["danon show"'s intro] that's a local reference :) (Subtitles made by Chaimann)
An ode to Daniel's mighty fighting with Ventoy
No Legion 5i was hurt while filming this :)
Once in a while you need to quickly reinstall an operating system on your computer, no matter if it's Windows or Linux, you'll need a flash drive with an operating system image of the one you want.
You could write the image to a portable storage device in two ways up until a certain point:
By simply copying the contents of the image onto a flash drive, after having formatted it first;
Or directly burn exactly all the data from the image, while retaining the original structure (a.k.a. DD)
Both options were good in their own way: each had their strengths and weaknesses.
However, they have always had one thing in common: once we write, we have to format the device we've chosen, whether you like it or not.
And if in the first case you could still add files to the disk, then in the second case the probability that the burned disk can be opened in Explorer is very low.
So what to do, you might ask?..
That's when we got a knock from a jade heaven.
One Chinese programmer, proudly known as "Longpanda", was thinking about how he could make the process of writing and running installation images of operating systems easier.
That's how the concept of a program like "Ventoy" was born.
Ventoy is an open-source utility that lets the user boot up a large number of image formats on his computer, ...
...ranging from the familiar CD images (.ISO) to UEFI scripts (.EFI), raw system images (.IMG), virtual hard disks (.VHD), ...
...to even a Windows deployment image (i.e., .WIM)
Of course, support for all these formats did not come right away - they were added as time passed and the program itself grew.
The development goes on, so in order to ensure compatibility with most distributions and operating systems, things are thoroughly tested by both the developer and the community.
If the distribution you need too boot is not on the boot-confirmed list, but you got it running and want to share your results - just write to the developer's GitHub repository and he will kindly post it.
You can find a complete list of all tested systems and their images on a dedicated page at Ventoy's website.
Ventoy is based on the GRUB bootloader, which is a native support not only for the x86 platform, but also for Itanium, ARM64 and MIPS64.
The last two, in fact, are UEFI-only.
Also, since it's GRUB, therefore it means the ability to decorate your flash drive: to replace, let's say, a picture, or even put, for example, your own theme - there are tons of them.
So how does Ventoy work? As far as I'm concerned, quite simple.
First, you need a flash drive with Ventoy installed on it.
And the rest is even easier: just put any ISO image to your flash drive's root, reboot and voila - the image of the operating system you downloaded earlier can be booted with an easy move of your hand and a press of Enter in the menu.
By the way, I recently mentioned that Ventoy can boot not only from disk images, but also from virtual hard disks.
This exact feature is what interested me in the first place.
Along with my trusty comrade I sat down investigating on how and under what conditions could Ventoy start the system installed on a virtual disk.
That is why you will see the results of our research today.
Specifically, ... "will the OS installed on a virtual hard drive boot using Ventoy?"
Uh, and of course, ... "will we be able to work on it?"
You'll find out the answers to these two questions at the end of the video, but now we are going to find out what happened next. :)
Today's contestants were two quite popular desktop solutions, which are Windows 10 and Fedora 36.
All systems will be tested under the same conditions, with the exception of a few things: while it is stated that they are run from a virtual hard drive (i.e., VHD), ...
...there are certain tweaks that need to be done for each system.
To boot Windows, you will need to add the "WinVhdBoot" plugin, because it contains some proprietary Windows Boot Manager components, that unfortunately do not come with Ventoy out of the box.
You can choose between two versions of this plugin - for Windows 7-based and Windows 10-based systems. As for me, i'm gonna go with the second option.
To boot Fedora (as well as other Linux distributions) you do not need the previously mentioned plugin, because they take a different approach to it.
In order to run the virtual hard drive image with Fedora, a couple of modifications are needed in the boot loader of the system itself.
Once again we also have a couple of nuances here, but later on we'll talk about them.
Well, now it's time to introduce our test subje...
~ I mean, the computer where we're going to test all this stuff.
The test computer is going to be.... my primary laptop, i.e. the Lenovo Legion 5i.
It was introduced in 2020, I bought it in early 2021, and I even posted in VK about it, since I was very excited about the upgrade - after all, I spent 7 years on my old laptop.
The CPU here is a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-10750H.
In terms of RAM it has 8 GB installed by default, which is more than enough for me - after all, it's not an Acer with 4 GB of RAM and a 1.7 GHz processor.
And in terms of the GPU it has Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - once again, it's way more than enough for my tasks.
And other stuff like an M.2 SSD by Hynix, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters made by Intel, and a sound by Harman Cordon and Dolby.
Basically, there's not much else to tell.
" - But wait, what was the point of you demonstrating your computer?"
" - Was it that hard to get Linux running on it?"
Ironically, yes - running Linux on this PC is not as easy as with others like you put in a flash drive, partition it, set the data, push a couple of buttons, and it's done.
