adding files extracted from an ISO to GRUB2 bootloader

OverKll · 02-16-2010, 03:30 AM

I have extracted the files from a bootable CD to /dev/sdc2/bootable/winpwrec with the hope of booting from the hard drive. I have read the grub.cfg file and a couple of guides here and I'm still not sure what I'm doing. Is there any chance someone can tell me what I need to add to the grub.cfg file to add this to the boot menu? I am pretty well-versed in computers but I'm new to Linux and I'm still trying to get acquainted with the OS, terminology, and the boot loader. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10, if that matters.

files in the folder:
BOOT.CAT;1 ISOLINUX.BIN;1 SCSI.CGZ;1
BOOT.MSG;1 ISOLINUX.CFG;1 SYSLINUX.CFG;1 VMLINUZ.;1
INITRD.CGZ;1 README.TXT;1 SYSLINUX.EXE;1

isolinux.cfg

Code:

#serial 0 19200

default boot

display boot.msg

timeout 250

prompt 1

label boot

  kernel vmlinuz



append rw vga=1 initrd=initrd.cgz,scsi.cgz 

#console=ttyS0

syslinux.cfg

Code:

#serial 0 19200

default boot

display boot.msg

timeout 250

prompt 1

label boot

  kernel vmlinuz



append rw vga=1 initrd=initrd.cgz,scsi.cgz 

#console=ttyS0

Thanks for your help,
Overkill

unSpawn · 02-21-2010, 04:28 AM

VMLINUZ is the kernel, the INITRD.CGZ may be the initrd image and SCSI.CGZ may be a floppy-size disk holding extra drivers. The BOOT.CAT, BOOT.MSG, ISOLINUX.CFG, ISOLINUX.BIN, SYSLINUX.CFG, README.TXT and SYSLINUX.EXE files are used for El Torito-booting the CDROM. Since you don't have the file system-to-boot on disk and the compression of supporting *.CGZ files is unknown this entry would fail anyway but for examples sake, if all files reside on the first partition ",0" on the first harddisk "hd0" (all as GRUB would recognize it) then a grub.conf entry could look like

Code:

title BootWhatever
 root (hd0,0)
 kernel /VMLINUZ
 initrd /INITRD.CGZ
 boot

(http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index...slinux_Project)

syg00 · 02-21-2010, 04:49 AM

Grub2 is supposed to be able to boot (bootable) iso's directly. I've seen reports that this support is (at best) flakey - then again, I still consider gub2 as beta software; flakey by definition.
@OverKll (if you aren't aware) an iso is the "image" of a bootable CD.
In Linux terms you can create an iso simply be "dd"ing the CD to a disk file - then you might be able to boot it directly. Is this what you're looking for ?.

OverKll · 02-22-2010, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Grub2 is supposed to be able to boot (bootable) iso's directly. I've seen reports that this support is (at best) flakey - then again, I still consider gub2 as beta software; flakey by definition.
@OverKll (if you aren't aware) an iso is the "image" of a bootable CD.
In Linux terms you can create an iso simply be "dd"ing the CD to a disk file - then you might be able to boot it directly. Is this what you're looking for ?.

I was hoping there would be a way to set it up basically the same way that memtest is done with the ubuntu distro so that I don't have to do any partitioning, etc. It's not a big deal, just one of the things I was hoping to explore now that I've gotten off my @ and installed linux :P