MultiBootUSB

2016-04-27
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MultiBootUSB logo

Booting multiple distributions from a USB stick >

was multibootusb.org

A tool for booting multiple distributions from a USB stick. Duh.

Very easy to use. Works under Windows. Does not work under Linux.



Table of Contents [hide]

2017-10-03 - 8.8.0 ∞

Testing with:

  1. Debian-live-9.1.0-i386-cinnamon.iso
  2. (I symlinked debian and gave that entry 500 MB persistence)
  3. Devuan_jessie_1.0.0_i386_DVD
  4. Lubuntu-17.04-desktop-i386.iso
  5. SystemRescueCD-x86-5.1.0

  6. boot-repair 2014-11-30

I formatted it as NTFS, then used MultiBootUSB in the usual manner. I did not do anything specific with syslinux. It worked out of the box.

2017-09-25 - 8.8.0 ∞

Failed under Linux.

Testing with:

  1. Debian-live-9.1.0-i386-cinnamon.iso
  2. (I symlinked debian and gave that entry 500 MB persistence)
  3. Devuan_jessie_1.0.0_i386_DVD
  4. Lubuntu-17.04-desktop-i386.iso
  5. SystemRescueCD-x86-5.1.0

  6. boot-repair 2014-11-30

  • Cannot move entries up or down, or edit their names.
  • My first failed. The drive was not bootable.
  • After rebooting, I see that the rive must be mounted for it to be interacted-with.

  • Trying the "Install Syslinux" tab:

    (o) Install syslinux and copy all required files

  • .. doesn't work.

Tried again, from scratch, after using cfdisk to nuke and re-create the partition (NTFS) (and flag it as bootable), then format it from Linux:

\mkfs.ntfs  /dev/sdx1

I can't do the syslinux thing:

(o) Install syslinux and copy all required files

.. clicking Install does nothing. There is no message, nothing..

I checked the console, and it gives this:

Executing ==> /root/.multibootusb/syslinux/bin/syslinux4 -i -d multibootusb /dev/sdc1

Mount is denied because the NTFS volume is already exclusively opened.
The volume may be already mounted, or another software may use it which
could be identified for example by the help of the 'fuser' command.
/root/.multibootusb/syslinux/bin/syslinux4: failed on mounting ntfs volume

suspending, unmounting then resuming multibootusb does not resolve this error.

multibootusb is forcing the usb stick to be open, so I exited multibootusb, and as root I manually did

usb=/dev/sdc1

\umount $usb
/root/.multibootusb/syslinux/bin/syslinux4 -i -d multibootusb $usb

I could boot into a menu, but none of my ISOs worked. At best I could boot into GRUB, press escape, then get another menu and almost use a distribution.. but syslinux was missing. What the fuck is going on?

I guess I should use this in Windows.

Installation ∞

\dpkg  --install
\apt-get  install  python3-pyqt5 python3-pyudev python3-six libqt5designer5 libqt5help5 libqt5test5 sip-py3api-11.1 libqt5clucene5 libqt5sql5 libqt5xml5

run with multibootusb

2016-04-26 - 7.5.0 ∞

very easy to use, but didn't work

Testing with:

--

  • For some reason one of my ISOs stayed "in use" even after it was completely copied to a USB stick. None of the other distributions I was working with had this happen.

  • Syslinux > Install Syslinux -- typo:

    • (o) Install only syslinux (existing configurations will not be altred.)
  • It didn't support Kwort - kwort-4.3.iso, and gave a message saying so before aborting, but it kept the file locked.

  • Do I use its syslinux tab?

    • I think no, because 'Edit syslinux.cfg' brings up a text file with stuff. So I guess it's already on my USB stick.
      - notepad can't handle it's line ending preference. Sigh.
  • Booting the stick with QEMU didn't work.
  • Removing and re-installing the stick didn't have the distributions appear any more. I reformatted the stick and did everything from scratch and I can't get the distributions to stay visible by MultiBootUSB. What the fuck.

  • I don't know what I did, but I did a bunch of things to start over from scratch and it eventually magically started to work as-expected.

Install only syslinux (existing configurations will not be altred).

--

  • Rebooting, it just booted to my hard drive.
  • Back in Windows, I run it again and it sees the USB stick as-expected, and the 'edit syslinux' feature shows good content. In fact, it shows the proper content with proper line endings in notepad!
  • Installing syslinux worked, however it splats the configuration file and now when removing and re-inserting the usb stick, MultiBootUSB doesn't think there are any distributions on it. Is there some fucking voodoo I should be using to get this working as-expected?
  • Redid everything from scratch, from formatting to putting just two distributions on.
  • QEMU boot from USB shows everything.

  • Syslinux > (o) Install only syslinux (existing configurations will not be altred).

    • [sic]

--

Rebooted. It does not boot from USB.

Why the fuck would every other USB stick boot just fine, and this MultiBootUSB USB stick not boot? Why does it boot via MultiBootUSB's QEMU?

misadventure - I'm giving up.

SystemRescueCD - 4.7.2 x86 ∞

  • SystemRescueCD seemed to work fine via a QEMU boot on the USB stick, but it takes a hell of a long time to boot.
  • It seemed to have frozen on the final info screen, but pressing control-c gave me a prompt.

  • startx did get me into a GUI, but QEMU doesn't show a mouse.

Lubuntu - 15.10-desktop i386 ∞

  • Used MultiBootUSB to add Lubuntu to the USB stick, which worked.

    • When preparing it, I was forced to use persistence. =(
  • Booted Lubuntu from the USB stick via QEMU

  • Very early on, I got a bunch of:

umount: can't umount /cdrom: Device or resource busy
/init: line 7: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found

.. but it recovered from these after a little while, and continued booting.

  • Oh good gods it ends up being so slow that updating text is slow. SystemRescueCD wasn't nearly this bad for displaying text.

Puppy ∞

TODO - try a real boot

  • Puppy Linux - both failed to boot from the ISO into QEMU, so I skipped installing these. It's very possible that it's just an issue with QEMU booting the USB stick.

    • Quirky Release by Barry - april64-7.2.iso
    • Tahrpup 6.0 CE - tahr64-6.0.5.iso

Last updated 2022-09-10 at 19:27:25

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