It was quite a challenge.
Despite all the distributions I've tried and all the BIOS modifications, the error remained the same - "ACPI Error".
On top of that, the picture on the display gets distorted so the computer is permanently frozen.
Exploring the forums gave me only two clues - either it's a trick of the BIOS itself from Lenovo, or the kernel is simply not prepared to work on this PC.
In fact, disabling anything ACPI-related is impossible here - the BIOS does not have such an option, because this is not an old computer from the early 2000s where you could disable this function.
For those of you who don't know what ACPI is, the next minute is just for you.
"A Minute where You Become Smarter(TM)"
The ACPI is a common interface for detecting the hardware, managing the power, configuring the motherboard and using the device in general.
This standard was released in 1996 and developed in cooperation with HP, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix and Toshiba.
You know, I didn't really want to go through all that trouble.
[i forgor what to say next...]
You know, I didn't really want to go through all that trouble. (x2)
That's where my comrade came in to help, as he started to look for this problem's solution.
As a result, after we poked around in the BIOS a bit (though actually a lot), an unordinary, but still a solution was found.
The problem was solved by switching the BIOS modes and turning the discrete graphics off and on again.
And I just can't understand one important thing: why would Lenovo (and not only it) go to such trouble to prevent Linux from running on their laptops when it's already been done for them, huh?!
Right, Microsoft?!
Allright, now that the potatoes've been peeled, it's time to introduce the one thing that today's video wouldn't even exist...
Ladies and gentlemen, here it is: Ventoy!
Uhh no, that is not exactly what we were looking for. Nevertheless, we will write this utility to the flash drive using this user-friendly interface.
But in all seriousness, it would be worth introducing the bootloader itself. Ladies and gentlemen, (once again) here it is: Ventoy!
Ah, here it is, the fish of my dreams. Using this bootloader you can run all the image formats described above.
So, in order to run a system installed on the virtual hard disk using Ventoy, we're gonna need:
- Ironically, the Ventoy itself;
- An add-on to make Ventoy understand how to boot the system (the add-ons are different for both systems, as mentioned above);
- And, of course, the virtual machine for installing the system.
Исходя из всего вышеперечисленного, вот что потребуется для каждой системы.
For Windows 10, you'll need the Ventoy itself, the VHD boot plugin, and VirtualBox to install it all on a virtual disk.
Fedora requires both Ventoy and VirtualBox, but without any plugins - in order to start the system, we will make some changed in the bootloader.
Yet, this has its own things to worry about, but, as has been said before, we will talk about them later.
Now it's time to start the installation process.
The first system we're going to install is Windows 10. Most of you are familiar with this system, many of you use it, and, in fact, "I won't show you the America" if I tell you a fact or two about this system, in order to kill some time.
This time I'm not gonna cut the video, so only today, and only in this video, and only on Daniel Myslivets' channel you can enjoy the music while I'm installing Windows.
Now grab some tea and cookies (or whatever you normally eat while watching my videos), and let's go! :3
Speaking of which, as you've already noticed, I don't install the original Windows 10, but a so-called lite version, ...
...just to show the fact that with Ventoy you can run a full-fledged compressed OS without needing to do tribal dances and formatting physical disks.
And there you have it, we are on the desktop. Sadly, since this build tends to be small in size, therefore, the files found on this disk are being compressed here from the first start.
We're not rushing anywhere, so let's wait for a little longer until all these files have dropped the extra weight. (dinnerblaster reference?)
Once the system's weight is down to 8 gigabytes (which, believe me, is quite a lot), we have to put something here.
Heh, uno momento)
Alright, we are done with the setup. Let's put Windows aside for a while, because we have yet to set up our second participant...
So, now it's Fedora's turn. Once I tried this distribution after switching from Debian, it felt like a fresh breath of air to me.
The interesting fact is that this distro is now my main one if I need to write some content on Linux (distrohopping moment)
Before starting the experiment, I had the choice between distributions such as Arch, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu.
But I did not like Arch (although I do know how to install it), Debian is no longer cool, and Ubuntu - well, I guess you know the deal with it :D
Funny story here: the first time I installed this system (using the same installation image), it didn't have any drivers for my WiFi adapter.
Back then I addressed the problem as a trick of VirtualBox, because it uses a virtual Ethernet cable to access the Internet, whereas WiFi there is a non-existent thing.
The second time, however (which you are now seeing on your screen (I forgot to take a screenshot of it xd)), the drivers were magically installed already in the system. Heh, funny things happen sometimes.
Alright, the system is installed. Before letting it sail free, we must take a tambourine in hand and do a tribal dance.
Seriously speaking, we download a script to boot from a virtual disk (or vDisk), extract it, and run it as root.
After the script has successfully accomplished its purpose, you can safely dele...
