ArcaOS USB installation - Rufus?

[Mentore]

Hello all,
I finally got some free time to install ArcaOS beta in a Virtualbox environment.
Everything seems working fine so far. Have to install some applications, but I already saw some things that still need Italian translation - will make a checklist to discuss with my teammates. Now for a little problem:

I'm actually having issues trying to use AOSBoot and create a bootable USB stick. Everything goes well until the script ejects the thumbdrive and I re-insert it. Then, AOSBoot complains it can't format the USB stick and aborts.

Now: I'm not sure if this is due to the thumbdrive being "only" 4GB capable, or maybe because I didn't "touch" it with LVM, so I'd really love to understand how to use it with good results.

Speaking of USB boot sticks, I came across a USB tool named Rufus (https://rufus.ie/) which allows to create a bootable USB for linux distributions or windows ISO files. Sadly it doesn't recognize ArcaOS ISO as bootable or suitable for transferring it on an USB stick.

Don't know what I'm doing wrong but I feel Rufus may be another simple way to obtain an USB ArcaOS installation media. What do you think about it? In the meantime I think I'll try burning a bootable DVD, if AOSBoot keeps failing me (puzzles me how I seem unable to use it, though!!!).

TIA
Mentore

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Mentore

I used AOSBoot for the ArcaOS beta versions without any major problems. I used a 16GB flash memory. Maybe using the 4GB can be an issue, do you want to try it a with a bigger flash drive?
For what I know AOSBoot is not yet release (right?), so maybe it is not complete finished. But I can not complain from my side.

Rufus never worked for the on some eCS and the first ArcaOS ISO. but I haven't tried Rufus in some years.

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Mentore, good chance your stick is going bad. Being 4GB's (big enough), it is probably old. I've had a couple fail, always in subtle ways. One wouldn't boot and another failed to mount the ISO image.
As for programs like Rufus, remember that OS/2 can't access USB until late in the boot, so the installer starts out by installing to a ram disk and running OS/2 of of that.

[Mentore]

Hi Mentore, good chance your stick is going bad. Being 4GB's (big enough), it is probably old. I've had a couple fail, always in subtle ways. One wouldn't boot and another failed to mount the ISO image.
As for programs like Rufus, remember that OS/2 can't access USB until late in the boot, so the installer starts out by installing to a ram disk and running OS/2 of of that.

Thanks Dave and Martin. The stick I used is indeed pretty old and most probably is going faulty, so I'll ditch it and try a newer one. Will let you know ASAP - I can't wait to have a bare metal OS/2 machine again.

(And don't get me started on Windows 11.)

Mentore

[mauro]

Hi Mentore, just consider -as an option- that Virtualbox has a non documented feature for converting a virtual machine into a physical bootable volume.
Check this link below (italian tutorial)

https://turbolab.it/virtualizzazione-535/guida-come-convertire-macchina-virtuale-vm-virtualbox-sistema-operativo-host-fisico-reale-1102

jump straight to the chapter "Conversione Disco Virtuale"

If you already have virtualized an ArcaOS machine in Virtualbox, then you are in a good position to make a test.

I made it with OS2 Warp 4.52, converted from a .vdi file to an USB system installation : it works, except for the fact that.... it won't boot in real hardware, just because of structural OS2 drive detection limitations.
But it actually runs perfectly connecting the USB pendrive to the pc and make it boot in a Virtualbox session as it was a guest virtual machine; I can work on it leaving my editing and savings on the physical USB installed system.
I guess ArcaOS system will have better chances than OS2 for booting in real hardware.

[Wendy Krieger]

Rufus does not even work on home-brew windows 7 isos either. 

[Mentore]

Rufus does not even work on home-brew windows 7 isos either.

Hi Wendy,
actually I used successfully Rufus with the Windows 7 ISOs provided by microsoft (I happen to have two or three valid license keys and already used them). Rufus failed me when I tried to create a bootable linux distro for an old netbook, so it's clearly a YMMV situation.

Mentore

[Wendy Krieger]

Rufus apparently makes some rather obscure checks on the system.

In the end, i used some other proggie easyusb (from the people who make BCDedit.) 

[Wendy Krieger]

As to Windows 10, my brother's opinion of it was to request me to order in an OEM base install of windows 7.

We followed some advice and disabled a whole lot of things, and Win10's idea was to download fixes and install + uninstall them.  You boot the computer and go have dinner before it had finished booting. 

[Mentore]

As to Windows 10, my brother's opinion of it was to request me to order in an OEM base install of windows 7.

We followed some advice and disabled a whole lot of things, and Win10's idea was to download fixes and install + uninstall them.  You boot the computer and go have dinner before it had finished booting.

WOW, this is insane. Still can't figure how could go so bad for OS/2, given the competitors' level...

Mentore