1.x port, as probably will be your case.

secipolla, dolphin oracle managed to get it to boot. See last page of the link above.

Hey guys,

I just tried my procedure from with the latest"update" iso, and I get an"unable to enable aufs" message (or something like that, it scrolls by pretty fast. The system then proceeds to boot to the default icewm WM, but the keyboard and mouse do not work. I have to shutdown manually with the power switch on the box. It looks like without the"aufs" that a read-only file system is created, and xorg configuration fails. I think some symbolic links also fail, but they scroll by pretty fast and I have no way to go back without a keyboard.

Ok.......

I guess this needs to be put into simpler English for me.

Does all of the above - including the referenced thread that I really didn't understand - mean that this functionality simply will not work?

I got the PLOP thing working on a CD just perfectly. I also went through the antiX process to create a live USB. But, when I boot into the antiX usb via the PLOP CD, I get the error message that the antiX filesystem could not be found.

It doesn't usually work with antiX, as you have discovered. I for one have used with Puppy, Knoppix and Partimage and they all work here.
In that referenced thread, dolphin_oracle
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/post14753.html#p14753"
linktext was:"manually set up the files in the flash drive"
====================================
instead of using antix2usb and it worked but now he said that procedure didn't work with the latest updated ISO.

Same for me. Mepis Kernel or something in Antix fights booting on 1.1 USB. Plop worked OK (as tests) for me in Puppy and Slitaz as well. I should have tried testing with Tiny Core but did not know about it till later.

Edit: I went into this issue of AntiX and PLOP with the developer of PLOP and he came to the conclusion that AntiX (made with Unetbootin and also made with antix2usb) and Plop are incompatible companions. dolphin_oracle, like secipolla says, had success with pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5. So if Anti is reading this thread. Maybe he will upload the pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5 Full Iso or Base Iso so you can download and install to usb as per dolphin_oracles instructions and use plop to boot and install.

rokytnji wrote:So if Anti is reading this thread. Maybe he will upload the pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5 Full Iso or Base Iso so you can download and install to usb as per dolphin_oracles instructions and use plop to boot and install.

Actually the ISOs available at the mirrors listed in antix.mepis.org are pre-upgrade ones. Only the ones at mepisimo are the updated ones.

I think its something in the way aufs is set up, as the fromiso cheat code doesn't work for this either. Perhaps some sort of delay before the auf system loads. Is it possible that usb 1.1 is simply too slow and that it is timing out?

Okay, two dumb questions from the new guy - recall, this is the"New Users" forum!

1) I see this message prior to getting the error message, or something close to this:"Looking for antiX/antiX in /dev/sda1 ....." My understanding is that is the first partition of my hard drive. If that is correct, what is it in the stuff on the USB stick that is telling the computer to look there? Shouldn't it be looking on the USB stick?

2) Ok, now you guys are making me nervous. When I thought to try out antiX, I never read anything about there being"pre-upgrade" - what does *that* mean? - and"updated" versions. What are the differences? How would I have known which is which? How do I know which I have now? What do the differences mean for the user?

dln9 wrote:Okay, two dumb questions from the new guy - recall, this is the"New Users" forum!

1) I see this message prior to getting the error message, or something close to this:"Looking for antiX/antiX in /dev/sda1 ....." My understanding is that is the first partition of my hard drive. If that is correct, what is it in the stuff on the USB stick that is telling the computer to look there? Shouldn't it be looking on the USB stick?

2) Ok, now you guys are making me nervous. When I thought to try out antiX, I never read anything about there being"pre-upgrade" - what does *that* mean? - and"updated" versions. What are the differences? How would I have known which is which? How do I know which I have now? What do the differences mean for the user?

First off. Don't get nervous. __{{emoticon}}__ You have had 11 replys to your thread which speaks volumes for this forum. I was the NFG here and the guys here made me feel at home and put up with my mistakes with patience and understanding.
There are no dumb questions.

