This page describes the process of creating a bootable USB key that has multiple ISO images on it. This is especially useful for conferences and testing. The ISOs are simply placed unaltered onto the USB stick and may be directly booted using grub's loopback support. Magic!
Issues
Grub says: /casper/vmlinuz: file not found after selecting entry.
- If you get this error, you should rename the grub entry to point at /casper/vmlinuz.efi
Requirements
1. Grub2 (version 1 does not support loopback mode)
2. USB stick (large enough to hold your *.iso files)
Automated Instructions
1. Copy the script below into a file
2. Ensure the file is executable (chmod +x <file>)
3. Insert a USB stick
NB: All data on your stick will be lost - if it's important back it up
4. Run it as root (sudo ./<file> <drive>)
#!/bin/sh if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then echo "This script must be run as root" 1>&2 exit 1 fi if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then echo "Usage: $0 <drive>" exit 1 fi DISK=$1 echo "Ensuring device is not mounted" for i in `ls -1 ${DISK}*`; do umount $i > /dev/null 2>&1 done echo "Erasing old partition information" dd if=/dev/zero of=${DISK} bs=1024 count=1024 > /dev/null 2>&1 SIZE=`fdisk -l $DISK | grep Disk | awk '{print $5}'` CYLINDERS=`echo $SIZE/255/63/512 | bc` echo "Creating partitions" echo ",,,*" | sfdisk -D -H 255 -S 63 -C ${CYLINDERS} ${DISK} > /dev/null 2>&1 echo "Formatting disk" mkfs.ext4 -L "MultiBoot" ${DISK}1 > /dev/null 2>&1 echo "Mounting device" if [ -b ${DISK}1 ]; then mount ${DISK}1 /mnt > /dev/null 2>&1 else echo "ERROR: Can't find ${DISK}1" exit fi ANSWER=0 while [ $ANSWER -lt 1 ] || [ $ANSWER -gt 3 ]; do echo "Is your machine an x86 or AMD64 one?" echo "1. i386 (32bit)" echo "2. amd64 (64bit)" echo "3. None (do not download any *.iso files)" echo -n "> " read ANSWER done mkdir /mnt/iso cd /mnt/iso if [ $ANSWER -eq 1 ]; then echo "Fetching i386 isos" wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.4-desktop-i386.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/jaunty/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/karmic/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-i386.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/maverick/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso elif [ $ANSWER -eq 2 ]; then echo "Fetching amd64 isos" wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/jaunty/ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/karmic/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/maverick/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-amd64.iso elif [ $ANSWER -eq 3 ]; then echo "Not downloading ISOs" else echo "ERROR: Unknown system type" exit fi echo "Writing rebuild script" cat <<-EOD >"/mnt/rebuild" #!/bin/sh here=\`dirname \$0\` case "\$here" in /*) ;; *) here="\`pwd\`/\$here" ;; esac for iso in \`cd \$here && ls -1 iso/*.iso\` do title=\`basename "\$iso" .iso\` file="/\$iso" cat <<-EOE >>"\$here/boot/grub/grub.cfg" menuentry "\$title" { loopback loop \$file linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=\$file noeject noprompt quiet splash -- initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz } EOE done EOD chmod +x /mnt/rebuild echo "Installing grub to device" sudo grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt ${DISK} > /dev/null 2>&1 if [ $ANSWER -ne 3 ]; then echo "Rebuilding grub.cfg" /mnt/rebuild fi echo "Unmounting" cd - > /dev/null 2>&1 sync;sync;umount /mnt
Manual Instructions
This is the detail step by step of how to make a multiple Ubuntu install USB stick.
- Prepare a blank usb stick. I have two, 4G and 8G any size should do.
- fdisk it and make a primary partition cover all the storage.
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdc: 4043 MB, 4043308544 bytes 125 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders Units = cylinders of 7750 * 512 = 3968000 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0002098b Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 1018 3944719 83 Linux
- sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 (I tried vfat and ext4, all ok)
- sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
- sudo grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdc
- sudo vi /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg and key-in following messages
menuentry "Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop i386" { loopback loop /iso/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/iso/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso noeject noprompt -- initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz }
- sudo mkdir /mnt/iso
- sudo cp ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso /mnt/iso/
- sudo sync;sync;umount /mnt
Then you can reboot and try it out. Enjoy!
Labeling your Stick
If you are using ext4 for your base filesystem you can label the filesystem so that it will always get mounted at the same place. This is handy if you are commonly adding and removing ISO images from the stick. Simply use e2label to label the stick and it will mount in the same place:
- sudo e2label /dev/sdc1 multi-iso
- eject and reinsert the stick
- df
[...] /dev/sdc1 3859224 2921048 742136 80% /media/multi-iso
Automatic Rebuild
NB: If you followed the 'Automated Instructions' above, this script is created for you - just run to update (sudo <USB_STICK_MNT_POINT>/rebuild).
If you are going to add and remove ISOs on a regular basis you can add the following script to the disk as rebuild:
#!/bin/bash here=`dirname $0` case "$here" in /*) ;; *) here="`pwd`/$here" ;; esac for iso in `cd $here && ls -1 iso/*.iso` do title=`basename "$iso" .iso` file="/$iso" cat - <<EOE menuentry "$title" { loopback loop $file linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$file noeject noprompt quiet splash -- initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz } EOE done >"$here/boot/grub/grub.cfg"
Then you can simply add and remove images from the USB stick iso directory and run:
- sudo /mnt/rebuild