Boot ISO from Grub

[JonnyTech]

GRUB2 is able to directly boot ISO's and I use this feature often, but LinuxLite does not work.

Add the menu entry as shown:

Code:

menuentry "LinuxLite ISO" {
set isofile="/linux-lite-2.2-32bit.iso"
loopback loop (hd0,2)$isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=${isofile}
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.gz
}

The ISO boots but produces lines stating "Can't open /dev/sr0" and "/dev/sdb" then "(initramfs) unable to find a medium containing a live file system."

Looking for help on other forums, I found this topic that describes the problem accurately and gives a solution:

http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/node/197

I notice that I didn't include lupin-casper:
Description: Add support for loop-mount installations to casper
I am adding that package to the iso image and will test that....
That worked!

Can this fix be included to the LinuxLite ISO too please?

[gold_finger]

JonnyTech,

Thanks for pointing that out.

Never tried that before, so ran some tests and ran into same problem as you.  LL 2.2 ISO would not boot, presumably because lupin-casper is not present (according to your link).  Tested Linux Mint 17 Xfce and it booted from ISO just fine.

This might be something Jerry could add to next version's ISO file.  He'll be the one to decide that.  It's a handy feature to be able to boot directly from ISO on hard drive.  Honestly I was surprised at how well it worked -- much better performance-wise than booting from a DVD or USB stick.

[Valtam]

It's certainly something we can look at, thank you for the suggestion.

[JonnyTech]

Thanks for the follow-up guys, it will certainly make my life easier if this is implemented. Keep up the great work!

[gregrwm]

while we wait, i wonder if it might be possible to boot from harddisc using a trick i've used with *ubuntu alternate CDs:
after "Unable to find a medium containing a live file system", enter these commands (adjust "sdb1" and "boot" to suit):

mkdir            /drive
mount  /dev/sdb1 /drive
mv      /dev/sr0 /dev/sr0-
ln -s /drive/boot/linux-lite-2.2-32bit.iso /dev/sr0

but then, is there a way to tell initramfs to try again?

[LL-user]

Hi, dear Linux Lite Team & Community,

Has this issue been fixed in LL2.4?

Respectively has anyone mastered to actually boot the ISO directly? I'm running into an Authentication error loop which indicates the original error is gone. But it's still not working. I have tried tons of different Grub2 entries based on all kinds of other distros I got working. But no luck with LL.

If anyone has got a working Grub2 or sys/extlinux entry syntax, sharing would be highly appreciated