Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

alysher · 2021-10-17 06:27:28

im looking into setting up multiple different devices across several different chipsets, down to even old Pentium 4 and similar, im working on creating a bootable device that i can use to install every machine, however the time between installs will be long enough that in some ways it would be wise to set it up so that the device is updatable regardless of which system its on, while its running. ie, no squashfs images. im nearly positive its doable, im just not entirely sure if im going to need separate partitions for both kernels and installs, or if just the separate installs will play nicely with and efi/bios/gpt boot scheme

currently my device is partitioned as such.

GPT partition type
1mb - Bios_Grub
512mb - EFI System Partition
~30gb - ext4 blank

my questions are:
im pretty sure i will need 3 partitions besides efi and grub there, one for the kernels and grub to live in, one for 32bit and one for 64 bit. have i missed anything here?
is there and 32bit UEFI bootloader on the 32bit installer iso?
and all i need to do to make sure that it redetects all hardware for which ever system its running on for every boot, i just need to remove autodetect from inicpios, correct?

finally any suggestions are very much welcome. most of the devices im installing arch to are older, however one will be my main desktop eventually as well, as i slowly transition away from being on windows. Arch Linux caught my eye about 4 yrs ago, and ive fallen in love with the os since. between the wiki, and the philosophy of your "brand", well, im all in now.

Last edited by alysher (2021-10-17 06:34:48)

Trilby · 2021-10-17 15:01:23

alysher wrote:

im pretty sure i will need 3 partitions besides efi and grub there, one for the kernels and grub to live in, one for 32bit and one for 64 bit. have i missed anything here?

The kernel(s) would generally be on the EFI partition, though this isn't required ... but it's simplest. Your boot manager definitely needs to be on the EFI partition - unless of course you are doing some complex chain loading which you have no reason to do.

alysher wrote:

is there and 32bit UEFI bootloader on the 32bit installer iso?

No idea - you're asking the wrong community, any 32-bit arch linux projects are a different distro from this one. That said, if you want to support older 32-bit hardware, few if any such machines are uefi capable. You'll need a hybrid efi/bios booting flash drive if you want it to be bootable on all such systems. In fact, if you just use a single legacy-bios boot set up, it will boot on both the "old" and "new" systems, but you'd not be able to (simply) install an efi system from that though.

Slithery · 2021-10-17 15:06:17

Or just use Ventoy and copy the relevant ISO's onto the USB drive.
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ventoy-bin

Trilby · 2021-10-17 15:16:46

Slithery, that seems to miss this criteria:

alysher wrote:

... set it up so that the device is updatable regardless of which system its on, while its running. ie, no squashfs images

alysher · 2021-10-17 17:18:27

Trilby wrote:

alysher wrote:
im pretty sure i will need 3 partitions besides efi and grub there, one for the kernels and grub to live in, one for 32bit and one for 64 bit. have i missed anything here?
The kernel(s) would generally be on the EFI partition, though this isn't required ... but it's simplest. Your boot manager definitely needs to be on the EFI partition - unless of course you are doing some complex chain loading which you have no reason to do.

for UEFI true, however i am under the impression that under legacy bios its a big no no to use the efi system partition at all. am i mistaken here?

Last edited by alysher (2021-10-17 17:20:50)

alysher · 2021-10-20 19:54:21

Sorry for the bump, and being as i possibly was confusing with my last post i shall try to clairify myself a bit

Trilby wrote:

alysher wrote:
im pretty sure i will need 3 partitions besides efi and grub there, one for the kernels and grub to live in, one for 32bit and one for 64 bit. have i missed anything here?
The kernel(s) would generally be on the EFI partition, though this isn't required ... but it's simplest. Your boot manager definitely needs to be on the EFI partition - unless of course you are doing some complex chain loading which you have no reason to do.

Nope, im not doing any complex chain loading, however:

Tribly wrote:

alysher wrote:
is there and 32bit UEFI bootloader on the 32bit installer iso?
No idea - you're asking the wrong community, any 32-bit arch linux projects are a different distro from this one. That said, if you want to support older 32-bit hardware, few if any such machines are uefi capable. You'll need a hybrid efi/bios booting flash drive if you want it to be bootable on all such systems. In fact, if you just use a single legacy-bios boot set up, it will boot on both the "old" and "new" systems, but you'd not be able to (simply) install an efi system from that though.

I am doing a hybrid efi/bios boot drive. ill ask the 32bit guys about the 32bit uefi bootloader(i do have one system that uses it)

now it is my understanding that we shouldn't mount the efi system partition to /boot, i just dont quite understand why(if anyone can explain it id love to get more info), Since i is recommended not to use it i wont, im just trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row by doing all i can to make sure both the 32bit kernel and 64bit kernel can live on the same partition without causing issues to the other kernels "OS". I assume adjusting scripts so that mkinicpio doesn't overwrite the other architecture's kernel would be necessary, I am also assuming both "OS" will need grub installed and configured. but what else(if anything) am i missing?

Last edited by alysher (2021-10-20 19:54:48)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-10-17 06:27:28

Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

#2 2021-10-17 15:01:23

Re: Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

#3 2021-10-17 15:06:17

Re: Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

#4 2021-10-17 15:16:46

Re: Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

#5 2021-10-17 17:18:27

Re: Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

#6 2021-10-20 19:54:21

Re: Duel Architecture bootable usb (32bit and 64bit versions)

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