Boot arch from iso and grub2

bond · 2010-05-21 05:18:00

Anyone know if the parameter has been added in the new iso?

I quickly crafted up the following conf but doesn't seem to work

menuentry "archlinux-2010.05-core-i686" {
    set isofile="/boot/archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso"
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux    (loop)/boot/i686/vmlinuz26 isofrom=$isofile archisolabel=ARCH_201005 tmpfs_size=75% locale=en_US.UTF-8
    initrd   (loop)/boot/i686/archiso.img
    boot
}

menuentry "archlinux-2010.05-core-x86_64" {
    set isofile="/boot/archlinux-2010.05-core-dual.iso"
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux    (loop)/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz26 isofrom=$isofile archisolabel=ARCH_201005 tmpfs_size=75% locale=en_US.UTF-8
    initrd   (loop)/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
    boot
}

menuentry "archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686" {
    set isofile="/boot/archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-dual.iso"
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux    (loop)/boot/i686/vmlinuz26 findiso=$isofile archisolabel=ARCH_201005 tmpfs_size=75% locale=en_US.UTF-8
    initrd   (loop)/boot/i686/archiso.img
    boot
}

menuentry "archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-x86_64" {
    set isofile="/boot/archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-dual.iso"
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux    (loop)/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz26 findiso=$isofile archisolabel=ARCH_201005 tmpfs_size=75% locale=en_US.UTF-8
    initrd   (loop)/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
    boot
}

plmday · 2010-05-21 07:02:35

bond wrote:

ah, let me clarify, I thought you meant that the arch kernel did take parameter 'isofrom' but that its was broken, now I see that it doesn't support the parameter at all, maybe we can put in a feature request on the arch tracker system ...
seeing as how many other distro's support the parameters surely it won't be hard for one of the devs to add it. Even if they maybe consider it a low priority, they can't add a feature if they haven't been asked to do so ....

afaik, sidux have supported this "fromiso" parameter in the legacy grub for quite a while now, it is worth to ask for this feature in arch.

edit: add link to this feature mentioned in the sidux manual

http://manual.sidux.com/en/hd-install-opts-en.htm

Last edited by plmday (2010-05-21 07:04:56)

y3rac · 2010-06-15 13:55:49

It seems using isoloop works better than isofrom, findiso et al.
http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/viewtop … 8&start=15

Last edited by y3rac (2010-06-15 13:58:40)

crayxt · 2010-09-06 06:10:55

Any news on this issue?

It'll be wery useful

djgera · 2010-09-08 05:42:13

If you build archiso from git, you can use memdisk support. So in grub2 you can add

 menuentry "Boot archiso" {
   linux16 /memdisk iso
   initrd16 /archiso.iso
 }

Where memdisk is the file located at /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk from syslinux 4.02 package.

bond · 2010-09-08 05:57:43

can we put in some sort of request to have this included in the next release?

crayxt · 2010-11-09 04:50:59

Since memdisk works too slow, I made a little patch to support fromiso boot option
Here it is, works with GRUB2
http://mail.kazgrid.kz/repo/archiso-fromiso.patch

You should define your media which contains ISO file as /dev/sdxy/archiso.iso

For example, here is a part from my grub.cfg

menuentry "Archik fromiso" {
loopback loop /archik-1.07-i686.iso
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz26 fromiso=/dev/sdb1/archik-1.07-i686.iso
initrd (loop)/boot/myarch.img
}

Your hard disk will always be first, and USB disk goes after it So, USB will be /dev/sdb. If you have more than one HD disk, you should change fromiso option accordingly

Last edited by crayxt (2010-11-09 05:27:18)

bond · 2010-11-09 05:11:03

awesome work man, I'll try to get around to building an iso soon, hopefully we can work on getting this patch pushed into future releases

Last edited by bond (2010-11-09 05:11:33)

crayxt · 2010-11-10 04:46:59

Report here your experience with that;)

Last edited by crayxt (2010-11-10 04:51:41)

diegonc · 2010-11-10 18:02:46

@@ -79,6 +83,7 @@
 archiso_mount_handler() {
     newroot="${1}"
 
+    if [ "$fromiso" = "x" ]; then
     msg ":: Waiting for boot device..."
     while ! poll_device ${archisodevice} 30; do
         echo "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds..."

