How to install SerpentOS

ermo

As of the pre-alpha0 milestone, the current target for the Serpent OS boot management code is:

EFI system partion (ESP) as FAT12/16/32
(optional) XBOOTLDR partition as FAT32 (type 142 in fdisk)
root partition as ext4

The lichen installer and the boot management code (blsforme) expects to have an entire disk for itself.

This is to not have to support dual boot scenarios (yet).

Note that some older UEFI implementations do not properly support booting from FAT32.

From literally the first UEFI specification from 2006, section 12.2 "File System Format" states:

EFI encompasses the use of FAT32 for a system partition, and FAT12 or FAT16 for removable
media.

In addition, section 12.2.1.1 "File System Format" states:

The EFI firmware must support the FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 variants of the EFI file system.

Alex2022K I understand that you excluded support from the kernel NTFS, exfat, support? 🤔

Correct. We are deliberately keeping the target lean and mean so we don't drown in requests for supporting esoteric configurations while we're still in heavy development.

Alex2022K EFI stub: Loaded Initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path
EFI stub: Heasured Initrd data into PCR 9

Another version was been after playing with usb-drive

EFI stub: Loaded Initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path

Without PCR9
JUST It's frozen.

I have seen the same thing on a couple of my PCs. I ended up having to install Serpent OS in a VM backed by a raw disk image. I then booted the live iso in that VM and formatted the virtual disk ESP and XBOOTLDR partitions as FAT16 (my UEFI couldn't boot from FAT32 partitions 🤷‍♂️ ) and the root partition as ext4.

Then I shut down the freshly installed VM and used dd to write the raw VM backing disk image to an empty SATA disk, and then started up gparted to extend the root partition to fill the entire disk.

After that, I could boot my new Serpent OS install just fine.

Alex2022K

ermo You're getting too ahead ...
https://app.degoo.com/share/CWlkHbyzKK1XMbMTXDqphg

https://app.degoo.com/share/9kPcdpIIlsCp8ZdUzD5c7g

The ISO image is absolutely not suitable for this type of installation from a pendrive. As you accurately mentioned, UEFI only searches for the FAT32 section, usually on a GPT partition. However, most laptops and PCs that are not brand new are unable to search directly through the UEFI boot manager from USB. Unfortunately, not a single installer from a phone could handle the preparation of a USB pendrive with GPT and FAT32. Besides, I don't see the point in diving into the details as to why that is the case. Experience has shown that the Ventoy tool is flexible and works perfectly. Also, deploying an image from a flash drive is much faster, more convenient, and easier, for example, through a function like disk recovery in the GNOME Disk Utility.

As an example, the VHDx image file is also good, and here’s why: using an alternative *.IMG type or tools like YUMI Multiboot USB Creator can also work. In some cases, it's easy to run a basic kernel, connect to the internet with a PXE board or without it, and continue the installation online by deploying an image to a PC hard drive. In offline mode, an additional method is possible. I think forking Ventoy specifically for a GUI USB and PXE installer mode would make the process more comfortable and create a more portable rescue instrument with CLI, GUI, and web opportunities.

Also this script might be useful:
"This script builds single-file bootable EFI modules, which include the kernel, command line strings, initramfs, and microcode": https://github.com/RobertCsordas/arch-efiboot

"Additionally, we can:Append the quiet vt.global_cursor_default=0 kernel parameters at the time of boot entry creation. Adjust mkinitcpio.conf to use the systemd hook instead of udev, and then run mkinitcpio -P to rebuild the initial ramdisk booted from EFISTUB. In theory, you could add an additional entry for another kernel if you've also got an LTS or Zen kernel installed " (from Reddit comments 😁☺️).

Or we could totally switch away from the typical installation process concept: https://github.com/sysrich/tik

ermo

Alex2022K The ISO image is absolutely not suitable for this type of installation from a pendrive.

For you. And, sadly, also for me (hence the semi-crazy workaround install I had to do) and a few other people.

But others have written the .iso to USB pendrive and installed from it just fine it seems.

