grub2 queries (pentoo, install from windows)

[bond]

Hey folks

I've been making my own multipass key over the last few days and have found alot of the posts on this forum very helpful.

I've used grub4dos in the past, but after finding out you can use iso emulation with grub2 I jumped for that.

So far on my key I've got all the following up and running;

clonezilla live

konboot

memtest86+

Ophcrack Vista

Ophcrack XP

Parted Magic

SpinRite6

Tinycore

I'm trying to get the pentoo live cd working but keep getting an error:

error: unknown command `'

here is my menu entry, I've inspected the iso and the parameters / filelocations look right,

and tried feeding various combinations of findiso/iso_filename but don't think thats the problem. any tips?

menuentry "Pentoo" {

set isofile="/boot/pentoo-i686-2009.0.iso"

loopback loop $isofile

linux (loop)/isolinux/pentoo root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc aufs max_loop=256 dokeymap cdroot looptype=squashfs loop=/image.squashfs video=uvesafb:mtrr:3,ywrap,1024x768-16 usbcore.autosuspend=1 console=tty0

initrd (loop)/isolinux/pentoo.igz

}

I also have an entry for UBCD but I get an error, not sure what to do here..

error: You need to load the kernel first

menuentry "Ultimate Boot CD" {

loopback loop /boot/ubcd411.iso

linux (loop)/boot/baslinux

initrd (loop)/boot/baslinux.gz

}

other isos I'd like to attempt to get working:

HBCD (I don't think its possible because you can't chainload iso's)

FreeNAS livecd (I don't really understand the boot structure here, probably cause its BSD)

also does anyone know of any projects underway of making grub2 installable from windows?

I assume this won't be hard, but probably won't happen more until grub2 is stable

Could I just use dd on my current grub2 usb, and then make a .img you could load to USBs from within windows?

[nemesys]

I have not been successfull in getting Pentoo to run from iso using grub2's loopback function yet.

I just extract it and use something like;

#Pentoo 
    menuentry "Pentoo" { 
        linux /boot/pentoo/pentoo root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc aufs max_loop=256 dokeymap cdroot looptype=squashfs loop=/pentoo/image.squashfs 
        initrd /boot/pentoo/pentoo.igz 
    }

Notice the loop=/pentoo/image.squashfs

That is critical and /pentoo/ is where I chose to put the squashfs file in the root of the usb drive.

This is all in my post here; http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?showtopic=15487

Also, for UBCD use the latest beta version v5.0RC1 http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2131. It supports the grub2 loopback booting and I don't think 411 does. It also has all the latest software, where 411 is outdated.

About installing from Windows, I'm not sure though maybe you could use cygwin to accomplish this.

Edited February 23, 2010 by nemesys