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Hi guys,
Trying to install Slitaz on USB stick from windows (following this guide: http://doc.slitaz.org/en:guides:liveusb)
I tried 2 methods and both failed...:
- tazusb.exe
- universal_usb_installer.exe
Steps to reproduce:
- boot on windows
- download latest slitaz-rolling-core.iso
- format usb drive in FAT32
- use either tazusb.exe or universal_usb_installer.exe to install slitaz on USB drive
- reboot
Result with tazusb.exe => system hangs after booting with this message:
[c]SYSLINUX 3.08 2009-05-04 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2009 H. Peter Anvin et al[/c]
Result with universal_usb_installer.exe = slitaz boot menus are shown, but loops for ever on trying to boot with this 2 lines message:
[c]Failed to load COM32 file c32box.c32[/c]
[c]boot: _[/c]
I tried to uncompress the file /boot/isolinux/c32box.c32 using 7-zip (as explained here: http://forum.slitaz.org/topic/cannot-boot-live-usb) but that did not solve the issue.
I understand that "external" tools like universal_usb_installer.exe could fail because of not following slitaz evolution, but the slitaz's tool tazusb.exe should just work out of the box.
Would anyone give a step-by-step process to install slitaz-rolling-core on a usb flash drive using windows?
Thx for helping.
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Try this:
1- rename slitaz-rolling-core.iso to slitaz-rolling-core.exe
2- run slitaz-rolling-core.exe
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Thx Bellard, your method works smoothly. ;-)
For any lost people, here is the step-by-step procedure:
[*] boot on windows,
[*] download latest slitaz-rolling-core.iso,
[*] go to the downloaded file directory,
[*] rename the file slitaz-rolling-core.iso to slitaz-rolling-core.exe,
[*] double-click the file slitaz-rolling-core.exe to run it,
[*] follow the instructions given by the application (2-3 steps):
- Do you want to create boot key: => answer yes,
- Step 1: unplug the USB stick,
- Step 2: plug the USB stick in and wait for Windows to mount it (however DO NOT unmount the drive as stated...),
- wait for the confirmation window,
[*] reboot,
[*] press Fn key (in my case F12 for lenovo W540) to choose alternative boot device,
[*] slitaz boot panel must be displayed,
- select the language,
- RETURN for booting,
[*] that's it.
Happy slitaz-rolling :-)
PS1: @bellard est-ce possible de virer la fin de la phrase du Step2 qui dit : "... and dismount it". Car elle prête vraiment à confusion.
PS2: What about updating/removing the non-working methods (tazusb.exe, etc...) described in the different documents?
[EDIT] This does not work actually. Gives black screen with blanking cursor.
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PS1: http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/6042ae3b2eb3
PS2: Any taker for http://hg.slitaz.org/tazusb/file/49db011ddd98/win32/tazusb.nsi ?
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I have been at this all day trying to do the same.
I've tried to install from Slitaz 4 using the same guide above with the same results.
In Win 7 ... I've tried Unitbootin, Uui, tazusb.exe & renaming the rolling core .iso to .exe and running using the correct method above (this runs and finishes properly but has the errors in Post #1 every time).
The only thing that has worked is Unitbootin ... but I can't get any persistence to change or add applications no matter what I try and also have ended up with an extra Unitbootin blue boot menu?.
What I would like to do is format ext3 and install Slitaz 5 rolling from Slitaz 4 .... but after 8 hours with S4 and Win7 I'm absolutely stumped and have run out of options to try.
I would like to try Slitaz 5 but I just can't seem to get it installed properly on USB
I've tried the solution above over and over but all I get is the errors in Post #1 over and over.
In Slitaz 4 using tazusb gen-iso2usb and the proper path it goes through the motions and finishes but is always looking for files from a live cd which of course isn't there ... which I don't think it should be doing and again has the same errors on trying to boot into it.
I also checked the md5 so I know that the .iso is fine.
Any suggestions?
S4 is still working fine for me but I'm going to have to move up soon ... 
