almost 5 years later... but it seems here never to late to share findings :
as I had still a lot of trouble to find answers on this site or throughout the web to this rather simple above question/topic... especially as SystemRescueCD online manual isn't perfect... cf. http://www.sysresccd...eCd_on_harddisk
even if SystemRescueCD is a really great distro/tool/CD, which I highly recommend to anyone
I am a newbee in this field (ever worked only on Apple macs until a few weeks ago) so sorry for the possible amateurism here
context:
I was able to boot the iso from a Win7 initial multi-boot MBR/BCD built with the help of EasyBCD, with 4 primary partition on my HD: Win7, win8, the 2 others, in ext3 format, with various Linux distros under testing preferably booted just as ISOs from my Win7 initial boot:
in easyBCD, I had just built a 3rd entry "Linux' with its option "neogrub", allowing in fact just to implement in the Win7-MBR/BCD (the 2 areas are linked, Windows mixing and recopying these contents, but that's another story) ... a pointer to C:\NST\menu.lst in my Win7 partition:
C:\NST\ contains also, implemented auto by EasyBCD with the Neogrub option, the file C:\NST\NeoGrub.mbr which appears to be in fact just grub4dos as indicated on the 2nd boot screen (?) (which I understood is rather similar/identical to the 'grub legacy' as opposed to grub2 ?)
summary: hence I have this way 2 levels of booting:
1st level: Win7/Win8/Linux
2nd level (in selecting 'Linux'): the various grub entries which I implemented in editing the file menu.lst (see hereunder)
menu.lst
to implement/boot the content of the latest SystemRescueCD iso from a HD, without having to burn/use a CD, I tested 2 methods with success (...aftet a while of testing):
(1) the one indicated in the link above, in extracting/copying the files from the iso, and using their grub4dos boot code (see hereunder)
(2) in booting directly the .iso without extracting anything (better/easier), but no grub4dos solution given, only a grub2 more complex solution to implement (didn't test grub2 yet; seems rather more complicated to implement than my own solution here with grub4dos; however a 3rd level of booting with grub2 might be useful as SystemRescueCD offers various options in a grub2 boot screen -one can see it in burning and booting it with a CD-; but for that I should be able to boot grub2 with grub, etc. another story...)
(1) (with exctracted content from the iso... so not really booting the iso directly)
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# copy & launch content of SysResCD on a HD partition, solution given on SysResCD tutorial
# working example of booting with files extracted from iso; however requires moving some files
# the 2 key files (kernel, initrd) have to be recopied into the subdir
# besides here a 3rd key file sysrcd.dat must be identified (requires/solved hereunder with: subdir)
# only weak advantage vs booting directly iso is the mem upload or contiguous data need (error 60)
# pb of unstable booting (black screen sometimes) ???
# source: http://www.sysresccd...eCd_on_harddisk
title Gentoo Xfcd SystemRescueCd
find --set-root /sysrcd/rescue64
kernel /sysrcd/rescue64 subdir=sysrcd setkmap=fr dostartx
initrd /sysrcd/initram.igz
(2) (in just recopying the .iso file into a separate partition, in a file named 'sysrcd')
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# see http://reboot.pro/to...-with-grub4dos/
# issue with sysrcd.dat : required once kernel launched, but Linux can't get the file's path ?! above 'subdir' doesn't work
title Gentoo Xfcd SystemRescueCD
graphicsmode -1 1024 768 8:32
set iso1=/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-3.4.2.iso
set b1a=/isolinux/rescue64
set b1b=/isolinux/initram.igz
find --set-root --ignore-floppies %iso1%
map --mem %iso1% (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel %b1a% boot=/sysrcd iso-scan/filename=%iso1% isoloop=%iso1% setkmap=fr dostartx
# suppressed here at the end: quiet splash -- (n.b. on forums people wonder why these 2 --)
nota:
I played a bit with the coding above, in using variables, for learning/testing grub4dos (so no need to recopy these long iso file names), or graphics, etc; a good manual for grub4dos is here http://www.rmprepusb...orials/grub4dos (had a hard time findig it !)
if you want nice colors in your boot window with menu.lst just copy, on top of the page:
color normal=0x0c highlight=0x1e helptext=0x0D heading=0x0A standard=0x0b border=0x01
key point, more seriously: the idea for solving the big issue of the file sysrcd.dat, with 'isoloop' just came from reading the code given for grub2 in the above mentioned SystemRescueCD online manual (see above link); I was a bit desperate in trying various things here to boot this iso with grub4dos in staying simple... and was rather suprised to see this work (well, this is great... but so not too clear for me what is the added value of grub2 vs grub or grub4dos after all ? behind the hood, seems rather similar ? or maybe 'neogrub' is some kind of new species as its name indicates ? all that remains rather mysterious to me for the moment ... and for many others I have the feeling !)
other ideas also for (2) came from code given on this site for booting directly ISOs for other Linux distros, but I won't recopy them all here, the ones which worked for me with recent iso versions of various distros, it would be off-topic (and some are still under testing) (if I have time one day I'll post them somewhere else on the site if I see something useful/new)
that's all folks, it works !