It looks like the if is missing an x character in the first operand of the condition.

+        isodevice=$(dirname $fromiso)
+        isoname=$(basename $fromiso)

If you use the following code to split the fromiso value:

+        isodevice=${fromiso%%:*)
+        isoname=/${fromiso#*:)

then the iso wouldn't need to be located at the root of the filesystem.
For example:

... fromiso=/dev/sdb1:path/to/iso/image

crayxt · 2010-11-11 04:01:59

diegonc wrote:

@@ -79,6 +83,7 @@
 archiso_mount_handler() {
     newroot="${1}"
 
+    if [ "$fromiso" = "x" ]; then
     msg ":: Waiting for boot device..."
     while ! poll_device ${archisodevice} 30; do
         echo "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds..."

It looks like the if is missing an x character in the first operand of the condition.

The 'fromiso' variable is splitted before that, look at line 75, then goes mount handler

if [ "x${fromiso}" != "x" ]; then
fromiso="${fromiso}"
fi
# set mount handler for archiso
mount_handler="archiso_mount_handler"
}

About your second notice, I' not good with regular expressions, I used basename and dirname only because this is the simpliest way

crayxt · 2010-11-22 06:59:03

No activity here, as in arch-releng maillist ;(

crayxt · 2010-12-01 03:52:49

Gerardo wrote the RFC implementation, *cool*
http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 01280.html

mbarak · 2011-02-01 06:45:31

Until this is officially supported in the arch iso this is what I did to boot from the iso with grub
The official installer iso, not archboot

i typed these commands in the grub command line:
loopback loop (hd#,#)/path/to/iso.iso
linux /boot/vmlinuz26 archisolabel=ARCH_201005
initrd /boot/archiso.img
boot

It will try to boot, look for a file in /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201005 and fail; dropping you to a busybox shell
from here i typed the following in the console:
mkdir /disk
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /disk (where /dev/sdb1 is the path to the device holding your arch iso, and vfat being the filesystem type (in this case fat32))
losetup /dev/loop0 /disk/path/to/iso.iso
logout (press ctrl+d)

the kernel will find the iso and continue booting properly from there

I don't know how to automate this but, apparently we won't need to in the next arch iso release.

Hope this helps

lkraav · 2011-04-09 15:05:04

bump, also looking to see this happen.

ferromagnificent · 2011-05-24 03:12:03

Bump, bump, a thousand times bump!

comicosmos · 2011-07-02 14:27:10

bump!
It's embarrassing arch do not support grub iso install. Modern linux distro should support this. At least I know ubuntu supports it.

djgera · 2011-07-02 15:55:59

please define what you understand about "grub iso install".

If you talk about "mount iso in loopback mode". This is implemented since 2010-12-08 in commit 06a8c66eaec5d1bace2ddefc2220c172d81eb2ff

Last edited by djgera (2011-07-02 16:09:31)

comicosmos · 2011-07-03 02:24:27

djgera wrote:

please define what you understand about "grub iso install".
If you talk about "mount iso in loopback mode". This is implemented since 2010-12-08 in commit 06a8c66eaec5d1bace2ddefc2220c172d81eb2ff

Yes, it is exactly what I meant.
Glad to here that newer archlinux iso will support "mount iso in loopback mode".
I posted the last comment based on archlinux-2010.05-core-[i686|x86_64].iso, the latest iso that could be downloaded.

BTW, mbarak's suggestion on #39 is really informative n helpful, thanks.

Last edited by comicosmos (2011-07-03 02:26:07)

lilsirecho · 2011-07-03 03:19:43

Perhaps my experience is of interest on this subject.

I installed archlinux with a flash drive but with a twist...I installed it to a raid0 pair of CF cards.

The boot partition was 100MB on drive sda1, swap was 100mb on drive sdb1 with each drive having the rest of the drive assigned as partition2 for each.

I skip the raid requirements, but add that the partitions are configured and mountpoints giving sdb1 swap, md0(raid) as /(root) and sda1 as /boot.

After setup for my internet connection I used FTP to download and install packages.

(Excuse the verbose description but the key for grub is upcoming)

After the intervening glbc,etc, the configuration, passwd, back to grub install.

