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  • Contributing back: Using grub2 to boot CD-ROM images

    From Charles Curley@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 20 18:30:02 2024
    I've developed a script and suitable grub stanzas to let the user
    install several CD-ROM images on a hard drive, and boot from the
    CD-ROMs without extracting the kernel or initrd. This gives the user
    something of a rescue capability without requiring a CD/DVD or thumb
    drive.

    The three images I have been working with are recent netinst weekly
    builds, a recent Finnix, and the gparted live CD. All three go on their
    own partition, in hope that that partition would isolate them from file
    system catastrophes.

    I think this might make a useful how-to, possibly for the Debian wiki.
    Any thoughts on where to contribute it?

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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  • From Christian Britz@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 20 18:50:01 2024
    Sounds interesting, I would really like to give it a try.

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  • From Thomas Schmitt@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 20 18:50:01 2024
    Hi,

    I've developed a script and suitable grub stanzas to let the user
    install several CD-ROM images on a hard drive, and boot from the
    CD-ROMs without extracting the kernel or initrd.
    ...
    I think this might make a useful how-to, possibly for the Debian wiki.
    Any thoughts on where to contribute it?

    At similar occasions i created pages in the Debian wiki and asked the
    general public for review and comments:
    https://wiki.debian.org/JigdoOnLive
    https://wiki.debian.org/MergeDebianIsos
    https://wiki.debian.org/RepackBootableISO
    https://wiki.debian.org/VerifyISOImage
    https://wiki.debian.org/XorrisoDdTarget

    I would be interested to read what you did with GRUB.


    Have a nice day :)

    Thomas

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  • From tomas@tuxteam.de@21:1/5 to Charles Curley on Wed Nov 20 19:00:01 2024
    On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 10:21:09AM -0700, Charles Curley wrote:
    I've developed a script and suitable grub stanzas to let the user
    install several CD-ROM images on a hard drive, and boot from the
    CD-ROMs without extracting the kernel or initrd. This gives the user something of a rescue capability without requiring a CD/DVD or thumb
    drive.

    That sounds /very/ interesting.

    Cheers & thanks
    --
    tomás

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  • From tomas@tuxteam.de@21:1/5 to Thomas Schmitt on Wed Nov 20 19:00:01 2024
    On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 06:44:50PM +0100, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
    Hi,

    [...]

    At similar occasions i created pages in the Debian wiki and asked the
    general public for review and comments:

    [...]

    noted.

    Cheers
    --
    t

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  • From Stefan Monnier@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 20 19:10:01 2024
    The three images I have been working with are recent netinst weekly
    builds, a recent Finnix, and the gparted live CD. All three go on their
    own partition, in hope that that partition would isolate them from file system catastrophes.

    Nice. In the past I've used the `grub-imageboot` package for that.
    AFAICT it requires you put the `.iso` files in `/boot/images/` which is impractical for large ISOs, so maybe you could try and contribute your
    code to that package.


    Stefan

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  • From Charles Curley@21:1/5 to Stefan Monnier on Wed Nov 20 20:00:02 2024
    On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 13:01:35 -0500
    Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

    In the past I've used the `grub-imageboot` package for that.

    Aha! Thank you.

    Near as I can tell, somewhere along the line the kernel and initrd are extracted from the (CD|DVD|diskette) image. My software doesn't even
    require that. Grub will reach into an ISO for them at boot time if you
    ask it politely.

    On brief investigation, this seems to require a lot of undocumented
    manual work to get things set up; I've automated a lot of that.

    The package is rather sparse on documentation, though.

    AFAICT it requires you put the `.iso` files in `/boot/images/` which
    is impractical for large ISOs, so maybe you could try and contribute
    your code to that package.

    Not required; one can change that in /etc/default/grub-imageboot. One
    would have to in order to get the images onto their own isolated
    partition, one of the things I've done.

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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  • From Andy Smith@21:1/5 to Charles Curley on Wed Nov 20 20:30:01 2024
    Hi Charles,

    On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 10:21:09AM -0700, Charles Curley wrote:
    I think this might make a useful how-to, possibly for the Debian wiki.
    Any thoughts on where to contribute it?

    Sounds interesting and useful. I think you should write an article on
    your blog, make sure that is archived in web.archive.org, and also put
    the essentials of it in an article on the Debian Wiki.

    Thanks,
    Andy

    --
    https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

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  • From Stefan Monnier@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 20 21:50:01 2024
    In the past I've used the `grub-imageboot` package for that.
    Near as I can tell, somewhere along the line the kernel and initrd are extracted from the (CD|DVD|diskette) image.

    IIUC `grub-imageboot`s boot entries boot the ISOs by running the
    `memdisk` program, passing it the ISO. I don't really know how
    `memdisk` works internally, but I don't think it knows about initrd and
    kernels because it also works to boot non-Linux images.

    My software doesn't even require that. Grub will reach into an ISO for
    them at boot time if you ask it politely.
    On brief investigation, this seems to require a lot of undocumented
    manual work to get things set up; I've automated a lot of that.

    Ah, so it doesn't require something like `memdisk`, good.

    AFAICT it requires you put the `.iso` files in `/boot/images/` which
    is impractical for large ISOs, so maybe you could try and contribute
    your code to that package.
    Not required; one can change that in /etc/default/grub-imageboot.
    One would have to in order to get the images onto their own isolated partition, one of the things I've done.

    AFAICT it can be moved to another partition, indeed, but all the images
    still have to be stored in the same partition (on a file system which
    Grub can read). IIUC in your case, they can each use their
    own partitions.


    Stefan

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  • From Charles Curley@21:1/5 to Stefan Monnier on Wed Nov 20 22:30:01 2024
    On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 15:46:01 -0500
    Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

    IIUC in your case, they can each use their
    own partitions.

    Currently, they all reside on the same partition. I suppose a bit of
    hacking could put each on its own. An interesting thought. But that's
    more work than I want to do right now.

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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  • From Anssi Saari@21:1/5 to Charles Curley on Thu Nov 21 10:50:01 2024
    Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> writes:

    I've developed a script and suitable grub stanzas to let the user
    install several CD-ROM images on a hard drive, and boot from the
    CD-ROMs without extracting the kernel or initrd. This gives the user something of a rescue capability without requiring a CD/DVD or thumb
    drive.

    Interesting. One rescue system I like, grml, has a Debian package grml-rescueboot which does this for their images. The package provides a longish /etc/grub.d/42_grml to do its thing.

    I think this might make a useful how-to, possibly for the Debian wiki.
    Any thoughts on where to contribute it?

    Debian wiki. I can't commonly access it since it doesn't like my VPN but
    seems like the right place.

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  • From Charles Curley@21:1/5 to Anssi Saari on Thu Nov 21 15:40:01 2024
    On Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:47:41 +0200
    Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@debian-user.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

    One rescue system I like, grml, has a Debian package
    grml-rescueboot which does this for their images. The package
    provides a longish /etc/grub.d/42_grml to do its thing.

    Thanks, I'll take a look at it.

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Charles Curley@21:1/5 to Andy Smith on Thu Nov 21 20:20:01 2024
    On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:22:25 +0000
    Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:

    Sounds interesting and useful. I think you should write an article on
    your blog, make sure that is archived in web.archive.org, and also put
    the essentials of it in an article on the Debian Wiki.

    Thank you. That is what I will do, then.

    Draft article with scripts and other files is now up. https://charlescurley.com/blog/posts/2024/Nov/20/booting.isos/ Comments
    and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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