15 replies to this topic

[laddanator]

I downloaded a neat little (U)EFI boot manager called refind http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ and it has Grub2 as one of the boot options and for the life of me, can't figure out how to boot a non-linux iso with the loopback command. I have read a 100 things on how to boot a linux iso from Grub2 but nothing on a non-linux iso. I am using HDAT2 .ISO as my test ISO and I have this listed in my grub.cfg file. I downloaded the Iso version of refind and extracted it to my fat32 USB drive, so I am trying to do this from a USB drive and not a HDD.

 

 

menuentry "HDAT2" {
loopback loop /iso/hdat2.iso
set root=(loop)
chainloader (loop)

 

and I get an invalided file. Not sure if this is becasue of the (U)EFI secure boot machine I'm working with? 

[cdob]

how to boot a non-linux iso with the loopback command.

Loopback can NOT boot a iso image. It dosn't create a virtual CD drive.
The request is not possible in general.

A iso image is mounted and files can be read (e.g. kernel and initrd).

I doubt a DOS application at UEFI environment.

Here at grub4dos section, call grub4dos at BIOS mode:
linux16 /grub.exe

[laddanator]

Loopback can NOT boot a iso image. It dosn't create a virtual CD drive.
The request is not possible in general.

A iso image is mounted and files can be read (e.g. kernel and initrd).

I doubt a DOS application at UEFI environment.

Here at grub4dos section, call grub4dos at BIOS mode:
linux16 /grub.exe

 

Thanks, cdob. I usually use g4d for all my booting needs but this (U)EFI secure boot crap on Windows 8 had thrown a monkey wrench into things and as you know, g4d is not supported.

[paraglider]

Secure boot is not crap. What is crap is the Acer support for secure boot. Other manufacturers like Asus make it optional.

[Wonko the Sane]

Secure boot is not crap. What is crap is the Acer support for secure boot. Other manufacturers like Asus make it optional.

Good, let's not call it "crap".

 

Please, tick which of the following attributes you see fit for "Secure boot":

• rock safe (or uncrackable)
• needed (as in "I'm in dire needs of")
• useful (as in "I find the umbrella a very useful invention")
• smart (as antonym of "dumb")
• reliable (as in "increasing reliability over existing solutions")

If you failed to tick even a single attribute than the thingy is - to say the least - superfluous.

 

Wonko 

[laddanator]

Secure boot is not crap. What is crap is the Acer support for secure boot. Other manufacturers like Asus make it optional.

 

 

Asus did a great job (for now) of being able to turn of secure boot. Every Asus I have worked on, I just enable CSM in bios and secure boot is bypassed but like you said, Acer or in my experience, Acer Tablets, secure boot can't be "by passed" or "turned off" but my Win8PE SE x86 and x64 from a USB drive show up under secure boot and (U)EFI bios just fine and with the proper files in the EFI folder on root of my USB drive, I have no issue booting my PE stuff but I still miss my g4d, as it would boot my hard drive testing ISO and would be nice if need be to test a Windows 8 HDD with my favorite ISO that nothing will load under secure boot so that's why I have labeled secure boot as crap. I know the "purpose" of it and I get it (not really), just seems that it has almost made it impossible to do any repair work on Windows 8 machines as far as techs go. I'm sure it will not be long before g4d will work under secure boot, but it will be limited I assume as many of my ISO will not pass the digital signature secure boot looks for when trying to boot an item. 

[Agent47]

Secureboot is a disaster to the tech support people. Microsft simply try to emulate Apple by copying locked hardware. I bet you Win8 is only the first step. With next version of Windows we will probably get fully locked hardware which won't run anything other than Win 9. 

 

 Currently i am fighing with crashed Win8 laptops to enter in to safe mode or to do a system restore. Most of the time i give up and re install the OS. I can't believe Microsoft's failure to understand the resons why people still love Win XP.

[laddanator]

Secureboot is a disaster to the tech support people. Microsft simply try to emulate Apple by copying locked hardware. I bet you Win8 is only the first step. With next version of Windows we will probably get fully locked hardware which won't run anything other than Win 9. 

 

 Currently i am fighing with crashed Win8 laptops to enter in to safe mode or to do a system restore. Most of the time i give up and re install the OS. I can't believe Microsoft's failure to understand the resons why people still love Win XP.

 

These kinda things will put small mom and pop business like the one I work for out of business. If we can't boot to things to test hard drives, ram, among others, then we can't make it as a PC repair store.

[cyphersmith]

Asus did a great job (for now) of being able to turn of secure boot. Every Asus I have worked on, I just enable CSM in bios and secure boot is bypassed but like you said, Acer or in my experience, Acer Tablets, secure boot can't be "by passed" or "turned off" but my Win8PE SE x86 and x64 from a USB drive show up under secure boot and (U)EFI bios just fine and with the proper files in the EFI folder on root of my USB drive, I have no issue booting my PE stuff but I still miss my g4d, as it would boot my hard drive testing ISO and would be nice if need be to test a Windows 8 HDD with my favorite ISO that nothing will load under secure boot so that's why I have labeled secure boot as crap. I know the "purpose" of it and I get it (not really), just seems that it has almost made it impossible to do any repair work on Windows 8 machines as far as techs go. I'm sure it will not be long before g4d will work under secure boot, but it will be limited I assume as many of my ISO will not pass the digital signature secure boot looks for when trying to boot an item. 

I wouldn't personally expect that grub4dos will eventually work in UEFI, because grub4dos is a real-mode program.  For it to work under UEFI, it would probably have to include its own CSM.  The reason is that when UEFI exits, the system is not in real-mode, unless you have CSM enabled.  Now, CSM is just an EFI module, so this could probably be done.  But I doubt that it's very easy.  A better idea might be to modify Grub2 and put in some of the capabilities that grub4dos has.  Not going to get the CD/DVD emulation in the manner that grub4dos does, though, if this method is attempted.  A new method would have to be found, such as writing an EFI virtual optical disk.

[Wonko the Sane]

Just for the record :

http://www.msfn.org/...ost__p__1033518

 

More seriously , we are all probably doomed , the hope is for a re-vamp of burg:

http://www.911cd.net...ndpost&p=173405

 

Wonko

[Leandro Paulin]

I'm trying to boot a WinPE ISO using Grub2 in an UEFI computer and it's not working.

 

grub's configuration file:

menuentry "WinPE ISO" {
   set iso=/winpe.iso
   loopback loop ${iso}
   insmod chain
   chainloader (loop)/bootmgr.efi
}

the error is:

/EndEntire
file path: /ACPI(a0341d0,0)/PCI(0,15)/PCI(0,0)/MacAddr(00:0c:29:17:6d:6b,0)/File()
/File(bootmgr.efi)/EndEntire
error: cannot load image.

I've also tried chainloading bootmgr but the error is the same.

 

Does anyone knows how to boot an ISO (non-linux) in Grub2?

 

Thanks,

Leandro

[Sha0]

I'm trying to boot a WinPE ISO using Grub2 in an UEFI computer and it's not working.

You probably want to run BootMgFw.efi, not BootMgr.efi. Or, share the list of all *.EFI files inside the .ISO and hopefully someone will point out the correct program to try to load. Having said that, once the Microsoft (U)EFI program is loaded, GRUB2 will be gone and so I doubt that its loopback device will remain. Sorry!

[Leandro Paulin]

The .efi files that are inside the WinPE ISO are:

\bootmgr.efi
\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi
\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi

I've tried to chainload all.

bootmgr.efi and memtest.efi results in the same error "cannot load image". bootx64.efi doesn't show an error but also nothing happens.

[Sha0]

I've tried to chainload all.

bootmgr.efi and memtest.efi results in the same error "cannot load image". bootx64.efi doesn't show an error but also nothing happens.

Thanks for sharing that list!  Yes, bootx64.efi if the only one of those which is an actual (U)EFI program (ignore the misleading extensions).  Does nothing happen if you boot GRUB2 from inside a "real disc" (such as an .ISO attached to a VM)?  That is, where a "real disc" has both GRUB2 and this Microsoft program, without any loopback business?

[Leandro Paulin]

I've prepared an WinPE USB flash disk. The content is the same as the ISO.

Renamed \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi (WinPE) to \EFI\boot\bootx64_winpe.efi

Then I've copied the grub2's files to the flash drive (including \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi from GRUB2).

 

Grub2 is loaded and it's shown grub's menu. Using the following entries WinPE was correctly loaded from the USB Flash drive :

menuentry "WinPE USB" {
   terminal_output console
   insmod chain
   chainloader (hd0,msdos1)/EFI/Boot/bootx64_winpe.efi
}

After that, I've copied the WinPE ISO to the USB flash drive and added a menu entry:

menuentry "WinPE ISO" {
   terminal_output console
   set iso=/winpe.iso
   loopback loop ${iso}
   insmod chain
   chainloader (loop)/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
}

WinPe starts to boot but there is an error code 0xc0000428 (The digital signature for this file couldn’t be verified).

 

Now it's happening something...

when I've tested before, I was using grub's console and this is my first time working with grub. so I didn't noticed that after "chainloader (loop)/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi" it's necessary to use the boot command...

now using the menu or the console, I'm getting the same result (error) which is not good but is better than before.

 

Thanks,

 

[Sha0]

now using the menu or the console, I'm getting the same result (error) which is not good but is better than before.

I doubt that the GRUB2 loopback device is available to the Microsoft program, but I could be mistaken. If correct, that means the program will be incapable of finding itself or any other files in the .ISO.