Arch Linux

laegnur

Member

Registered: 2013-07-23

Posts: 12

Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Hello

I'm following this tutorial from an old website to make a USB with Grub and boot a lot of Linux distros directly from the ISOs contained on the USB.

But I found a problem, UEFI needs a FAT filesystem, and the last Ubuntu ISO is 6Gb... so it can't be copied to the fat32 partition on the USB...

I think on use a fat32 partition for boot and UEFI, and a ext4 partition for the ISOs on the USB

These are the two commands to install the UEFI and the Bios Grub

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/mnt/multiboot --boot-directory=/mnt/multiboot/boot --removable --recheck
# grub-install --target=i386-pc --boot-directory=/mnt/multiboot/boot --recheck /dev/sdc

And the Archlinux grub menu to load from the ISO on the USB

## ARCHLINUX 2024.08
menuentry 'GNU/Linux Archlinux 2024.08.01 x86_64' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os{
    set isofile='/boot/iso/archlinux-2024.08.01-x86_64.iso'
    loopback loop $isofile
    linux (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux img_dev=$imgdevpath img_loop=$isofile archisobasedir=arch archisosearchuuid=2024-08-01-14-36-07-00 earlymodules=loop
    initrd (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/initramfs-linux.img
}

I need guidance on how to modify the Grub config to use the ISOs on a second partition.

Last edited by laegnur (2024-08-13 10:15:12)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Change $imgdevpath to the correct identifier for the second partition, as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Multib … figuration.

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

laegnur

Member

Registered: 2013-07-23

Posts: 12

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Hello

Thanks for the answer. I didn't know that article on the wiki. I will read it immediately. Many thanks.

mrkc95

Member

Registered: 2025-11-25

Posts: 12

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

I use Ventoy. (Sorry for replying old post. I did not checked the date.)

Last edited by mrkc95 (2025-12-27 02:35:39)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,574

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Ventoy has often had trouble booting arch install isos .

Moderator Note :
closing this old thread.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,859

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Ventoy has often had trouble booting arch install iso

any citation for this?
not had any trouble with ventoy + arch (or any other linux boot media or the boot modes)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,574

Re: Multiboot usb and large than 4Gb iso

Occasionally there are threads where people can boot the archinstall iso as stand alone, but fail to do that when trying to boot that same iso through ventoy .
Later versions of Ventoy often solve the issue, maybe ventoy has trouble adjusting to changes in archlinux.

Moderator Note : closing this for real now.

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky