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Can GRUB4DOS boot the ISO, directly?

Posted: Sat 19 May 2012, 00:44
by gcmartin
Using GRUB4DOS to boot a PUPPY ISO (without extractiing it)

I want to boot a Puppy ISO without extracting it to Live media.

Would you show me the way? (I know similar questions have been poised to this community, but the answers were sometimes missing for Puppy specific approaches. This is asking for a GRUB4DOS approach since its included in all PUPs)

My prep Questions
  • Does the filesystem that the ISO exist in have any impact on the ability of GRUB4DOS to boot the ISO?
  • Does the placement of the ISO on the drive have any impact? (i.e. “/

Posted: Sat 19 May 2012, 02:58
by runtt21
I am not an expert with grub4dos but it doesn't look like that can be done yet.

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/map.htm#hd32

http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm

Posted: Sat 19 May 2012, 06:14
by nooby
I trust runt is right. If the guys over at boot-land
have no example on booting Puppy iso then it
most likely can not be done without extracting out
the needed files like vmlinuz and initrd.gz to boot

I remember vaguely that one guy here at Murga puppy forum
did claim he had done it but I think he had these files somewhere
on the hd not realizing that the script looked for them and used them
and that made the illusion he had been able to just use the iso
without extracting anything. But sure I can be wrong.

Older ubuntus can use this code in grub4dos.


title LM12 LXDE 2012 frugal iso boot of LM12 LM12LXDE
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /linuxmint-12-lxde-cd-32bit.iso
kernel /LM12LXDE/casper/vmlinuz rw file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/linuxmint-12-lxde-cd-32bit.iso ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram kmap=se LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8 keymap=sv-latin1 noeject noprompt persistent --
initrd /LM12LXDE/casper/initrd.lz

But the new LM13 failed to boot using same code despite seetting it up
like that one. That one also need that I extract the casper and preseed directories so they are at root.

Posted: Mon 21 May 2012, 12:38
by ICPUG
It doesn't matter whether Grub4DOS or any other boot loader can boot from iso. Grub4DOS can in some cases, (as the Diddyland notes mention), and I once had grldr booting a Knoppix iso.

As I understand it the standard Puppy is not written in a way that CAN be booted from iso.

Posted: Mon 21 May 2012, 13:36
by nooby
I don't remember who/whom but one of the known developers
could have been Barry or MickO or Playdays or somebody else.
They confirmed this some months ago maybe a year ago.

So gcmartin if your good at using google you maybe find it.

I've would love to boot puppy iso but I have never been able to
although I've not given it many hours so who knows if one are
very clever then one may be able to but I trust that it is not built that way.

One most likely have to rewrite the script for that to be possible.

We had one guy claiming he had done it but he never got back and
showed us how he did it when I asked him for technical details on it.

He most likely realized he misunderstood something and had older
versions of puppy with vmlinuz and initrd.gz laying around and that
it only looked like he did what he thought to happen. I can be wrong
but I gave him the chance to help us understand how he did it and ...

So I trust it happens only when I can reproduce it after a step by step.

Why not ask Barry about it Friendly Smile Icon blinking :)