This is a short description, how to build a real multiboot USB pen (also known as USB flash drive, USB pen or USB stick). How to get knoppix, DSL, grml, grml64, tinycore qparted together on one usb pen? Also this is the solution for filling empty usb pens. I used it for my small laptop without optical drive or for servers to test hardware. You can use it also for hard disks or flash disks or multiboot CDs in a similar way. Future distros will probably have a special option for easier creation of multiboot disks, like GRML already has.
A partitioned usb pen with one VFAT partition on it. Grub installed to the MBR (Master boot record at sector one) and Syslinux installed on the VFAT partition. You can go from grub to syslinux and back to go around boot problems. Every distribution will be put to its own directory and often needs some adaptions of the initrd or the booting parameters listed below. Copy the content of each live CD (not the iso-image itself) to a subdirectory on the usb-pen. Choose a 8.3 FAT filename to avoid name conflicts.
### GRUB menu.lst:
title syslinux from hd0,0
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1
title floppyimg
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/memdisk
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/fdboot.img
title Memtest
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/memtest
### syslinux.cfg:
# boot grub from MBR
LABEL hd
MENU LABEL Boot First Harddrive
LOCALBOOT 0x80
LABEL hd1
MENU LABEL Boot Second Harddrive
LOCALBOOT 0x81
LABEL floppyimg
KERNEL /boot/memdisk
APPEND initrd=/boot/fdboot.img
A minimalistic ramdisk distro using k2.6.29, Xvesa, jwm, ssh. Extendable.
- download tinycore_2.0.iso (11MB 2009-06) - mount -o ro,loop ./tinycore_2.0.iso /media/cdrom - mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbpen # replace sda1 by the correct devicename - cp -r /media/cdrom/boot /media/usbpen/tinycore.20 # we dont include the CD-root here - edit /media/usbpen/syslinux.cfg (changes to original distro in red) label tinycore.20 kernel /tinycore.20/bzImage append initrd=/tinycore.20/tinycore.gz - edit /media/usbpen/boot/grub/menu.lst title=TinyCore-2.0 2009-06 kernel /tinycore.20/bzImage initrd /tinycore.20/tinycore.gz - # boot options: tce=hdXY/tce # use subdir (default=tce) for extensions # local=hdXY # use subdir tclocal or loop image tclocal. # local=hdXY/tinycore.20 # see /etc/init.d/tc-config for more info (appbrowser) - umount /media/usbpen - umount /media/cdrom - test: qemu -hda /dev/sda - ToDo: add mountable extensions:
A linux distro for repartioning.
- download gparted-livecd-0.3.4-11.iso (53MB 2007-12-17)
- mount -o ro,loop ./gparted-livecd-0.3.4-11.iso /media/cdrom
- mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbpen # replace sda1 by the correct devicename
- cp -r /media/cdrom /media/usbpen/gparted.034
- edit /media/usbpen/syslinux.cfg (changes to original distro in red)
- touch /media/usbpen/gparted.034/livecd
label gparted034.sd
kernel /gparted.034/boot/gparted
append initrd=/gparted.034/boot/gparted.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc vga=788 looptype=squashfs loop=/gparted.034/gparted.dat subdir=gparted.034 setkmap=de nodetect cdroot=/dev/sd video=vesa
- edit /media/usbpen/boot/grub/menu.lst
title=GParted-liveCD 0.3.4-11 (please edit cdroot=/dev/sd)
kernel /gparted.034/boot/gparted root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/loop0 looptype=squashfs subdir=/gparted.034 loop=/gparted.034/gparted.dat setkmap=de udev nodetect cdroot=/dev/sd video=vesa
initrd /gparted.034/boot/gparted.igz
- # cdroot # auto search for ${SUBDIR}/livecd in /dev/{hda,hda1,hdc,...} fails!
# cdroot=/dev/sda1 # skip autodetection and set by hand
# if you end with an error "Invalid loop location:" cdroot was set wrong
# see gparted.igz:/etc/init.scripts:findcdmount()+bootstrapCD()
# cdroot=/dev/sd works? (buggy?)
- umount /media/usbpen
- umount /media/cdrom
- test: qemu -hda /dev/sda # change: cdroot=/dev/hda1
Universal toolkit for the console (fbdev + links2 -g works). Great for the small laptops.
### GRUB:
title GRML-MEDIUM-2009.05
kernel (hd0,0)/grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/linux26 gmt keyboard=de xkeyboard=de boot=live live-media-path=grml_m200905/live toram=grml-medium.squashfs nomce noudev edd=off verbose
initrd (hd0,0)/grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/initrd.gz
title GRML-HDT Hardware-Detection
kernel (hd0,0)/grml_m200905/boot/addons/hdt.c32
initrd (hd0,0)/grml_m200905/boot/addons/pci.ids
### SYSCONFIG:
LABEL grml
MENU LABEL grml - Standard Bootup
MENU DEFAULT
KERNEL /grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/linux26
APPEND apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=/grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/initrd.gz boot=live nomce
LABEL grml2ram
MENU LABEL grml2ram - Copy Squashfs file to RAM
KERNEL /grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/linux26
APPEND apm=power-off toram=grml-medium.squashfs vga=791 initrd=/grml_m200905/boot/grmlmedium/initrd.gz boot=live nomce
Live-CD. (ToDo: rename knoppix to knoppix5)
### GRUB:
title knoppix-5.1.1 Jan07
kernel (hd0,0)/knoppix/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=de apm=power-off vga=791 nomce loglevel=3 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix toram
initrd (hd0,0)/knoppix/minirt.gz
### SYSLINUX.CFG:
LABEL knoppx-511Jan07
KERNEL /knoppix/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=de apm=power-off vga=791 nomce loglevel=3 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix toram
APPEND initrd=/knoppix/minirt.gz
If you have trouble with other distros first search the internet or the live CD for cheatcodes. If that gives no solution, analyze the boot scripts of the initrd image.
- headless version (no screen, no keyboard, using serial [over ethernet] console) should work always, but distros dont do a good job if option "serial" must to be choosen on boot prompt using the keyboard which is not available when using serial cable :(
Look at my Homepage for contact address.