See pendrivelinux.com They have a how to on ways that many but not all ISO's can be booted from grub and or chainloaded.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-mu...multiboot-usb/

hobbes1069,

Good try but no cigar . .

On the link you gave - under "Linux":

"The majority of Linux based CD images will also fail to work with MEMDISK ISO emulation. Linux distributions require kernel and initrd files to be specified, as soon as these files are loaded the protected mode kernel driver(s) take control and the virtual CD will no longer be accessible. If any other files are required from the CD/DVD they will be missing, resulting in boot error(s).

Linux distributions that only require kernel and initrd files function fully via ISO emulation, as no other data needs accessing from the virtual CD/DVD drive once they have been loaded. The boot loader has read all necessary files to memory by using INT 13, before booting the kernel."

Which corresponds to my results:

F12-i686-Live.iso - hangs immediately with "-" prompt
F13-Beta-i686-Live.iso - hangs immediately with "-" prompt
RCDx86_297.iso - WORKS!
elive_2.0_Topaz_new-kernel_up002.iso - hangs immediately with "-" prompt
geexbox-1.2.4-en.i386.glibc.iso - gets part way into install - problem with reading CD
gparted-live-0.5.2-9.iso - gets part way into install - loops looking at HD partitions
puredyne-911-carrot_and_coriander-CD-i386.iso - hangs immediately with "-" prompt


Phil.

Yup, I found that later. The only thing I've been able to do (for System Rescue CD) is copy the contents into my /boot partition and setup my main system Grub to load each one individually, which I was trying to avoid. I didn't want to clutter my main grub menu.

The tools I use most besides the actual system rescue program is MHDD and Memtest86 so I have only included those in my menu.

Richard

jefro,

Two obvious problems for me:

1. I don't have a Windows machine (really!) - I haven't had convenient access to one since I finished my last consulting job at the end of 2007 . . (I will try WINE to see if that works).

2. Fedora 12/13 are not listed - these are capable of having USB images created from the ISOs by using dd directly to the USB so the ISOs (so called HYBRID images) - are different ISOs to most other distros and I guess they don't work in this setup? I will try 13 and see . .

Thanks,

Phil.

Half of the how-to involve linux.

Not all ISO's will be possible at this time to boot directly from grub and/or grub4dos.

At the bottom of that page it has links to how it made iso's bootable and more insight to how to do what you want.

See these links.
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/map.htm#hd32
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/README_GRUB4DOS.txt
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...D_002dROM.html
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/inde...showtopic=5041
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.p...opic=8955&st=0
http://geekdeck.wordpress.com/2010/0...-other-things/
http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB

1 members found this post helpful.

You could just make a simple kernel that would boot your ISO Images.

More details?

Thanks,

Phil.

did anyone find out how to do this for windows isos?

eh,.. please make a new thread with a new question! don't mess with these necro threads.

sonnettie, unfortunately this post started in 2007. A lot has changed. Grub and other types based on grub might be used to boot to a standard iso image. Grub4dos Grub4NT and maybe Grub24dos would work. There still exists a few issues. One is some disk images can't be booted directly. Some computers may have issues.

What are you wanting to do?

By the way, how about posting this on a new thread please.

this worked for me.

1. Create a bootable partition on a usb
2. mount iso as loopback
3. cp isolinux folder from loopback to root of usb
4. cp images folder from loopback to root of usb
5. move isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg
6. umount
7. syslinux <device>
8. mount
9. grub-install --root-directory=<location of mounted device> <device>
10. vim /<location of mounted device/boot/grub/grub.conf

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title <title> (hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz
initrd /initrd.img

If you loop mount the ISO and find that it uses syslinux for boot, you will find a .img in the syslinux folder. Copy that to your boot device (your GRUB root). Now, use the memdisk trick using that .img file, it will boot fine.

You are converting an ISO to a USB drive boot. I think the question was about booting the contents of ISO using the existing GRUB install.