[ale] Failing GRUB

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2012-03-16 at 13:06 -0400, Cornelis van Dijk wrote:
> Thanks for the responses. Is anybody out there using GRUB2?

Absolutely!  I was finally able to build the kind of multiboot USB key
that I've wanted.  Tried doing it with extlinux and syslinux and grub
and what not.  Tried merging Unetbootin images and livecd-iso-to-disk
and runlive usb images into a common format, all failures.  Tried for
ages.  I'd get close and then add another entry and the whole mess would
be unbootable.  Played with Casper boot.  No joy.

Finally ran into some instructions up at pendrive.com on creating
multiboot keys from the command line in Linux using grub2 with some
examples.  That worked great for casper based live images like Ubuntu
and some direct images like tinycore.  That was a start.  Wouldn't work
for Fedora, though.

Found some instructions for Fedora on another site that included some
recommendations to use the startup files from the efi directory of the
runlive iso.  Wow...  That worked great with grub2 as well.  Added some
NST (Network Security Toolkit) stuff (custom and stock) and got that on
there.

Hmmm...  Had to get a bigger key...

I now have a pair of 64G USB keys (always, ALWAYS have a backup key).

Added some IBM stuff and a new cryptoboot setup for my laptop and was
able to lock down and reencrypt the boot partition on my laptop (now
must use the USB key to boot).

I now have 64G keys with the following...

Laptop Crypto Boot
CentOS 6.2 (3 variations of builds)
Fedora 15 RunLive Desktop
Fedora 16 RunLive Desktop
NST 2.13 (Fedora 13 based, customized, several configurations)
NST 2.15 (Fedora 15 based, stock from web, several configuration)
Parted Magic (had to start from a Unetbootin built image - PITA)
Ubuntu 11.10
BackTrack 5 (Forensic tools)
TinyCore Plus

Plus it can chainload to the harddrive of the system if I want.

All selectable through layers of menus and submenus.

It also has a common encrypted home partition common to the runlive
images.  I haven't added freedos or Minix to it yet.

Some of the images are casper boot.  Some are the efi stuff (Fedora and
CentOS).  Some are direct loaded images (Parted Magic) and some are
actual loopback iso images using the grub2 loopback feature (Tinycore
and Backtrack).

The keys are less than half full.

Yes.  I like grub2.  It brings together stuff I needed to make all that
work from one key.

> Cor

Regards,
Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 482 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20120316/b9e4e3d8/attachment.bin