[SOLVED] installing grub2 on usb stick

sumeet inani · 12-30-2015, 08:56 AM

hi ,
I have used legacy grub with ease .
Just edit /boot/grub/menu.lst manually and add/delete entries in bootloader .
Plain and simple .
The thing I like about grub2 is its fancy features at the cost of complexity .

My question
Now I want to install grub2 on USB stick and boot from it.
Actually I want just a single entry on my grub2 menu of USB stick

menuentry "Tiny Core 6.3" {
set root=(hd0,2)
linux /boot/vmlinuz63 waitusb=10 loop.max_loop=256
initrd /boot/core63.gz
}

My USB stick has 2 primary partitions - first fat32 of 10GB and second ext2 of 4GB .
ext2 partition will have boot folder containing linux and initrd files .

How should I proceed ?

yancek · 12-30-2015, 09:52 AM

Do you have a CD/DVD or flash drive with an OS containing Grub2? Take a look at the link below which explains installing from a Live CD or using chroot.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...iveCD_terminal

jefro · 12-30-2015, 11:08 PM

For the most part, you install grub2 to a usb just as if it were an internal hard drive.

Might see if this page leads you to a solution maybe. https://askubuntu.com/questions/4658...grub-not-found

sumeet inani · 01-02-2016, 07:26 AM

To jefro
Your link is for legacy grub .

To yancek ,
i have a computer with backtrack (latest version called kali) installed . It is ubuntu based distro .
First I created /mnt/sdb2/etc/grub.d/41_tc (permission 777) file containing
My /mnt/sdb2 already has boot folder containing vmlinuz63 and core63.gz .

Code:

#!/bin/sh -e
echo "Adding tiny core Linux to GRUB 2"
cat << EOF
menuentry "Tiny Core 6.3" {
set root=(hd0,2)
linux /boot/vmlinuz63 waitusb=10 loop.max_loop=256
initrd /boot/core63.gz
}
EOF

I ran following command
#grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/sdb2/ /dev/sdb
Installation finished. No error reported.

Now the issue is
It created /mnt/sdb2/boot/grub folder containing a lot of files .
But no grub.cfg .

Now pendrive boots me to a prompt as follows
[log]
GNU grub version 1.98 -1ubuntu 13
minimal bash-like editing is supported .For the first word , TAB lists possible command completions , Anywhere else tab lists possible device or file completions.
grub>
[/log]

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/ma...2dinstall.html tells me that grub-install is a script that uses grub-mkimage and grub-setup commands .
grub-mkimage help tells me that it uses images and modules of /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc by default .

I am beginning to think that scripts from grub.d are useful only in update-grub .
grub-mkconfig can make grub.cfg file but cannot be pointed to any device (like my removable usb) .

http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-restor...ble-hard-drive offers hope.

colorpurple21859 · 01-02-2016, 07:53 AM

you can create a /boot/grub/grub.cfg manually with any text editor and use your entry from above.
I have done this before and had to add insmod all_video at the beginning of the file for it work on my laptop so there may be someother options that will have to add to work like maybe insmod usb

sumeet inani · 01-02-2016, 08:05 AM

to colorpurple21859 ,
I used to do that earlier . I copied grub.cfg from installed OS then removed all irrelevant #BEGIN...#END entries . But grub2 is not manual editing friendly .
Here is my grub.cfg automatically generated (no significant change from script I provided , i would have arrived at same by manual editing as you suggested)
NOTE - /mnt/sdb2 (quoted for clarity) , i told above was actually /media/4gb .

Code:

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /media/4gb/etc/grub.d and settings from /media/4gb/etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /media/4gb/etc/grub.d/41_tc ###
Adding tiny core Linux to GRUB 2
menuentry "Tiny Core 6.3" {
set root=(hd0,2)
linux /boot/vmlinuz63 waitusb=10 loop.max_loop=256
initrd /boot/core63.gz
}
### END /media/4gb/etc/grub.d/41_tc ###

Here is the solution (with inputs from http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-restor...ble-hard-drive)

Code:

#grub-install --root-directory=<mount-point-of-usb-stick-partition> <usb-stick-device>
edit /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig and point sysconfdir to etc folder on above mountpoint
#grub-mkconfig -o  <mount-point-of-usb-stick-partition>/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Question SOLVED .
Thanks everyone .