[solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

perbh · 2010-02-23 16:31:08

I _know_ this is not a arch-related question, so before anyone jumps at me ... I do apologize!

I always carry some live cd's with me wherever I go, more specifically - 'grml' and 'linuxmint'.
Why?
'grml' is the best collection of cli-tools I have ever come across.
'linuxmint' is about the only distro I have seen that just works right out of the box (ie out of the live-cd), wireless, sound, video - yeah man!

So - I want a bootable usb-stick that really, really should only contain the following (on _one_ single partition)
/grub (with the stage-1, stage-1,5 and stage-2 files as well as a menu.lst)
/grml_xxx.iso
/linuxmint-xxx.iso
/any_other.iso

ie I can set up grub - that's no problem - but how, oh dear - _how_ do I boot an iso from grub?

I have googles and read until my eyes go misty, but I have not found a satisfactory answer. Yes - there are suggestions about using grub2, extracting the iso's etc etc (unfortuneately, doing that, the names are the same (like boot and syslinux) so I have problems visualizing how it all could work.
Of course - what I _could_ do would be something like this:
/grub
/grml
|- extracted grml-iso
/linuxmint
|- extracted linuxmint-iso

I must admit - I haven't really tried out this solution.
Another way would be to have the extracted iso's on different (bootable) partitions and then chainload. I have tried that, but somehow it didn't work out for me.

Does anyone have a working solution?
I would prefer to use the 'old' grub - grub2 leaves me cold, but if I have to, I'll go with it.

I'm not too concerned about making it writeable - a straight emulation of r/o cd will do fine.

During my googles I have come across entries like "boot=live", "iso-scan/filename=/linuxmint-xxx.iso" and some other rarities that I cannot find in the grub documentation (they are on kernel-line of menu.lst). There are also things like "map --hook" that I can't find in the documentation.
I don't know whether or not I am being stupid - maybe those fancy entries are for grub2?

Any suggestions are (more than) welcome!

Last edited by perbh (2010-02-24 19:18:49)

sHyLoCk · 2010-02-23 16:36:10

http://multicd.tuxfamily.org

perbh · 2010-02-23 16:43:50

Thanks sHyLoCk, I hadn't found that one yet, but ...
I forgot to mention that I have found a myriad of tools (your link is just another one), but they only support certain distro's (eg. I have never found my 'grml' ever supported, though I guess I could use something similar).
What is so hard about booting any iso-image?? I just don't get it.

perbh · 2010-02-23 19:04:09

Ahhh - think I've got it ...
http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB

I'll check it out and let yall know how it works ...

perbh · 2010-02-24 01:37:31

I'm a happy camper - the above link works a treat!!
I had to use grub2, but that's a small price to pay (also, for grml I cannot use vga=791, grub2 doesn't seem to accept it, it wants glfxresolution=XxY instead which doesn't work - however, I can live with that)

yvonney · 2010-03-12 08:48:42

I've got grub2 and a few ISOs on a USB stick. Everything's working fine. All files/iso are on the usb stick.

It's only grml that will not boot for me:

I've tried every possible permutation and edit I can think of based on grub2 menuentry examples from many websites.

I've just thought that perhaps that I have the ISOs at root level on the usb stick is why only grml won't run. Perhaps it's hard coded in some way IN the grml and it needs to be inside the boot folder.

My grub2 is of course /boot/grub

And, initially I had a folder in there called 'iso' like many of the examples.
I found that by moving the isos to root level ON the usb stick I had nbetter results with most of them.
I'm now going to try to put just the grml iso where it is in the example menuentry's I've seen and tried.

any comments welcome of course.
only grml refuses to boot.
Have tried small and medium.

Last edited by yvonney (2010-03-12 08:49:22)

yvonney · 2010-03-12 09:21:57

I set the folder structure exactly as the link above says for grml. so, created folder called /iso inside boot folder.
Redid the grub.cfg and sure enough, much to my surprise grml booted.

So, I've deduced that it's the /grmlsmall that's the cause as I deleted that part in all my attempts.
.

So in this example (link) from the above post I believe I can now put the iso back to the usb stick's root level with the rest of the iso's and edit out or change/shorten the /boot and /boot/iso parts - though I should need to leave the /grmlsmall/ for sure.

I guess for grml-medium there would need to be /grmlmedium and for the full sized/regular grml perhaps just /grml

The above's not very very clear though I hope it's clear enough if anyone's having the same problem.

have to have a think about this as I guess it's hardcoded or I've missed something as to why I need to have /grmlsmall/

menuentry "TEST Grml ISO folder small 2009.10" {
loopback loop /boot/iso/grml-small_2009.10.iso
linux (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 findiso=/boot/iso/grml-small_2009.10.iso apm=power-off lang=us boot=live nomce noeject noprompt --
initrd (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz
}

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-23 16:31:08

[solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#2 2010-02-23 16:36:10

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#3 2010-02-23 16:43:50

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#4 2010-02-23 19:04:09

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#5 2010-02-24 01:37:31

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#6 2010-03-12 08:48:42

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

#7 2010-03-12 09:21:57

Re: [solved :=)]multiple live iso's on a usb

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