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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

MultiSystem preferred

More at https://jira.bluelightav.org/browse/BLUE-1882Using a UFD for booting a single bootable .iso image and re-writing it every time you want to boot something else is not efficient.  This page is about creating UFDs offering a choice of boot images.

We have used both Easy2Boot (a.k.a E2B) and MultiSystem (a.k.a LiveUSB MultiBoot) to create bootable UFDs .  Based on that experience, we are tending to prefer MultiSystem.

E2B - Easy2Boot

sources:

Pros:

  • Simple enough
  • Clear
  • Works with most iso's
  • Loads directly the iso

Cons:

  • Slower than other solutions

Prepare the drive

Format your USB Flash Drive to use a Single Partition (FAT32 type 0C - or if posible add a small 2nd partition too, to help bootability) using gparted - or do it the hard way using fdisk as follows:

...

umount /dev/sdx1                                            (to unmount the mounted partition if it is mounted)
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n MULTIBOOT /dev/sdx1  (to format the partition as fat32)
 
 

Download the necessary files

grub4dos: https://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list

Easy2boot (at the bottom of the page): http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/72---easyboot---a-grubdos-multiboot-drive-that-is-easy-to-maintain/e2bv1#TOC-Downloads

defragfs script: http://defragfs.sourceforge.net/

Install grub4dos & Easy2boot

  • Mount the partition you just formatted.
  • Uncompress the grub4dos archive.
  • Install grub4dos onto the USB Flash Drive:
 
Assuming that the bootlace.com executable is on /mnt/mysrc and the USB drive is sdx, use the following command to install grub4dos to the MBR with 0 seconds timeout
 
sudo /mnt/mysrc/bootlace.com --time-out=0  /dev/sdx             (note that we specify the whole disk sdx)

If you have formatted the drive as NTFS using gparted, you may need to add the --ntfs  parameter to the command line

  • Extract the Easy2Boot files from the E2B zip file and copy it onto the USB Flash drive
 
e.g.
unzip /mnt/mysrc/Easy2Boot_v1.10.zip -d /mnt/newusb/
 

Add iso to the USB stick

  • Copy all your linux livecd ISOs to the \_ISO\MAINMENU or \_ISO\LINUX folder using the GUI File Manager in linux. 
 
For other ISOs or for linux ISOs+Persistence, follow the instructions in the Easy2Boot tutorial.
 
 

Finalize the install

The iso files need to be contiguous or they will not be read properly.
 
 
df
sudo perl defragfs.pl /mnt/newusb/ -f

...

MultiSystem

 

Multisystem

Introduction

...

Introduction

(warning) The text below is old, in early draft and may not be thoroughly researched.  Maybe more at https://jira.bluelightav.org/browse/BLUE-1882

Website of the project: http://liveusb.info/dotclear

Pro:

Cons:

  • Does a lot of tricky things on your system,
  • Many iso will not work properly

Requirement

  • ubuntu 12.04 (only works on systems with apt-get)
  • xterm
  • usb stick UFD formated in FAT32 with non spaced label

Install

...

  1. Get the tarball.  Attachment: install-depot-multisystem.sh.tar.bz2.  Repository: rose:home/share/resources/software/Linux/install-depot-multisystem.sh.tar.bz2).
  2. Extract: tar -xjf install-depot-multisystem.sh.tar.bz2
  3. Run install-depot-multiboot.sh

...

Code Block
gksu install-depot-multiboot.sh

...

Add images to the drive
  • insert a usb stick Insert the UFD (better let it be automounted as the mount point should be /media/<label>)
  • Launch the software: Multisystem
  • select Select the USB device to use and click Validate
  • drag and drop the images you want to add.restart your system and select the distro you want to boot from.