install.vbs does not produce a bootable USB?

[rushowr]

Issue

The script install.vbs runs without error but the resulting USB drive is not bootable and shows RAW partition in Windows 10 64bit (up to date).

Steps to reproduce

On a Windows 10 22H2 64-Bit installation that is up to date, perform the following steps:

1. Download esos-4.19 from ESOS website
2. Extract downloaded archive to a location on your system that does not have spaces in the path to it
3. Run install.vbs as per documentation.
4. Attempt to boot a system from the USB used when running install.vbs (I booted from BIOS, not UEFI).

[rushowr]

Anybody?

[msmith626]

Can you provide all of the output from the console window where 'install.vbs' ran (copy/paste). I assume there is some issue when it's doing it's thing and the error condition is not handled, etc.

[rushowr]

Sure, here's what I got from the script:

*** Enterprise Storage OS Install Script ***

### Verifying checksums...
esos-4.1.9_z.img.tar.bz2: OK

esos-4.1.9_z.img.tar.bz2: OK


### Here is a list of disks on this machine:

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MIYAMOTO

DISKPART>
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB  2048 KB        *
  Disk 2    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 3    Online         3726 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 4    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 5    Online         3726 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 6    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 7    Online           29 GB    28 GB
  Disk 8    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 9    No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 10   No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 11   No Media           0 B      0 B
  Disk 12   No Media           0 B      0 B

DISKPART>


### Please type the disk number of your USB flash drive:
7


### Proceeding will completely wipe disk 7. Are you sure?
yes

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MIYAMOTO

DISKPART>
Disk 7 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART>
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART>


### Extracting the image file...

7-Zip 9.20  Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov  2010-11-18

Processing archive: F:\esos-4.1.9_z\esos-4.1.9_z.img.tar.bz2

Extracting  esos-4.1.9_z.img.tar

Everything is Ok

Size:       689428480
Compressed: 519003624



### Writing F:\esos-4.1.9_z\esos-4.1.9_z.img.tar to \\?\device\harddisk7\partition0; this may take a while...
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.6beta3.
Written by John Newbigin <jn@it.swin.edu.au>
This program is covered by terms of the GPL Version 2.

657+1 records in
657+1 records out


### It appears the image was successfully written to disk (check for error messages)!


*** RAID controller management utilities are now installed using the 'raid_tools.py' script in a running ESOS instance. ***

### ESOS USB drive installation complete!
### You may now remove and use your ESOS USB drive.

Press the ENTER key to exit...

[rushowr]

The resulting USB thumbdrive is inserted into the server, which is powered on and posts (BIOS and uEFI methods were both tested) but then when the boot process should start the user is presented with a blank screen and no activity on either the USB drive or hard drives (by watching for LED lights, which do work)

[msmith626]

I don't see any obvious errors in the 'install.vbs' output. If you connect the resulting USB thumb drive to other computers (desktop systems, server, or anything) does it boot at all there? If you connect it to a running Linux system, and examine the device using 'fdisk' or 'parted' (or something similar) does it all look correct to you?

…

--Marc

On Mon, Oct 9, 2023 at 1:05 AM rushowr ***@***.***> wrote: The resulting USB thumbdrive is inserted into the server, which is powered on and posts (BIOS and uEFI methods were both tested) but then when the boot process should start the user is presented with a blank screen and no activity on either the USB drive or hard drives (by watching for LED lights, which do work) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#299 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABMQXXXZD5Q6CN2PQQOTS2LX6OA2BAVCNFSM6AAAAAA5D6PFISVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTONJSGM2TEMJVG4> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[GrimDemon]

The problem is that IMG images from the new v4 branch are double bzipped and the Windows VBS script calls dd on image.img.tar. This causes the TAR file to be sent to the flash drive instead of the actual image. The result is a single RAW partition that is unbootable.

[vertigomike]

I'm still running into issue where is looks like 4.3.5 isn't producing a bootable USB. Was this ever looked at? I ended up putting the usb on a linux VM and passing the USB through and imaging it that way and it boots fine now.

[GrimDemon]

@vertigomike I assume nothing has been done about it. For now, you can always unpack the image manually to an IMG file (e.g. esos-4.3.5_z.img) and write the image to your flash drive using Rufus or a similar application. There is no need to use the install.vbs script or switch to Linux specifically for this.

[msmith626]

I can take a look at this soon; it sounds like you're aware of the issue and understand it -- do you have a modified 'install.vbs' file that you can provide?

…

--Marc

On Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 1:00 PM GrimDemon ***@***.***> wrote: @vertigomike <https://github.com/vertigomike> I assume nothing has been done about it. For now, you can always unpack the image manually to an IMG file (e.g. esos-4.3.5_z.img) and write the image to your flash drive using Rufus or a similar application. There is no need to use the install.vbs script or switch to Linux specifically for this. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#299 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABMQXXXKRTPENYYXWZFAPF32PDSMHAVCNFSM6AAAAABWXFQSBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDMNBYHAZDOOBSHA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[GrimDemon]

@msmith626 I am not a programmer and I have not modified this script myself. From what I see, Linux uses tar, which unpacks the BZ2 and TAR archives to an IMG file in one step.

esos/install.sh

Line 105 in be7d7b1

tar xfj ${image_file} -C ${TEMP_DIR}/ --sparse || exit 1

In the case of Windows, 7-Zip is used, which only unpacks the BZ2 archive, leaving the IMG.TAR file on the disk, and this file is saved to the flash drive.

esos/install.vbs

Lines 84 to 85 in be7d7b1

	exec_cmd wsh_shell, sevenzip_prog & " x -bd -y " & zipped_image
	image_file = replace(zipped_image, ".bz2", "")

So I assume that in the past the disk image was not double compressed (in fact, creating a TAR is not needed here), but no one corrected the script after the changes.

[msmith626]

Thanks; can you try the "install_2.vbs" file below (extract the tarball first, then drop it next to 'install.vbs' in the extracted ESOS archive, then double-click 'install_2.vbs') and confirm it works for you? I tried it on my system and it works (modified to use 'tar.exe' found in modern Windows OS).

install_2.tar.gz