grml2usb for usb Multipass w/ iso's

[wtfacoconut]

ok... Umm Daren mentioned that he was still working out the "stuff" with getting the the whole grub2 thing going with his usb. He also mentioned that grub2 has a 'loopback' feature that can boot a live system directly off an ISO. I'm not sure if weather or not this nut has been cracked yet, but I havn't found anything yet on the forums to suggest that he has yet. So here's what I got so far.

Grml2usb is a linux application that will install grml and grub on a given partition of your usb device and makes it bootable.

Now having said that, be aware that it will install both grub and grub2 and the grml iso to your usb stick.

http://grml.org/grml2usb/

So by default when you use this it'll automatically make grml the default iso to boot from, but that's ok because it takes care of the annoying part of getting grub2 installed for us and from there all we have to do is edit the boot.cfg file.

http://grml.org/grml2usb/#menu-lst

Now because I'm extra lazy I've found some premade gurb2 holiness and all you have to do is copy and paste this to the boot.cfg file which be located in the /sdx/boot/grub/ directory, and then download the desired iso's to the /boot/iso directory.

menuentry "Ubuntu Live 9.04 i386" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/boot/iso/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso --

initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "Grml small 2009.05" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/grml-small_2009.05.iso

linux (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 isofrom=/dev/sda1/boot/iso/grml-small_2009.05.iso boot=live quiet vga=791 noeject noprompt

initrd (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "Netinstall 32 preseed" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/mini.iso

linux (loop)/linux auto url=http://www.panticz.de/pxe/preseed/preseed.seed locale=en_US console-setup/layoutcode=de netcfg/choose_interface=eth0 debconf/priority=critical --

initrd (loop)/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "debian-installer-amd64.iso" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/debian-installer-amd64.iso

linux (loop)/linux vga=normal --

initrd (loop)/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "BackTrack 4" {

linux /boot/bt4/boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent rw vga=0x317 --

initrd /boot/bt4/boot/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "BackTrack ERR" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/bt4-pre-final.iso

linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz find_iso/filename=/boot/iso/bt4-pre-final.iso BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent rw vga=0x317--

initrd (loop)/boot/initrd.gz

}

menuentry "XBMC ERR" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/XBMCLive.iso

linux (loop)/vmlinuz boot=cd isofrom=/dev/sda1/boot/iso/XBMCLive.iso xbmc=nvidia,nodiskmount,tempfs,setvolume loglevel=0 --

initrd (loop)/initrd0.img

}

menuentry "tinycore ERR" {

loopback loop /boot/iso/tinycore_2.1.iso

linux (loop)/boot/bzImage --

initrd (loop)/boot/tinycore.gz

Alternatively you could run this script while in linux which should automate everything for you.

http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB

Lastly, as I've said, this will also install the grub (original) as well, so what ever you had in your menu.lst file can be copied over and still used just in case you have edited it extensively already though you hay have to tweak it slightly if you don't want everything looking like a mess on your usb. So here's where to get it:

http://grml.org/grml2usb/#download

They have a src package in the event that you don't run a DEB based distro, however if you have a distro like ubuntu, mint, debian, etc, just add their repo to your sources.list file.

If anyone here had issues trying to get this to work just post or pm me.

I've tried this already and had some fun. If this was already posted and I did happen to miss it...My bad...

[Webhostbudd]

That's funny, I was just playing around trying to get iso's to boot on my grub2 pendrive when I came across the site you posted. I was about to post it until I saw that you already did.

I still haven't managed to get a BT4 iso to work. Comes up with an error about not being able to mount drive sda7, but I never even specified that it should mount any drives. Furthermore, I even disabled hd automounting with the nohd kernel option. Still trying to figure this one out. Anyway, got memtest, konboot, ubuntu livecd, spinrite, and avira antivirus working on the drive. BT4 is really starting to annoy me though.

[wtfacoconut]

That's funny, I was just playing around trying to get iso's to boot on my grub2 pendrive when I came across the site you posted. I was about to post it until I saw that you already did.

I still haven't managed to get a BT4 iso to work. Comes up with an error about not being able to mount drive sda7, but I never even specified that it should mount any drives. Furthermore, I even disabled hd automounting with the nohd kernel option. Still trying to figure this one out. Anyway, got memtest, konboot, ubuntu livecd, spinrite, and avira antivirus working on the drive. BT4 is really starting to annoy me though.

Could you post the BT4 entry in your grub2 conf file?