[SOLVED] Grub Artix Isoboot
Grub Artix Isoboot..
I hope that this is of use to someone..
Hi,
I've recently been "spring cleaning" my systems in preparation for the arrival of my new NAS..
As part of this, I've taken the opportunity to revamp my installation and live Linux media. By this I mean a dedicated 240GB SSD drive (in a USB caddy) and a 32GB USB flashdrive. These two are set up to boot from a choice of multiple Linux ISOs.
The SSD drive is strictly for my use.. whereas the flashdrive is used to demo various Linux live distros to friends etc.
I have managed to persuade a few people to "move over from the dark side".. and I don't mean BSD!
What I found was that I hadn't added any Artix ISOs to either drive.. Time to correct this omission!
For those who are new to isobooting and use Grub, here is a basic grub.cfg that can be used without needing to invoke any Grub tools.
All you need to do is to rename your existing grub.cfg as grub1.cfg and place the following in a new grub.cfg in the same location. The first entry in the new grub.cfg links to the (now renamed) original config file as shown below:
grub.cfg
menuentry "Main Artix" {
configfile /boot/grub/grub1.cfg
}
menuentry "Artix Xfce OpenRC ISO" {
iso_drv=(hd1,3)
iso_path="/iso/artix-xfce-openrc-20200506-x86_64.iso"
export iso_path
search --set=root --file "$iso_path"
probe -u $root --set=rootuuid
export rootuuid
loopback loop "$iso_drv$iso_path"
root=(loop)
configfile /boot/grub/loopback.cfg
loopback --delete loop
}
Procedure:
Rename your existing grub.cfg as grub1.cfg (standard location is /boot/grub/).
Place the new grub.cfg in /boot/grub .
User assigned variables for grub.cfg :
iso_drv : The drive and partition that contains your ISO files: The example here is the third partition on the second drive.
iso_path : The full path and filename of the required ISO. Here, my ISOs are stored in /iso and I'm using the openrc Xfce iso as an example.
Notes:
On my machines that have multiple installations or for use with external devices, I use a slightly non-standard Grub installation. I install Grub to the EFI partition (or create a small EFI partition).. This solves the problem of which is the "leading" Grub installation and reduces the need to specifically load Grub modules..
If you are going to use this method to install Artix to another partition or external device then I strongly recommend that you backup the contents of your EFI partition **before** you start.
The configfile that is initially used from within the ISO is "loopback.cfg". With Artix ISOs, this is just a link to the ISO grub.cfg .
If anyone would like further info on how I prepare a flashdrive/external HDD for multiple ISO use, then just ask here and I'll write something up..
Bodge99