Use grub4dos as boot loader, load UBCD.ISO from USB disk

Post your suggestions here if there are new features or applications that you would like added to the Ultimate Boot CD.

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ilko
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:28 pm

Use grub4dos as boot loader, load UBCD.ISO from USB disk

#1 Post by ilko » Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:57 pm

First off- thanks for all the work in this project, great work!

Goal- build UBCD ISO with grub4dos GRLDR for loader.
This ISO can be placed on USB disk and booted directly from grub4dos:

Code: Select all

title UBCD 4.11
find --set-root  /ubcd411.iso
map /ubcd411.iso (hd32)
map --hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)
Convert syslinux menus to grub4dos ones. Most of them were tested and working.
Here is the post with details:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.p ... st&p=38234

You can find attached all menus converted to grub4dos ones. Further tests needed.

Grub4dos can be easily installed on the USB disk, or started by chainloading GRLDR from almost any other boot loader- NTLDR, SYSLINUX, LILO, GNU GRUB as well as started from DOS.

Later on, returning from DOS program to main menu, without reboot in many cases is possible, by executing grub.exe, as long as a driver doesn't interfere.

No need of separate syslinux/isolinux menus and files.

Do you think it's worth switching the main releases to grub4dos? What would be disadvantages?

Suggestion- do not use directory BOOT and IMAGES, rename it to something unique to UBCD :- )
In case of multiboot, when ISO emulation is not used, it becomes tricky to have more stuff on the CD/USB. And directories BOOT/IMAGES are among the most often used.

BTW after a recent request, PartedMagic now can be booted from grub4dos directly by loading it's ISO:
http://partedmagic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=151

Hopefully more and more distros will become bootable in this convenient way, will UBCD be among them? :roll:

Victor Chew
Posts: 1368
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm
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#2 Post by Victor Chew » Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:10 am

This is an interesting idea. I will KIV it for evaluation in a future release, since I am too tied up right now in V5.0.
Suggestion- do not use directory BOOT and IMAGES, rename it to something unique to UBCD :- )
In V5.0, UBCD will be isolated to its own subdirectory. Check out the beta release.

ilko
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:28 pm

#3 Post by ilko » Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:54 pm

Donwloaded the beta version, going to look at it.

A question- when loading floppy images via syslinux memdisk, what does the kernel parameter 'ubcdcmd=' do?

hdd2.cfg:
LABEL fujitsu
MENU LABEL Diagnostic Tool V6.90 (Fujitsu)
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=/images/dosubcd.igz ubcdcmd=fujitsu
LABEL samsung
MENU LABEL SHDIAG V1.25 (Samsung)
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=/images/dosubcd.igz ubcdcmd=samsung

Icecube
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Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm
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#4 Post by Icecube » Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:00 pm

e.g.: ubcdcmd=samsung
When the freedos image is booted up, startup.bat from the /ubcd/dosapps/samsung/ folder will be executed.

Icecube
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Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm
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#5 Post by Icecube » Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:31 pm

The freedos image (dosubcd.igz) gets this parameter from memdisk by the program getargs.com.
http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~gmurali/ ... loads.html

If you want that you can use grub4dos floppy emulation for booting dosubcd.igz with a command line parameter, you have to write (or ask) a similar dos program for grub4dos, which is able to read out the command line parameters which are passed to the kernel command line.

If you can give us such a program, we can include it in the freedos image.

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