45 replies to this topic

[tinybit]

In the upcoming grub4dos final release, I want to add to the sample menu.lst file with an entry for Parted Magic ISO booting and surely also one for UBCD ISO.

How can I do it?

The following is OK?

title Parted Magic ISO

find --set-root /pmagic.iso

map /pmagic.iso (0xff)

map --hook

chainloader (0xff)



title Ultimate Boot CD ISO

find --set-root /ubcd.iso

map /ubcd.iso (0xff)

map --hook

chainloader (0xff)

I hope the ISOs can be loaded in a simple way like the above.

[ktp]

Well as with previous grub4dos versions :
Error 60: File for drive emulation must be in one contiguous disk area

This is really painful since I have to use contig.exe to try to make one contiguous area, which is not always possible on populated USB key.

It looks like that (hd32) is no longer needed, now the syntax is (0xff).

A part from that, it does boot OK but then I ran into the invalid opcode problem loading any DOS image ! Probably because the standard way use isolinux which loads memdisk, while the grubdos method as I presented use floppy emulation which works much better.

[tinybit]

I tend to think it is not so hard to defrag an image on the USB under Windows.
I think it is always possible if you could rebuild/reformat the USB drive.

(0xff) is better than (hd32) and others, especially when later in the boot precess the eltorito.sys inside DOS would gain control.

You may rebuild your Parted Magic ISO and by default you may employ grub4dos(grldr) to load/emulate/boot your images.

[wimb]

Some options e.g. UBCD FreeDos require to use the GRUB4DOS Menu since otherwise Invalid Opcode is the result.
Therefore it is better to boot directly with the GRUB4DOS Menu
by using configfile option in GRUB4DOS menu.lst
Best results are obtained with

menu.lst

title Boot ubcd50b12.iso - GRUB4DOS Menu

find --set-root  /ubcd50b12.iso

map --mem /ubcd50b12.iso (hd32)

map --hook

root (hd32)

configfile /ubcd/menus/grub4dos/main.lst

This works quite well

[ktp]

@wimb
I tried your method but it takes so long to boot (more then 15 minutes), I have to stop the boot process. The BIOS supports only USB 1.x speed at boot, so it could be due to the 256 MB-size of the iso?

I tried the mix of your method and tinybit's one and got excellent result : boot instantly (few seconds) with grub4dos menu.lst displayed, and no invalid opcode (best of both world) :

title Boot ubcd50b12.iso - GRUB4DOS Menu

find --set-root  /ubcd50b12.iso

map /ubcd50b12.iso (0xff)

map --hook

root (0xff)

configfile /ubcd/menus/grub4dos/main.lst

[wimb]

I tried the mix of your method and tinybit's one and got excellent result : boot instantly (rew seconds) with grub4dos menu.lst displayed, and no invalid opcode (best of both world)

Great, nice to hear it is working so well for you this way

I hope tinybit will add your Entry for UBCD5 to menu.lst

At the same time I will change hd32 in 0xff in BOOT_ISO.exe
and remove the --mem when Installing on Removable drive, which gives for you the improvement.

Copy to RAM by using --mem is not necessary when booting from USB-stick, and is giving for USB 1.1 the long boottime.

However, when Installing ubcd50b12.iso as boot option on your Harddisk using BOOT_ISO.exe , then booting will be very fast, allthough --mem option is used.
For booting from Harddisk the --mem option is desired since otherwise you are NOT free to make changes on Harddisk with several options of UBCD5 I presume.

[Icecube]

@ tinybit

map /pmagic.iso

won't work. Parted Magic looks for the file "pmagic-<version_number>.iso".
e.g.: pmagic-3.7.iso

Why is (0xff) better than (hd32)?

I have one feature request (another one ):
Would (or is it already possible) to NOT load a iso to memory, but to access the files inside iso from a non-contiguous ISO file?
This would be useful for booting linux based ISO's, that only need the kernel and initrd from the ISO (not the other files on the ISO).

title SomeISO

find --set-root  /some.iso

map --not-continuous /some.iso (0xff)

map --hook

root (0xff)

kernel /bzImage some parameters

initrd /initrd

boot

So you can't boot the ISO directly by chainloading it's boot sector, but you can access the needed files.

This avoids slow --mem booting.

Are you planning to stop after grub4dos 0.4.4 comes out?
Will grub4dos still be developed afterwards?

@ all
UBCD50b13 will have the raw parameter added to memdisk.

Maybe Parted Magic will look for the UBCD iso, when pmagic-<version_number>.iso isn't found. I need to conversate with Patrick first.

[tinybit]

@ tinybit

map /pmagic.iso

won't work. Parted Magic looks for the file "pmagic-<version_number>.iso".
e.g.: pmagic-3.7.iso

What a pity! at this moment grub4dos does not support wild cards like "?" or "*". I hope the PMAGIC.ISO would work.

Why is (0xff) better than (hd32)?