*FFFFFFFFF sound intensifies*
Not really. You won't remove it, because it might come in handy later on. As previously mentioned, there is a pitfall.
Gotta set up some things: if you let me...
Oh yeeeeah, that's the way to do it.
Anyway, I was mentioning some pitfalls earlier about Ventoy and the way the systems work using it.
Well, the pitfall is present only in Linux systems: as it happens, the kernel itself can be updated when upgrading the system, which leads to overwriting the bootloader configuration file ( which is the initramfs file, if you ask me);
It means that Ventoy just won't understand the way to boot the system.
To fix this, you will need to run the system in VirtualBox and run this script again.
There are, however, some exceptions to the rules: as an example, during tests on my friend's Arch Linux installation...
...the "[ventoy]" module was automatically built, which hints that the next time you run it on a new kernel version, there will be no need to run this script again.
Oh, one more thing: in case of Linux, the virtual hard disk has to be fixed, whereas for Windows it can be either dynamic or fixed.
Now it's time to move on to the real action, about which this video is basically dedicated.
More specifically, is it possible to run, work, and in general, is there life on an OS running from a flash drive?
And the first one to be submerged is Windows 10. The first thing you have to do is to put Ventoy itself on the flash drive before it is completely submerged.
couldn't you have done it before, you dummy?
well... i could but i'm not a robot :)
it's "danon show's jokes" time :D
Well, since Ventoy is installed, all that remains is to copy the necessary plugin, and thank God the Uncle Scriptwriter (that is me, of course) has foreseen this and has already provided a ready-made plugin to be copied on a USB flash drive.
To do this, simply drop the file "ventoy_vhdboot.img" into the "ventoy" folder on the drive of the same name.
That's a lot of "Ventoy" words here, didn't you notice?
No?
Neither did I.
Okay, now we're all set.
This is the moment when we tragically turn off our computer and reboot.
I already said that the computer that I'm using for testing is my cool, trendy, stylish, modern, amazing, and sensational Lenovo Legion 5i.
As it happens, here, to get to the Boot Menu, you'll need a smartphone's SIM card tray opening pin.
Or just a needle, depending on personal preference.
And here we have the Ventoy menu.
It is pretty simple at first glance: the home page shows all the images that you can boot, which are located directly on the USB flash drive you have.
Unfortunately, I got nothing here, and the video could have ended there if it weren't for Ventoy's ability to run the images right from your home
brrr..
In the sense, directly from the local drive.
As you might guess, that is what we are going to do now. Pressing F2 opens a list of installed disks and their partitions on your computer.
I personally am interested in my second partition, which is called "Files".
I personally am interested in my second partition, which is called "Files". It opens successfully, and I, quickly moving through the familiar surroundings (i.e., folders), discover the one that contains the disk with the Windows 10 installed on it.
After pressing "Enter", what can we see? It starts up as if it was installed on a physical drive in the computer.
Even in Explorer it shows the running drive as C:\, plus it can even see the other local drives.
Here is a working Windows 10 launched directly from a virtual hard drive, which has been started from a flash drive thanks to Ventoy.
That's a success, my dear friends!
You can see from the wallpaper that everything is in place. Now, let's make a few edits to the text document we created back in the virtual machine.
And after that, reboot and see if the text was saved.
And as you can notice, the text didn't go anywhere after the reboot.
But will the result be the same on Linux? That's what we're about to find out.
Bye-bye Windows, hello - another painful effort to enter the Boot Menu
To save you the trouble, let's get right to the point where I'll be running the virtual hard drive with Fedora.
And oh wonder of wonders, it actually worked. After all, our hard work was not wasted.
So, as you can see, the system booted into the desktop without any problems. Judging by the wallpaper, we can tell immediately that Grandma's feeling for design is certainly excellent.
However, that's not the main point: as with Windows, let's make changes to the text document we created earlier, and then reboot.
After rebooting, we see that sure - the text document contains our changes.
It turns out that systems can still read and write in this state, which is a positive thing.
In the end, what can we say?
To start with, the questions I asked earlier can be safely answered:
Yes, yes, and yes.
...but where the answer to the third question came from is a whole different story.
Truth be told, you can't really tell that these systems are running from a virtual hard drive at first glance; it really looks like a full-fledged installed system.
Yeah, I could stuff these two systems on my USB stick, if it weren't for one "but!"
The flash drive that participated in our experiment today has only 4 gigabytes...
But in general, if you take a 32GB flash drive, or even 64 one, then you can easily carry your system with you all the time, and if you ask me - it's very convenient in some cases.
So what do you think about it? Write your opinions in the comments!
And that's about it. Put a big thumbs up if you liked this video, I'll be delighted to see your activity.
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All music and social media links are listed in the description. Thank you for watching. Until we meet again!~
[this video has experimental sound/voice adjustments, if you have any comments regarding it, write me in Telegram]