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@TraceE
You can add the rolling usb creator on previous slitaz versions vith isohybrid.exe :
1. Get http://mirror1.slitaz.org/boot/isohybrid.exe
2. C:> isohybrid slitaz-4.0.iso --forced
3. C:> ren slitaz-4.0.iso slitaz-4.0.exe
4. C:> slitaz-4.0
PS: should work with Knoppix, tinycore and others too.
Edit 29/5/2017:
Already done in http://mirror1.slitaz.org/iso/4.0/slitaz-4.0-isohybrid.iso
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I'm confused ... it's Slitaz 5 latest rolling core.iso I'm having trouble with not 4 I have been using Slitaz 4 for years.
I'm not understanding what you mean ... isn't isohybrid.exe a windows application?
I am trying to install latest Slitaz 5 rolling core to usb from a fully working Slitaz 4 or Win7.
Can you give me a more step by step guide please? ... I'm just not understanding what you mean for me to do to Slitaz 4? and how that helps with installing 5?...
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Ok finally got somewhere with Win32 Disk Imager ... which wrote the latest Slitaz 5 rolling .iso to usb in about 5 seconds ... And I'm writing to you from it just now.
Seems a lot different from 4.
The usb was formatted fat32 before writing the image I can't tell what it is now because when I try and look at it in Gparted it says "Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sdb" and shows as Unallocated but seems to work fine. So I have started making changes to the way I would like it.
Can you tell me the best way to save these changes for next boot?
In Slitaz 4 it was just a case of using tazusb writefs and a new rootfs.gz was created.
Is it the same in 5 even if the filesystem is fat32?
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@TraceE,
For clarifying, when you say "...but all I get is the errors in Post #1 over and over", which error do you exactly get?
Asking this because in Post#1, I faced two (2) different errors depending on which method used:
- a) error with tazusb.exe => system hangs after booting with this message:
SYSLINUX 3.08 2009-05-04 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2009 H. Peter Anvin et al
- b) error with universal_usb_installer.exe = slitaz boot menus are shown, but loops for ever on trying to boot with this 2 lines message:
Failed to load COM32 file c32box.c32
boot: _
Also it would be nice if you could open a new post about other questions you may have. Otherwise, this post will get off topic soon and therefore less useful.
So please keep to this topic subject and give us more details on the boot errors you encountered. Thx
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So the rootfs.gz is now saved in /
Will this new file be the one booted from if I reboot? (I'm not used to it being saved there).
Also where is the Boot directory for making changes to Isolinux/syslinux.cfg for changing boot options?
And how do I run Pcmanfm in SU mode?
I think once I know these things I'll be able to get on with the rest ...
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"@TraceE,
When you say "...but all I get is the errors in Post #1 over and over", which error do you exactly get?
Asking this because in Post#1, I faced two (2) different errors depending on the used method:
- a) error with tazusb.exe => system hangs after booting with this message:
SYSLINUX 3.08 2009-05-04 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2009 H. Peter Anvin et al
- b) error with universal_usb_installer.exe = slitaz boot menus are shown, but loops for ever on trying to boot with this 2 lines message:
Failed to load COM32 file c32box.c32
boot: _"
I had three different errors ... the two you mention and black screen with flashing cursor.
I tried so many different things over 8 hours I couldn't tell you now what I did to get each one ... sorry .. 
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@TraceE re Linux on USB
It's better to start from installing a bootloader on USB (grub4dos or grub2).
If you have any working linux already, you can make several partitions on USB:
- The 1st partion for a bootloader (usually 50 MB is enough, preferrably ext2, ext4).
- The rest partiotions for any linux distros.
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@TraceE,
did you follow the given full procedure I was advised to from Bellard?
If so, be more precise about the error(s) you get.
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@TraceE
SYSLINUX 3.08 2009-05-04 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2009 H. Peter Anvin et al
Rolling 5.0 needs Syslinux 4.06; download the 4.06 and update the bootloader on the stick.
You can also from boot screen select [c]SliTaz Live[/c][c], hit the [Tab] key and suppress [/c][c]COM32 c32box.c32[/c] from the beginning of the command line (but keep the point (.) for the first character). I did it on a "special Live" (Slitaz + Porteus + Tiny Core) and it worked; but the releases of Syslinux for each distro wasn't so far apart.
