booting a livecd from Grub

replica9000 · 05-17-2007, 10:32 PM

I've copied the contents of the DSL livecd to my hard drive under /dsl

I edited the menu.lst in grub to look like this:

Code:

title Damn Small Linux 3.3
kernel /dsl/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
initrd=/dsl/minirt24.gz

I've also tried:

Code:

title Damn Small Linux 3.3
kernel /dsl/linux24 fromhd=/dev/hda6
initrd /dsl/minirt24.gz

Both give me the same result, DSL does boot but after searching for USB devices tells me image knoppix not found, dropping to a (very limited) shell.

Anyone know how I can make it find the knoppix image?

GrapefruiTgirl · 05-17-2007, 10:37 PM

May I ask, what's the purpose/end goal here? Are you wanting to install Knoppix?

replica9000 · 05-17-2007, 10:41 PM

I have Debian Etch and WinXP installed, I also wanted to be able to boot a livecd from the HD without creating a new partition or actually installing the live cd.

saikee · 05-18-2007, 02:31 AM

You find that a "root" statement is always needed to tell Grub where to find the Linux.

As far as I am aware the Linux boot loader Grub and Lilo do not support booting from the CD rom.

The correct thing to do is to tell the Bios to boot up the CD first and the hard disk second.

If you place a DSL CD then it will boot. No CD then the hard disk boots.

There is a file available in Grub4Dos that boot a CD drive after Grub has been loaded but that must be put into a floppy. It doesn't work on a hard disk when I tried.

uncle-c · 05-18-2007, 05:32 AM

I done something something very similar with my Slax distro. Here is the section from my menu.lst file.

Code:

title Slax 5.1.8

root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz from=/dev/hdb5 root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=1048576
max_loop=255 ide=nodma rw init=linuxrc

initrd /boot/initrd.gz
savedefault
boot

From the above you can see that my Slax live CD contents are kept on the 5th partition of my second hard drive.
You may or may not need to include the "ide=nodma" option.

Hope this helps,

Uncle.

saikee · 05-18-2007, 09:32 AM

May be I misunderstood the question of the OP.

If it is to boot an iso image previously copied onto a hard disk then the mechanism should be as follow

(1) The expanded distro and not just the iso image is needed in a devoted partition. The former has /boot, /isolinux, /home, /usr...etc whereas the latter is just one file with .iso extension. The latter cannot be booted but can be mounted on a loopback device to expand into the former.

(2) The boot loader from an iso is invariably booted by isolinux. To boot from a hard disk Grub must be used in its place. Thus a new addition to the existing menu.lst has to be created using the same parameters as in isolinux from the iso. isolinux keeps a configuration file called isolinux.conf. Usually it is just a job of copy and paste of the relevantt parameters into the "kernel" and "initrd" after providing

(a) "title" to call the Linux iso
(b) "root" statement to identify the root partition of the Linux

From experience more than half of the iso files, if copied into the hard disk, can be booted this way without the need to burning a bootable CD first. However you will find some installers have been compiled to only go back to the CD rom to fetch files and these distros will fail.

replica9000 · 05-18-2007, 07:21 PM

Ok so I have DSL booting from the hard drive just as it would from the CD, but still after it scans for USB devices it scans for the knoppix image.

It starts at /dev/scd0, then /dev/sda1 /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 etc....

My menu.list currently looks like this:

Code:

title		Debian Etch GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-4-k7
root		(hd0,5)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-k7 vga=791 root=/dev/hda6 ro 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-4-k7
savedefault

# on /dev/hda1
title		Windows XP Media Center Edition
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

#DSL
title		Damn Small Linux 3.3
root (hd0,5)
kernel 		/boot/boot.dsl/isolinux/linux24 fromhd=/dev/hda6 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce noapic quiet frugal   BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix 
initrd 		/boot/boot.dsl/isolinux/minirt24.gz

I have the contents of the CD under /boot/boot.dsl/isolinux and I copied /knoppix/knoppix to the root partition that Debian is on (/dev/hda6)

So right now it seems that it can't find the knoppix image it needs to continue even though it scans other areas than the cdrom.

saikee · 05-18-2007, 07:47 PM

DSL is a knoppix variant.

If you want Mr. Knoppix itself repeat the same process for Knoopix's iso file.

replica9000 · 05-19-2007, 04:59 PM

I have knoppix, I haven't tried getting knoppix itself to boot up like this, but since DSL is based on knoppix it should work the same.

I'm just trying to get DSL to find the 50M knoppix image it uses to finish booting up. Like I said it scans for it from the CD rom first then the hard drives and still can't find it.

homey · 05-19-2007, 07:31 PM

Here's my notes that I used to boot the way you are trying. It should work for dsl or other knoppix based systems.
Just make changes for partition location and the name of the vmlinuz and initrd. That seems to be linux24 / minirt24.gz in your case.

Code:

Configure your existing linux system to allow Knoppix hard drive boot
without creating a new install or burning to cdrom.

# Mount the iso image.
mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -o loop knoppix.iso /mnt/iso

# Copy the KNOPPIX directory to a root directory.
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2
mkdir /mnt/sda2
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
(cd /mnt/iso ; tar cf - KNOPPIX) | ( cd /mnt/sda2 ; tar xf - )

# Copy the boot directory to a root directory.
(cd /mnt/iso ; tar cf - boot) | ( cd /mnt/sda2 ; tar xf - )

# Unmount the iso image and clean up.
cd && umount /mnt/iso && rm -rf /mnt/iso
cd && umount /mnt/sda2 && rm -rf /mnt/sda2

# Make an entry in the grub.conf using data from /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg .

title KNOPPIX
   root (hd0,1)
   kernel /boot/isolinux/linux apm=power-off ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init vga=791 nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/sda2 lang=us
   initrd /boot/isolinux/minirt.gz


# Here is another type of grub entry.

title KNOPPIX
   root (hd0,1)
   kernel /boot/isolinux/linux apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet fromhd=/dev/sda2 lang=us
   initrd /boot/isolinux/minirt.gz

replica9000 · 05-23-2007, 06:41 PM

Ok still no luck. I even tried Knoppix itself and still can't find KNOPPIX image.

I setup the file locations like they are on the CD for both Knoppix and DSL

http://replica9000.bizland.com/bootknoppix01.png
http://replica9000.bizland.com/bootknoppix02.png

And here is my current Grub menu.lst

Code:

title		Debian Etch GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-4-k7
root		(hd0,5)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-k7 vga=791 root=/dev/hda6 ro 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-4-k7
savedefault

title		Windows XP Media Center Edition
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

title		Knoppix 3.8.1 (CD Version)
root (hd0,5)
kernel 		/boot/isolinux/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce noapic quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda6
initrd          /boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
savedefault

title		Damn Small Linux 3.3
root (hd0,5)
kernel 		/boot/isolinux/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce noapic quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda6
initrd		/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz
savedefault

Is there anything else I gotta do?