Table of Contents

Introduction

Using 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:

Open a terminal and type sudo su
Type fdisk -l (and note which device is your USB Drive)
Type fdisk /dev/sdx (replacing x with your actual usb device)
Type d (to delete the existing partition) (press d again to delete the next partition, etc.)
Type n (to create a new partition)
Type p (for primary partition)
Type 1 (to create the first partition)
Press Enter (to use the first cylinder)
Press Enter again (to use the default value as the last cylinder)
Type a (for active)
Type 1 (to mark the first partition active "bootable")
Type t (for partition type)
Type c (to use fat32 partition)
Type w (to write the changes and close fdisk)

Create a Fat32 Filesystem on the USB Flash Drive:

fdisk -l (check which device is the USB Flash drive)

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

Introduction

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
UFD formated in FAT32 with non spaced label

Install

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

gksu install-depot-multiboot.sh

Add images to the drive

Insert the UFD (better let it be automounted as the mount point should be /media/<label>)
Launch the software: Multisystem
Select the USB device to use and click Validate
drag and drop the images you want to add.