USB Multiboot Wingrub, messed up menu.lst

[pany03 0]

Hi,

I found this great guide by Markymoo on how to install wingrub on my USB. So... I made 4 partitions on my USB and installed Wingrub on hd0,0 , xubuntu 8.10 on hd0,1 and backtrack on hd0,2. Both installations are persistence installtions from pendrivelinux.

So i got wingrub working when i booted from my USB, but none of the linux installations boots.

Ive tried these two menu.lst :

timeout 30
color=white/blue

title Xubuntu
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,2)
hide (hd0,3)
unhide (hd0,1)
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1
makeactive
boot

title BackTrack
hide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,1)
hide (hd0,3)
unhide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader (hd0,2)+1
makeactive
boot

I got the messege "Boot error" on both partitions.

AND this one:

timeout 30
color=white/blue

title Xubuntu
root (hd0,1)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
initrd /casper/initrd.gz
boot

title BackTrack
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
boot

This time I got a bit further... It tried to boot both partiotions but failed at reading som files from the root, maybe because the last code is ment to be used for distros that are fully installed to the hd.

Am I not seeing the problem here? Is it an easy fix or should I just surrender to syslinux?

Thanx

/pany03

[jaclaz 1,293]

Well, you should try using some more modern techniques.

The thread by Markymoo:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

is very old, and grub4dos has changed a lot since, and as well distros.

Take your time around here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

If you cannot find yourself a suitable solution, post detailing WHAT you wish to achive (as opposed on HOW you want to achieve it ), I am sure you will get all the needed help....

jaclaz

[pany03 0]

Thanks, Ill check it out.

/pany03

Edited March 19, 2009 by pany03

[pany03 0]

Woho I got Xubuntu working with this code:

title Xubuntu
root (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1
boot

Only backtrack left now.

Tanks alot for the link!

[jaclaz 1,293]

Check this:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5434

jaclaz

[pany03 0]

Finally Bactrack is working... Thanks for your help jaclaz.

Ive added a few more things to my USB and I wanna see how much I can fit in there.

Anyway here is the code:

timeout 30
color=white/blue

title Xubuntu
root (hd0,1)
chainloader (hd0,1)+1
boot

title BackTrack
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw 
autoexec=xconf;kdm APPEND vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

title NTpassword
root (hd0,3)
kernel /NTpasswd/vmlinuz rw vga=1 initrd=/NTpasswd/initrd.cgz /NTpasswd/scsi.cgz
initrd /NTpasswd/initrd.cgz

title BOOT and NUKE
root (hd0,3)
kernel /memdisk
initrd /dban.img

title Memtest86
root (hd0,3)
kernel /memdisk
initrd /memtestp.img

title SystemRescueCD
root (hd0,3)
kernel /rescuecd initrd=initram.igz video=ofonly vga=0 scandelay=5
initrd /initram.igz

Now Im off to try Windows PE 2.0 and OPHCrack.

/Pany03

[jaclaz 1,293]

Just FYI, the entry:

title NTpassword
root (hd0,3)
kernel /NTpasswd/vmlinuz rw vga=1 initrd=/NTpasswd/initrd.cgz /NTpasswd/scsi.cgz
initrd /NTpasswd/initrd.cgz

is WRONG .

ONLY initrd.cgz will be loaded, thus if you try it on a SCSI machine it won't work.

Read these:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=5433

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=19643

Then, FORGET about them , newish releases of grub4dos do support multiple initrd's.

A correct entry is listed here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...6119&st=118

jaclaz

[darrylhadfield 0]

I, too, saw Markymoo's instructions - and went down that path.

Didn't work.

Here's my desired end result:

I want to be able to have a USB key that will boot to a multi-boot prompt with a custom splash screen.

I'd have the option to boot to a simple DOS command prompt, and have data storage - on the first partition. I figure this is the 'smart' way of doing it, since Windows only sees the first partition.

There'd be two other options, too - the second would be WinPE (or BartPE), with the Safeboot plugin - since corporately, my organization uses that and we've had issues with Safeboot corrupting.

The third option from the bootloader menu would be a persistent-storage linux distro, likely Fedora.

I figure on a 4gb stick, I can get 2gb for data storage, half a gig for WinPE, and the balance for the persistent Linux.

I'd like to be able to add more partitions, too, down the road.. I want to understand this process, not just be spoon-fed.

I couldn't get SPFdisk working - I ended up getting the latest gParted, to partition the USB stick. That was a little tricky (I'm building this using my 'work' notebook, and an old Dell Dimension 2400 tower system for testing that gParted didn't want to load nicely on at first), but I've got that running now. Based on my reading this evening, FAT16 isn't really necessary - I should be able to get away with FAT32. I used gParted to make the three partitions FAT32, used a Win98 bootable CD to format the first partition, and then used WinGrub to build a menu with three items - "Data", "WinPE", and "Linux".

My MENU.LST looks like:

timeout 30

title Data

root (hd0,0)

chainloader +1

title WinPE

root (hd0,1)

title Linux

root (hd0,2)

Right now, my issue is that I can't get the grub loader working. When I boot, I get:

Try (hd0,0): extended or non-MS: skip

Try (hd0,1): FAT32: No GRLDR

Try (hd0,2): FAT32: No GRLDR

Where am I going wrong?

D.

[jaclaz 1,293]

Where am I going wrong?

Basically, missing to read the present thread.

Quick resume:

• the thread by Markimoo is rather old
  
• there are new versions of grub4dos
  
• there are new methods to install grldr (or actually NOT installing it)
  
• there is a dedicated Forum with tens of threads delving deeper on the usage of grub4dos
  
• there is a new Guide for grub4dos
  

In other words:

Well, you should try using some more modern techniques.

The thread by Markymoo:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

Take your time around here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

If you cannot find yourself a suitable solution, post detailing WHAT you wish to achive (as opposed on HOW you want to achieve it ), I am sure you will get all the needed help....

jaclaz

[bobcov 0]

Where am I going wrong?

Basically, missing to read the present thread.

Quick resume:

• the thread by Markimoo is rather old
  
• there are new versions of grub4dos
  
• there are new methods to install grldr (or actually NOT installing it)
  
• there is a dedicated Forum with tens of threads delving deeper on the usage of grub4dos
  
• there is a new Guide for grub4dos
  

In other words:

Well, you should try using some more modern techniques.

The thread by Markymoo:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

Take your time around here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

If you cannot find yourself a suitable solution, post detailing WHAT you wish to achive (as opposed on HOW you want to achieve it ), I am sure you will get all the needed help....

jaclaz

People are sooooo snooty. The time it took to write all of the above is probably more than the time it took to give the answer.