It looks like you are out of luck for your particular UEFI implementation. Out of curiousity only, do you know who made the UEFI on your PC? AMI?

Ikey

Not sure what Arch or exfat or any of those things have to do with it. We create a hybrid iso9660 image with eltorito alt boot containing an efi image capable of being mounted by most UEFI implementations.

If it couldn't find it, you wouldn't be seeing the console output above, as the kernel and initrd are contained inside the efi image along with systemd-boot as EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI

What actually appears to be happening is either the image is being written "weird" (not dd) or a lack of hardware support killing DRM early.

Alex2022K

Ikey just forget use iso images 😹we don't use CD disks already Half century omg 😹🙈 why don't trying raw or another options of image type?
https://app.degoo.com/share/eiX8FwNcIyeXCRpO6GAmQw

Storm

Greetings, I'm new here (though I follow Serpent OS on Mastadon for awhile).

When trying creating partitions the terminal keeps crashing for me, so I'm bit stuck in trying out Serpent OS. :/

regards
Storm

ermo

Storm When trying creating partitions the terminal keeps crashing for me

This typically happens when OpenGL acceleration on the host is not set up correctly for the guest to be able to use it.

Alex2022K

ermo You are right about this. InsydeH20 UEFI from Lenovo. The worsest bios what able to be 😹🙈
https://app.degoo.com/share/P5s2CATxJm1AyFZ-BmT8ig
Usually it is guaranteed to cope with the help of Ventoy. But any options , etcher , Ventoy they usually use only got exfat... I have option Deploying an image to the entire flash drive from raw only ...
https://app.degoo.com/share/eiX8FwNcIyeXCRpO6GAmQw
Perhaps it makes sense to try experiments with a fat32 flash drive with something like that ?
https://github.com/sysrich/tik
Looks like a very handy tool.
Or maybe SelfInstall ISO something like micrOS use in suse...🤔 But it seems to me the easiest way to make a working flash drive for any BIOS is raw snapshot....

VasilisManol

Hi! I tried creating a VM using the guide here and the iso doesn't boot. I tried on PopOS 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04. The error is:
BdsDxe: failed to load Boot0003 "UEFI Misc Device" from Pci Root (0x0) /Pci (0x2,0x3
)/Pci (0x0, 0x0): Not Found
BdsDxe: loading Boot0002 "EFI Internal Shell" from Fu (7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34-AAEA-3E
E4AF6516A1)/FvFile (7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1)
BdsDxe: starting Boot0002 "EFI Internal Shell" from Fu (7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34-AAEA-3
EE4AF6516A1)/FvFile (7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1)
BdsDxe: failed to start Boot0002 "EFI Internal Shell" from Fu (7CB8BDC9-F8EB-4F34
-AAEA-3EE4AF6516A1)/FvFile (7C04A583-9E3E-4F1C-AD65-E05268D0B4D1): Security Viola
tion
BdsDxe: No bootable option or device was found.
BdsDxe: Press any key to enter the Boot Manager Menu .
TianoCore

Any idea? Btw it boots in Virtualbox when I enable the EFI option

ermo

VasilisManol

Make sure you see something similar to <loader readonly="yes" type="pflash">/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd</loader> in your virt-manager configuration when in XML mode.

The important bit is that you use the OVMF_CODE.fd UEFI firmware file from the edk2 package. Different distributions save this file in different places (and the package name may vary slightly).

VasilisManol

Thanks for the hint ermo !
For virt-manager PopOS I had to check "Customise configuration before install" and then in Overview->Hypervisor Details->Firmware select OVMF_CODE_4M.fd . The rest of the guide worked as described.
Two notes for those trying installing from the COSMIC iso.

The live environment will not boot with the default video adapter. Selecting QXL instead for Virtio solved it.
The sudo environment is missing some binary paths. Using the absolute to the commands in the guide ( like /usr/sbin/fdisk and /usr/bin/lichen ) worked.

Cool project, looking forward for stable releases!