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Various ways to have multiple bootable Linuxes on a USB stick.

Update - See /tag/liveusb-software: Ventoy works.

See also:

• Making a USB stick bootable

• Linux distribution booting from a USB drive which has a Windows-viewable partition

• TODO - try Super Grub2 Disk
• TODO - try https://www.lakora.us/multicd/
• MultiBootUSB
• UNetbootin
• untested: https://web.archive.org/*/www.menoyot.com/center/linuxmultibootusb.html
• https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Multiboot_USB_drive [ 1 ]

• https://web.archive.org/web/20220515144412/https://winusb.net/

failed: MultiSystem ∞

http://liveusb.info/ (.fre)

• http://liveusb.info/multisystem/multisystem.tar.bz2

• See also https://www.pendrivelinux.com/multiboot-create-a-multiboot-usb-from-linux/

I had to hack the script to comment-out the if [ ! "$SUDO_USER" ] line. That's Ubuntu-specific.

dir=/tmp/multisystem/multisystem
\mkdir -p $dir
\mv * $dir
\cd $dir
\su
./install.sh

argh, it's too Ubuntu-specific, and won't work for me. Fuck it.

failed: Via GRUB2 ∞

(GRUB)

props: https://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-via-grub2-using-linux/

usb=/dev/sde
dir=/media/MULTIBOOT
\fdisk $usb << EOF
d
n
p
1


a
1
w
EOF
# Requires dosfstools
\mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n MULTIBOOT $usb
\mkdir $dir
\mount ${usb}1 $dir

# This didn't work for me, for 0.97 :
\grub-install --force --no-floppy --root-directory=$dir $usb

# This didn't either:
\grub-install --no-floppy --root-directory=$dir $usb

# \wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/multibootlinux/grub.cfg
echo "
set timeout=10
set default=0

menuentry "Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop ISO" {
 loopback loop /ubuntu.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso noeject noprompt splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

menuentry "Linux Mint 10 Gnome ISO" {
 loopback loop /linuxmint10.iso
 linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/mint.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz iso-scan/filename=/linuxmint10.iso noeject noprompt splash --
 initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

menuentry "DBAN ISO" {
 loopback loop /dban.iso
 linux (loop)/DBAN.BZI nuke="dwipe" iso-scan/filename=/dban.iso silent --
} 

menuentry "Tinycore ISO" {
 loopback loop /tinycore.iso
 linux (loop)/boot/bzImage --
 initrd (loop)/boot/tinycore.gz
}

menuentry "Memtest 86+" {
 linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}

menuentry "SystemRescueCd" {
 loopback loop /systemrescuecd.iso
 linux (loop)/isolinux/rescuecd isoloop=/systemrescuecd.iso setkmap=us docache dostartx
 initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz
}
" > $dir/boot/grub/grub.cfg

\wget  -c "releases.ubuntu.com/10.10/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso"  -O ubuntu.iso

Or rename your existing ISO to ubuntu.iso and copy it to the USB device

\wget  -c "ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/10/linuxmint-10-gnome-cd-i386.iso" -O linuxmint10.iso

Or rename your existing ISO to linuxmint10.iso and copy it to the USB device

\wget  -c "downloads.sourceforge.net/project/dban/dban/dban-2.2.6/dban-2.2.6_i586.iso?r=&ts=1292340298&use_mirror=surfnet"  -O dban.iso

Or rename your existing ISO to dban.iso and copy it to the USB device

\wget  -c "distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/release/tinycore-current.iso"  -O tinycore.iso

Or rename your exisitng ISO to tinycore.iso and copy it to your USB device

\wget  memtest.org/download/4.10/memtest86+-4.10.zip
\unzip  memtest86+-4.10.zip
\cp  memtest86+-4.10.bin  memtest86+.bin

Adding an Unlisted ISO: To try ISO Files that are not yet listed, use the existing menuentry examples in /boot/grub/grub.cfg and append any options normally found in the distributions syslinux.cfg file on the "append" line to the "linux" line of the menu entry.

Last updated 2022-11-05 at 07:24:42

Footnotes