#1 2020-05-28 19:15:03

rbh

Moderator

From: South of Lapplands inland

Registered: 2016-08-11

Posts: 1,921

Boot iso of HD

When your Linux pc ain't bootable or you cant start X, Live/Rescue dist ar handy. But, sometime just when needed, you can't find thad removable media. Booting iso from the HD, assure your rescue media always are at hand.

Editing Grub2 for iso-boot is not a simple task.
Package grml-rescueboot helps out. It adds a Grubb entry for the iso via loopback-device.

Not all isos is supported. The iso should have loopback.cfg in the boot directory.
I have edited /etc/default/grml-rescueboot, added:

 CUSTOM_BOOTOPTIONS="toram eject keyboard=se lang=en" 

But, that does not effect boot behavior of neither grml nor finnix iso.

Edit: My mistake somehow. Bootoptions in /etc/default/grml-rescueboot, works for grml-iso.

Isos that i have booted ok from HD with grml-rescueboot:
Grml 32 and 64 bit https://grml.org/download.
Grml can boot in graphical mode. It is based on Fluxbox.

Finnix https://www.finnix.org, has in latest relase (2020-05-14), dropped support for i386.
Only cli-api. Boots fast.

Install grml-rescueboot from Debian repo.
Copy iso to directory /boot/grml and run "update-grub", or issue command "update-grml-rescueboot". It will download latest grml-iso and update grub.

If you need to mount hd -rw, append "toram eject", when booting iso.

When booting Grml, you can choose "Iso linux prompt", to easy add boot options. "grml", followed by others. If your system is raided, add "swraid", to enable autodetecting software raid.

SystemRescueCd (https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/), is another great rescue CD. For newbies, maybe easier to manage, with XFCE4-desktop. For now, it can not be booted with grml-rescueboot. It can be booted with package "grub-imageboot"

Bunsenlabs Lithuim dev4 iso, Could I not boot from hd. If i remeber ok, Helium could boot in live mode with grml-rescueboot.

Last edited by rbh (2020-05-28 21:03:08)

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// Regards rbh

Please read before requesting help: "Guide to getting help", "Introduction to the Bunsenlabs Lithium Desktop" and other help topics under "Help & Resources" on the BunsenLabs menu

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 2,697

Re: Boot iso of HD

Bunsenlabs Lithuim dev4 iso, Could I not boot from hd. If i remeber ok, Helium could boot in live mode with grml-rescueboot.

^You could check for yourself which parameters are required to start the Lithium ISO. If I remember the time of my experiments correctly, you should find something like this under "live" in the isolinux directory in the ISO.

Command to mount the ISO e.g.

# mkdir /mnt/disk
# mount -o loop /media/unklar/Distris/bunsenlabs/lithium-dev-4-amd64.hybrid.iso /mnt/disk
# umount /mnt/disk

Last edited by unklar (2020-05-28 20:34:25)

rbh

Moderator

From: South of Lapplands inland

Registered: 2016-08-11

Posts: 1,921

Re: Boot iso of HD

^You could check for yourself which parameters are required to start the Lithium ISO.

Yes, it is possible to edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom and update grub. But, since grml-rescueboot, I do not need to take time dissecting iso and edit 40_custom, update grubb, reboot, adjust, update grub and reboot and... With grml-rescueboot is it done in a couple of minutes.

I am satisfied with the possibility to boot three debian-based rescue dists, directly from HD.

Last edited by rbh (2020-05-28 21:37:48)

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// Regards rbh

Please read before requesting help: "Guide to getting help", "Introduction to the Bunsenlabs Lithium Desktop" and other help topics under "Help & Resources" on the BunsenLabs menu

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 2,697

Re: Boot iso of HD

^^Yes, and that's why I stopped doing this huge effort, where there's QEMU for example, or, any other live CD in conjunction with chroot does the job.