On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 11:27:30AM +0200, Michael Prokop wrote: > * Philip Hands <p...@hands.com> [20090628 01:25]: > > > I've been trying to build a versatile USB stick, with the imntent that > > it be able to choose between various images at a grub prompt. Some > > .iso images (i.e. http://partedmagic.com/) are happy with this setup, > > becasue once booted (via grub4dos's ability to map a .iso and boot it) > > they look around for the image they came from and loop mount it, in much > > the same way as debian-live looks for its .squashfs > > > debian-live does not appear to have this ability at present, although > > given that it can find the .squashfs I'd guess it's not going to be > > too hard to add, but I'm afraid my cursory glance over the code did not > > reveal the place where it should be added. > > JFTR: > > http://git.grml.org/?p=live-initramfs-grml.git;a=blob;f=debian/patches/06_support_fromiso_isofrom.dpatch;hb=HEAD > http://git.grml.org/?p=live-initramfs-grml.git;a=blob;f=debian/patches/07_support_findiso.dpatch;hb=HEAD > > should basically do what you want.
Yup, I've tried applying them to the live-initramfs from debian's git, and as long as I specify fromiso=/debian-live.iso (and call the image that, of course) it works. BTW would it not be a good idea to insert a / in front of the $FINDISO's in the script, so that people don't have to remember it on the kernel command line? > Do I understand it right that the partedmagic live system doesn't > require *any* additional bootoptions at all to boot the ISO directly > from USB (running losetup & CO on it's own)? Yes. Again you need to name the image as it expects (which in the case of PartedMagic 4.2 turns out to be "pmagic-4.1.iso", amusingly) > [...] > > There is at least one gotcha though -- grub will often fail to map an > > image if it's fragmented, so you're liable to have to copy all the images > > off the stick, delete them and then write them back to make it happy. > > The --mem option to grub's map command is supposed to handle that case, > > by copying the image to ram, but I've not had a lot of luck with that. > > Note that when I say grub here I'm talking about grub4dos which is pretty > > much the same as grub2, but seems to deal with the vagaries of USB-ZIP > > rather better than grub2 at the moment. > > You mention it in your blog article > http://wiki.hands.com//howto/ultimate-usb-stick/#gettingdebian-livetorun > already, but JFTR: grub2 with loopback option doesn't have the > fragmentation problem (though grub2 was/is kind of broken in current > Debian/unstable). > > What systems do you have that support USB-ZIP only? The one that prompted me to go to the effort was a recently purchased Jetway JNC91-330-LF 1.6GHz Dual Core ATOM Mainboard, which came with Pheonix AwardBIOS 6.00PG Copyright --2008 Oh, damn ... /me btters his head against the desk for a little while... Right, prompted by your question, and the fact that the system in question really ought to know how to boot USB-HDD, I had another rumage through the boot options. The menu for booting mentions USB-FDD USB-ZIP and USB-CD, but no USB-HDD. Of course, the thing that I'd failed to spot was the little arrow next to the "Hard Disk" option, indicating the presence of a sub-menu. If one selects that sub-menu, it reveals an option for the built-in HDD, and a "Bootable Add-in Cards" option -- which is what I was after all along, it seems. Ho hum -- I suppose I can make my usb-stick setup considerably less complicated now :-) Cheers, Phil. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-live-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