Eh, that is a long story that we are not likely to be able to put it clearly here. Some (bad!!) BIOSes place a shammed cdrom at the BIOS drive 0xFF. The eltorito.sys will fail on those MOBOs, because eltorito.sys will find the cdrom from 0xFF downward to 0x80. In that case, eltorito.sys will find the cdrom 0xff, but when it tries to access its sectors, it will get nothing. So eltorito.sys will think of that there is no cdrom available, and thus fail to find the real cdrom. And that is what the manufacturers really want to do, I guess, possibly because they are bribed.

Not only eltorito.sys will encounter this problem. Some other programs will also trap into it unluckily. There are reports on this kind of failure, but I cannot remember them clearly, sorry.

If we place our virtual cdrom at 0xff, then we will overwrite the BIOS shammed cdrom, and then the eltorito.sys and other programs will no longer trap into it and will always succeed.

I have one feature request (another one ):
Would (or is it already possible) to NOT load a iso to memory, but to access the files inside iso from a non-contiguous ISO file?

not possible at this moment. try grub2 please.

Are you planning to stop after grub4dos 0.4.4 comes out?

yes.

Will grub4dos still be developed afterwards?

Bean will continue to be the maintainer. If you apply to join in, I agree.

[mr_]

So it seems that I did implement the grub4dos menu for nothing .

I wouldn't say that. You've proven that grub4dos can be a full replacement for syslinux and helped the development with dozens of tests. Now and in future the grub4dos menu will be always a nice reference and maybe at some point the preferred default loader.

Are you planning to stop after grub4dos 0.4.4 comes out?

yes.

Will you focus on developing grub2 after that?

Do you plan to backport grub4dos's features to grub2?

[tinybit]

@mr_

Thank you for your concern.

My body needs maintenance. I need a rest. I need some time to rehabilitation. Sorry.

And I will not do any work on grub2, sorry again. Instead, I might start another project based on ELKS hopefully after I would have got well.

[tinybit]

I hope tinybit will add your Entry for UBCD5 to menu.lst

Sorry. This usage will not appear in the sample menu.lst file. And version numbers like 50b12 will be also stripped out from the sample menu.lst file. The users may add the version string themselves by hand, if needed.

[mr_]

@mr_

Thank you for your concern.

My body needs maintenance. I need a rest. I need some time to rehabilitation. Sorry.

Well, that's for sure much more important then grub4dos. I wouldn't create the final version first, your health must be the very first priority.

best wishes,
-mr

[Andy D]

=
UBCD50b12 with grub4dos support is doing well and all SubMenus can be reached.

Booting the ISO loaded from HD into memory using GRUB4DOS can be realised
by using BOOT_ISO.exe of U_XP_SET package to make the HD Boot Option in GRUB4DOS menu.lst
It works very fast and allows to Boot from your NTFS Harddisk in this way
with all kind of floppy images present in the UBCD50b12 ISO loaded into RAM memory.

=

=

I'm trying to understand how this works so excuse the newbie questions. I can use that Boot ISO to convert boot iso images that will work with Grub without a lot of hassle? Ideally I want something that will boot...

UBCD
Ubuntu
and Acronis True Image (and maybe some other things)

So far I got the first two working (UBCD 4.1.1) using a tutorial in a older CPU article. What I don't know is how to add an ISO to it that I can boot from.

[wimb]

BOOT_ISO.exe is NOT used to convert iso images,
but to Install iso images as extra boot option in Grub4dos menu.lst Menu on e.g your harddisk boot drive C:\ or on a bootable USB-stick or external USB Harddisk.

[Andy D]

hmm interesting. So theoretically I could add any bootable iso with little effort? Or am I underestimating the process time?

[wimb]

Yes, examples are given here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5041

and in the preconfigured menu.lst file in makebt folder of U_XP_SET package.
Read here: http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5306

There is nearly no processing time, it is Install at once creating extra boot option.

[was_jaclaz]

hmm interesting. So theoretically I could add any bootable iso with little effort? Or am I underestimating the process time?

NO, not "any", some.

ANY DOS based ones.
ONLY RAMDISK based NT/2K/XP/2003 ones.
ANY WIM based Vista/2008/7 ones.
SOME Linux based ones.

jaclaz

[Andy D]

Yes, examples are given here:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5041

and in the preconfigured menu.lst file in makebt folder of U_XP_SET package.
Read here: http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5306

There is nearly no processing time, it is Install at once creating extra boot option.

Nice. Would you know of a basic tutorial for grub? First time reading about it today but not sure how both interface with each other

And jaclaz - yeah I didn't expect all. I was thinking more in the lines of say adding Linux live cds or boot tools without the hassle of extracting the iso and messing with files. I spent a ton of time years ago trying to set up a ultimate dvd boot disk but it took too much effort to get everything workign properly

[wimb]

diddy has written a very good Grub4dos Guide
http://diddy.boot-la...os/Grub4dos.htm

[Andy D]

awesome - thanks for the help!

[was_jaclaz]

Would you know of a basic tutorial for grub?

diddy has written a very good Grub4dos Guide
http://diddy.boot-la...os/Grub4dos.htm

Which casually it's the topmost sticky in this same forum :
http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=66

Let's say we have seen (sometimes ) better questions.....



jaclaz