USB GRUB2 ISO installer

Preparation

  1. A bootable USB drive
  2. A Linux system or a Linux live CD
  3. Linux ISO image (netinst or businesscard)

Disk Partition and Formatting

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdx


Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-30871551, default 2048): 
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-30871551, default 30871551): 
Using default value 30871551
Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdd: 15.8 GB, 15806234624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1921 cylinders, total 30871552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3a42665b
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *        2048    30871551    15434752   83  Linux
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Install GRUB2 to USB drive

Replacing /dev/sdx with your actual USB device 

$ sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdx1
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/USB
$ sudo mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt/USB
$ sudo grub-install --force --no-floppy --root-directory=/mnt/USB /dev/sdx

Installation finished. No error reported.

Download ISO image

Download Debian ISO image from 台中縣教育局 or official 

$ cd /mnt/USB/
$ sudo mkdir img
Put the iso image in /mnt/USB/img

Configure GRUB2

Download initrd.gz and vmlinuz i386 amd64 

$ cd /mnt/USB/boot
$ sudo mkdir i386 amd64
$ cd amd64; ##or cd i386;
Put the initrd.gz and vmlinuz in /mnt/USB/boot/amd64 or /mnt/USB/boot/i386. 
$ sudo emacs /mnt/USB/boot/grub/grub.cfg

set timeout=10
set default=0
set isodir='/img'
menuentry "Install Kubuntu 12.10 amd64" {
 set isofile="/img/kubuntu-12.10-desktop-amd64.iso"
 loopback loop $isofile
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "Install Debian amd64 netinst" {
 loopback loop $isodir/debian-6.0.6-amd64-netinst.iso
 linux /boot/amd64/vmlinuz desktop=lxde --
 initrd /boot/amd64/initrd.gz
}
menuentry "Install Debian i386 netinst" {
 loopback loop $isodir/debian-6.0.6-i386-netinst.iso
 linux /boot/i386/vmlinuz desktop=lxde --
 initrd /boot/i386/initrd.gz
}
menuentry "Grub2 HDD" {
 set root=(hd1)
 chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Restart" {
 reboot
}
 
menuentry "Shut Down" {
 halt
}

$ cd ; sudo umount /mnt/USB

References

  1. Install GRUB2 on USB from Ubuntu Linux
  2. 使用 USB stick 來安裝 Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) rc1
  3. MultiBootUSB
  4. Automatic installation of Debian Squeeze from a USB flash drive