Question 1. My take on why antix is looking for sda1. Because grub is installed on USB drive. It considers USB drive as sda1. While your installed antix will tell you when pendrive is inserted and looked at that it is sdb. As far as internal grub is concerned on your pendrive. Pendrive is sda because that is where the kernel and boot lines are. Clear enough?

Question 2. We bring up the difference between the Upgrade 8.5 Antix iso because dolphin_oracle. Who has tested Plop with the Upgrade Iso. Says that his previous steps for a successful plop usb boot on the preupgrade iso do not work with the newer upgrade iso. How do you know which you have now.

Which one? Pendrive or your install. On your internal install

inxi -F typed into rox terminal will tell you on the first line of readout.

On Pendrive just look inside and see what you installed. Besides. You had to download a Iso to make the pendrive. Update would have been in the iso title.

secipolla gave the address fro preupgrade isos in post 9. (thanks secipolla for correcting me __{{emoticon}}__ )

Hope this answers your questions.

Happy Trails, Rok

Thanks Rok. One followup question:

In general, what is the difference between a"pre-upgrade" version and an"updated" version? Why aren't there just"versions"?

antiX 8.5 was launched in April and recently anticapitalista uploaded another ISO with some fixes for known bugs and with updated applications (means less download in the first upgrade). See: antix-upgrade-bug-fix-isos-available-t2580.html

Can't really answer that question (the other guys who are more knowledgeable and been here longer can answer that better than I) but I will try in my crude way.

AntiX is always being worked on by Anticapitalista (the devloper of AntiX). He listens to us testers and we come up with bugs and suggestions to try and improve AntiX. Anti listens to us and puts his nose to the grind stone and makes subtle changes to a released version like AntiX 8.5.

I have been involved with testing AntiX 8.5 (and earlier versions like 8.0) since AntiX 8.5 Beta 1 came out. Improved changes to menu and other programs plus the layout came in stages with AntiX 8.5 Beta 2 and Beta 3. Then Final came out.

We forum members found small glitches in Final. Anti Listened. Came out with a Upgrade Iso addressing those glitches. Wicd upgrade via apt-get dist-upgrade comes to mind where Wicd required a user account named demo for wicd to work. That was one of the issues in the pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5 Final Iso. So Anti addressed issues like this and came out with a upgrade ISO.

Only the ones at mepisimo are the updated ones.

Secipolla or Anti can correct me if I am wrong. But if memory serves me right.


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Testing/"
linktext was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Testing/"
====================================


is the testing repository. Antis Quote on upgrade isos below

I have made available upgraded/bug fix isos for antiX-M8.5, antiX-M8.5-base in 486 and 686 flavours.
Ideal for new users to antiX as it saves over 400MB of downloads since antiX-M8.5 was released.
These versions also include the cli-installer and all doc files are kept.
If you have upgraded your antiX-M8.5 (or earlier) version via apt/aptitude, then there is no need to install the newer iso.

Also available is antiX-core-b1. Improvements over core-a1 include extra features in the cli-installer ie separate /home now possible and keymap issues in core-a1 should be fixed.

Notice he says if you already upgraded your original AntiX 8.5. There is no need to download and install upgrade iso. My EEEPC 900 falls into that category where I installed the pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5 Final and had since updated and custom configured it with 2 seperate SSD drives so I could have / (root) partition on my 4gig SSD drive and have /home on my seperate 16 gig SSD drive. That was a grand adventure.

post15550.html?hilit=%20EEEPC%20900#p15550

dealing-with-a-asus-eee-900-install-of-antix-8-5-t2328.html?hilit=%20EEEPC%20900

I also started the plop boot method idea for usb 1.1. Other guys did better than I getting results with that idea.

My latest forays have been with a Asus EEEPC 701SD. Took awhile. Was some work involved. But It purrs now with the setup I have on it and apt-get dist-upgrade works like a charm on it and have 2 custom kernels also running on it also.

So if plop does not work out for you. Try upgrading the kernel to Liquorix (as a experiment to see if works on your gear). Be happy with your current install. No shame if Plop gives you fits. It gave me fits to.

Happy Trails, Rok