Hi there,
I see we are all at the same level. Everybody can help everybody.
I did a lot of tests I would like to share:
I have 4 USB keys :
2 X Verbatim 2GB
1 AData 2GB
1 Kingston DataTraveler 2GB
and 4 differents computers
1 Desktop with Intel mobo Pentium 4 3GHz (6 years old)
1 Desktop with HP mobo Pentium 4 3GHz (6 years old)
1 laptop HP nc6000 (6 years old)
1 laptop HP nx7300 (2 years old)
I installed karmic-netbook-remix-i386.iso on 3 USB keys and tried to boot on the 4 computers.
For 3 hours I couldn't boot on the 2 Desktops despite different ways to install Karmic but it was ok in the laptops and suddently for some reason I can boot on the HP Desktop. I don't know why.
Conclusion: If you can't boot on one computer you can't say "my computer/USB key doesn't boot". You need as well to be lucky ;-)
That said, what exactly I did (from linux install):
First download Karmic to get grub2
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/alpha-4/
Below in the page: UNR live CD => clic on: PC (Intel x86) UNR live CD
file: karmic-netbook-remix-i386.iso
Download the files needed listed in below in the web page
http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB and record them in a directory in /home/iso/ of the linux computer you'll use to install. Change the mod
chmod 777 /home/iso/
or right-clic =>Properties => Permissions => create and delete file for all in the directory.
Run an text editor (ie gedit)
From the web page copy and paste the text from ....to:
menuentry "Ubuntu Live 9.04 i386" {
.....
.....
....
initrd (loop)/boot/tinycore.gz
}
Save this text to /home/iso/ directory with the name grub.cfg
Install Karmic in the first USB Key:
To install Karmic in the first USK key I used my Ubuntu Jaunty in HP mobo.
Install GParted and Unetbootin
Format the first key with GParter in FAT32 (not bootable)
Install Karmic with Unetbootin and karmic-netbook-remix-i386.iso
Eject, remove the USB key
Boot you PC with Karmic USB key (Be patient almost 2 minutes to get the working screen)
I used my nx7300 laptop the most recent.
Now you can install GRUB2 with the tuto
http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB
Insert another USB key
Go to Administration run Gparted
Select your USB key where you want to install grub (be carfull choose the good one)
With GParted, format the key with fat32 name MultiISO
You can write another name like MyUSB, this is the name of the device
Open one terminal and write all the commands to the key in this terminal, not in another
Write:
sudo fdisk -l
You'll get the devices in your PC
i.e.: sda1, sda2, sda3 should be you local HD
Disk /dev/sda:
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
your hard drive and partitions
Disk /dev/sdb:
/dev/sdb1
The first USB key with Karmic (Boot with *)
Disk /dev/sdc:
/dev/sdc1
The second USB key
If you have more than one physical HD the name will change
Let say we use sdc in this example but it could be diffrent in your case.
The value of DEVICE and VOLUME must be the same when you formated in GParted
write:
DEVICE=/dev/sdc
VOLUME=MultiISO
DEVICE and VOLUME are the name of the variables in the shell
Try write
echo ${VOLUME}
echo ${DEVICE}
you will get the value of the variable VOLUME and DEVICE
If you want to learn the syntax commands you can open a second terminal and write:
man mkfs.vfat you will have the manual
(use this terminal only to check or for info not to setup the key)
write if you use ubuntu
ls /media/
for another distro you should know where are the mounted medias
Usualy GParted mount the media after formating. You should get the name of your USB key
You can also write
mount -l
You should get
/dev/sdc on /mnt type vfat (............) [MultiISO]
If you don't get it run File Browser and clic on MultiISO
Now we can install grub
write
sudo grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/media/MultiISO ${DEVICE}
This create de directory /boot/grub in ths USB with all the file needed
Now you can run File Browser in Karmic
With the file browser, create a sub directory under /boot
You should have
/boot
/boot/grub
/boot/iso
Go to your HD where you created iso directory
Copy the iso file from /home/iso to MultiISO/boot/iso/
Copy /home/iso/grub.cfg to MultiISO/boot/grub/
Eject the USB key from File Browser
Remove the key and try to boot it.
On my 3 USB keys, Ubuntu, tinycore are working well, grml and XBMC boot but have error after. For me this is not the point.
If you succeeded you can open the grub.cfg and add at the end
menuentry "Reboot" {
reboot
}
That's all folks!
Now we have to work on our own iso. Personally for ISO with DOS.
I hope it'll help