If it works also for you, modify the entry in syslinux.cfg (when you'll find it ;-) )
LABEL slitaz
MENU LABEL SliTaz Live
COM32 c32box.c32
APPEND linux /boot/bzImage initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz rw root=/dev/null video=-32 autologin
as this:
LABEL slitaz
MENU LABEL SliTaz Live
KERNEL /boot/bzImage
APPEND initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz rw root=/dev/null video=-32 autologin
Hope I didn't do any mistake, my Live is at my office
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@Ceel ... I don't know how to update the bootloader and changing the tab key options didn't change anything.
@totoetsasoeur ... I am at the moment trying the bellard method again to see what the error is ... I have made sure the .iso md5 is correct and will be formatting the "stick" (brand new 16GB Lexar)to fat32 again first.
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Ok just made another installation from windows by changing the .iso to .exe and running it.
It finished after 15mins with the confirmation message "(hd1)is up to date".
On rebooting to the "stick" ... I get the single error message "isolinux.bin is missing or corrupt".
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Ok I have managed to install now by using Slitaz 4 "tazusb gen-iso2usb" ... then I fixed the c32box.c32 and vesamenu.c32 boot errors by using 7zip to extract c32box.c32 and vesamenu.c32 as advised by others on another thread.
I have read that this error was probably happening because I have used an older distro (Slitaz 4 stable from 2012) to make the USB install as it contains and obsolete version of extlinux.bin?
Still not sure why it wouldn't work from changing the .iso to .exe and installing from that in Windows though ???
Every time from Windows it would give me the same error as in the post above "isolinux.bin is missing or corrupt".
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Back to this. Something totally weird :-(
Trying to understand what was going on for TraceE, I made a second usb using the Bellard's method, and guess what? => does not work anymore. I get the same error as TraceE: black screen with blinking cursor...
After hours of trying, I finally used this method which seems to work:
- From windows 7 and usb stick 8GB
- Download universal-usb-installer-1-9-6-6.exe and slitaz-rolling-core.iso
- run the universal-usb-installer and follow the steps
- then open the created directory on the usb stick (drive F in my case) F:\boot\isolinux
- extract the file c32box.c32 to the same place using 7zip and rename it using jack_london trick (as explained here: http://forum.slitaz.org/topic/cannot-boot-live-usb)
- then reboot and enjoy
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Thanks for your time totoetsasoeur ...
Bellard has suggested using the application "iso2exe" on the .iso to "prepare" it before converting to .exe and running in windows at the bottom of this post:
http://forum.slitaz.org/topic/boot-errors-when-trying-to-create-usb-install-of-latest-5-rolling-core#post-44029
Maybe that will make the difference.
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Assuming that someone, from windows world, wanna start testing Sitaz, this topic idea was to answer the question: "how to make a fresh new USB stick with slitaz-rolling from windows?
And the only working way I found was the last one I described (using universal-usb-installer).
As far as I understood, this iso2exe has to be launched under linux to "prepare" the iso. So the user must have a working slitaz to do that...
The best and most coherent way, in my opinion, would be to debug the "tazusb.exe" windows utility provided by Slitaz (initially created by Cédric Tissière).
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Oups iso2exe is a linux tool.
Use isohybrid.exe, the DOS/Windows tool:
C:> isohybrid your.iso
C:> ren your.iso your.exe
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THIS IS A DRAG & DROP METHOD FOR WINDOWS!!
I once came across Xboot from pendrivelinux.com when I was trying to find something that would help me create multiboot USB or DVD easily
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/xboot-multiboot-iso-usb-creator/
One can create multiboot or a single OS, bootable USB flash drive with simple drag & drop
I have tested & found it working for Slitaz 5 rolling release.
Slitaz 4 didn't work for me but you might be luckier!!
Hope someone finds this helpful!
(The bootloader selection screenshot is taken from pendrivelinux.com, I captured the other)
[attachment=44905,2515] [attachment=44905,2516]
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