Selected grub2.EDIT: grub2 downloaded here... (Did not edit the grub menu.lst.) Selected sda1 MBR install. After grub install complete, rebooted.
Selected sda as boot device and promptly booted into raid0 (md0) archlinux desktop...in my case xfce4. This boot time was 10 seconds.

The key here is that I didn't touch the grub2 menu.lst and it booted with archlinux and /or archlinux fallback.

I have no idea what grub2 menu.lst has provided, but suspect it enables this response.

I have repeated this procedure three separate times on four devices..two 16gb and two 8gb.

It seems it is not a fluke.

Perhaps a similar setup without raid0 included will enable an install directly to a large HDD without touching grub2 menu.lst. Use sda1 /boot/sda2 /swap.../sda3 /root etc.

Mebbe.......EDIT: x86_64 install

Last edited by lilsirecho (2011-07-03 03:35:29)

djgera · 2011-07-03 03:38:55

@comicosmos: Good, just use iso testbuilds

@lilsirecho: looks like you posted on wrong thread

lilsirecho · 2011-07-03 04:02:53

djgera:

Posted my results in applying grub2 to an iso install. Granted it isn't a straight install that I performed but was a raid0 install. I left out most of the raid0 steps because I was interested in describing how to utilize grub2 in installs of archlinux without touching the menu.lst.

I was able to do so four times skipping the grub menu.lst edit and rebooting subsequently.

It does reboot into arch and I feel it can do the same with any HDD install.

Mebbe.........

lilsirecho · 2011-07-03 10:23:21

Performed an install with x86_64 arch to an 8GB CF card running as an IDE drive.

Zeroed the card with dd.

Used 2010-05 dual install .iso.

Selected arch64.

Performed usual steps up to partition drives.

Partitioned the CF as 100mb sda1, 100mb sda2 and the remainder sda3. No flags.

When setting filesystems,mount points:

sda2 swap....sda3 / ext3...sda1/boot ext2......

Said yes to DOS....

Used FTP source(entered the iP's and DNS servers)
Selected base and base -devel packages.

Installed.

Configured usual entries....selected an install mirror.

Selected mirrors from mirror list.

When reached Grub install selected grub2...automatically downloaded grub2...removed grub and installed grub2.

Disregard the boot set root message.

Skipped grub editing...Set grub install sda MBR.

Rebooted...(removed USB flash arch install device and selected boot from sda.

After post ,GRUB LOADING followed by the ARCH and ARCH FALLBACK prompt with no timeout. Selected ARCH and booted to login.

Subsequently, installed xorg xfce4 jumanji.and others.

Used jumanji to reach the forum to report on this post.

This procedure uses .iso install and grub2 as the title for this thread states.

There mnay be a clue for install with loopback in this approach.

This produced the same result as my raid0 install...boot into x86_64 Archlinux.

Now off to bed at 3:20 am..

EDIT: A side issue...the patriot 8GB CF card is labeled as 266x.......

hdparm reports :/dev/sda3:
Timing buffered disk reads: 110 MB in 3.01 seconds = 36.59 MB/sec

Adata CF cards 266x read 45MB/s.

Last edited by lilsirecho (2011-07-03 16:06:26)

Dinth · 2012-02-03 07:44:56

Arch Linux

#26 2010-05-21 05:18:00

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#27 2010-05-21 07:02:35

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#28 2010-06-15 13:55:49

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#29 2010-09-06 06:10:55

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#30 2010-09-08 05:42:13

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#31 2010-09-08 05:57:43

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#32 2010-11-09 04:50:59

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#33 2010-11-09 05:11:03

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#34 2010-11-10 04:46:59

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#35 2010-11-10 18:02:46

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#36 2010-11-11 04:01:59

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#37 2010-11-22 06:59:03

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#38 2010-12-01 03:52:49

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#39 2011-02-01 06:45:31

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#40 2011-04-09 15:05:04

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#41 2011-05-24 03:12:03

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#42 2011-07-02 14:27:10

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#43 2011-07-02 15:55:59

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#44 2011-07-03 02:24:27

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#45 2011-07-03 03:19:43

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#46 2011-07-03 03:38:55

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#47 2011-07-03 04:02:53

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#48 2011-07-03 10:23:21

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#49 2012-02-03 07:44:56

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

#50 2012-06-19 09:53:33

Re: Boot arch from iso and grub2

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