Roll Your Own Multiboot USB Flash Drive
Nov 16, 2009 Gadgets, Hacks, Information
How To Create Your Own Multiboot USB flash drive
For the longest time when I do computer repair house calls, I often depended on a satchel full of CD’s with my favorite tools on them.
Some of them being ERD Commander, Ultimate Windows Boot CD, Knoppix Live, Ubuntu Live, NTpassword, and so on. I hated to have all these cd’s with me at all times.
I often thought about how to accomplish this, but always got sidetracked.
Recently I made up my mind and said the ultimate goal was to have a bootable USB flash drive with a nice menu. I fiddle with this for at least two months with little to no headway, but alas I figured out how to do it and I would like to share it with all of you techies out there willing to read my blog.
I am going to teach you what I have learned throughout this process, and I’m sure you will feel technically empowered when this is all done.
Today you are going to build a USB Multiboot toolset complete with customized boot menu ready to launch many of your favorite tools.
Are you Ready? Good, lets get started!
Creation
First we are going to need a few tools to get started.
- USB flash drive
- grubinstgui
- grub4dos
- memdisk
- 7zip
Any USB flash drive should work. I first used a Kingston DataTraveler 4 GB. Then I later used a PNY 8 gig Flash Drive. Currently I am using this bad boy right here the Kingston DataTraveler 150 – 32 GB USB
Prepare the USB drive by formatting the drive fat32. You can do this in Windows Disk Manager
To get to Windows Disk Manager in windows right click on My Computer and choose Manage from the context menu.
Next look for disk management. In here you should see your USB flash drive. Select it and right click on it and choose format.
Next what you will need to do is run grubinst_gui.
Select the disk option and pick your USB drive. Be SURE to select the correct drive number.
If you’re not sure which drive is your USB drive check with Windows Disk Manager.
You should see your main hard drive as 0 and maybe your USB drive as 1, look carefully as this next step could erase your hard drive and I am not responsible for your laziness.
Read … Read… and Re-Read….
Once you are assured the correct drive is selected, go ahead and click Install.
No options need to be checked, the defaults are fine.
You will then need to copy the grldr file from the grub4dos package to the root of your USB drive. Also while you are at it copy memdisk to the root of the USB drive.
Finally finish off the install by creating a blank text file in the root of your USB drive called “menu.lst”.
Ok this USB flash drive is now bootable, so let’s move on to adding all our favorite tools and toss those cd’s.
For most of the distributions I added, I started off with an ISO version of it. I then extracted the ISOs using 7zip either to my desktop or directly to the root of the thumb drive (or you could just copy the files from a burnt version of the distro, just as long as you get the files to the root of your thumb drive).
Most Linux distros come with 2 folders: a boot folder and another folder that actually holds the meat and potatoes of the distro.
Since it would be impossible to have 6 or 7 different boot folders that don’t overlap on the same thumb drive (without multiple partitions…a route I tried to take for way too long before I realized the magic of grub) I simply renamed the boot folder to something like “bootbt3″ (backtrack3) or “bootknop” (knoppix) depending on the distro, and just left the other folder as is.
I did this at first and had lots of issues with some distros, then I read a little more about grub and realized I could boot the iso, so I will save you tons of time for some of the problem distros and show you how to boot the ISO.
Here is my menu.lst feel free to copy and tweak it. Download it here
splashimage /bgimage/yourimage.xpm.gz
color blue/black yellow/blue
timeout 120
title Hiren’s Boot CD ver 10
kernel /memdisk
initrd /HBCD/boot.gz
title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title BackTrack 4 Linux Penetration and Security
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bootbt4/vmlinuz persistent vga=0×317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
initrd=/bootbt4/initrd.gz
boot
title Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop
find –set-root /ubuntu904.iso
map /ubuntu904.iso (0xff)
map –hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu904.iso quiet splash locale=en.UTF-8 –
initrd /casper/initrd.gz
boot
title Puppy Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /puppy/vmlinuz root=/dev/rd/0 pmedia=usbflash
initrd /puppy/initrd.gz
title Gparted 0.4.5-2 Partition Editor
root (hd0,0)
kernel /gparted/vmlinuz1 live-media-path=/gparted bootfrom=/dev/sd boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=789 ip=frommedia
initrd /gparted/initrd1.img
title Ophcrack (Password Revealer, Resetter, Cracker)
kernel /bootoph/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal lang=C kmap=us screen=1024x768x16 autologin
initrd /bootoph/rootfs.gz
#this is for a space
title
kernal
initrd
title Restart The Computer
reboot
If you will notice in the menu.lst above, I didn’t use an ISO for every single one.
Not all distros boot well from ISO on a USB flash drive, so I had to extract some of them.
For Hiren’s boot CD I extracted the ISO with 7zip and copied the contents to the root of the USB flash drive as HBCD.
For the Ultimate Boot Cd for Windows you can see I booted the ISO. I just copied it to the root of the USB flash drive.
For Backtrack 4 beta I extracted it using 7zip and copied the bt4 folder to the root and also renamed the boot folder to bootbt4
For Ubuntu 9.4 you will see that I used the ISO
For Puppy Linux I extracted the ISO (this one was just for fun, its FAST!)
For Gparted I extracted the ISO to Gparted folder on the root of the USB flash drive.
For Ophcrack I extracted the contents to the folder called bootoph and I also put the tables folder on the root of the USB flash drive.
Here is what the Root of my USB Flash Drive looks like
>USBSTICK
|->bkgrimage
|->USBlogo.xpm.gz
|->bootbt4
|->bootoph
|->BT4
|->dban
|->gparted
|->HBCD
|->memtest
|->STORAGE
|->ntpasswd
|->puppy
|->tables
grldr
memdisk
menu.lst
UBCD.iso
ubuntu904.iso
ghost11.iso
ERD60_x86_WinVista_SP2.iso
ERD60_x64_WinVista_SP2.iso
Add what ever you wish to add to this USB flash drive. You can refer to my example and some of the grub manual for details on how to boot different distros.
Customizing
When it comes to customizing the USB menu with a splash image, its simply a matter of creating a 640×480 – 14 color splash screen image.
This is easy to accomplish with the Gimp. Gimp is like Microsoft Paint on Steroids for Linux users. Once you have the files on your USB flash drive you can boot into Ubuntu and use gimp from there. Just acquire yourself some sort of image and place it on the root of your USB flash drive. It needs to be a 640×480 image. You can crunch the colors in gimp by selecting Image, Mode, Indexed and entering 14 as the maximum colors.
Click Convert. Save this file as a XPM, then gzip it. To gzip it in Ubuntu right click the image and create archive. Choose .gz from the drop down beside the name of the file. Copy the gz to the root of your USB flash drive and prepend “splashimage /image.xpm.gz” to your menu.lst file. I inserted another USB Flash Drive in and copied it to that one whilst in Ubuntu.
If you dont want to mess with all that Download mine here
Further information on customizing the grub menu.lst file for your specific distros can be found in the grub manual.
Ok now that our files are in place, wouldn’t it be nice if you could mess with it for testing without having to reboot all the stinking time?
Well…there is an app for that….its VMWARE player and its free.
This way you can test your USB flash drive in a virtual environment without having to reboot your computer. That way you can continue to read my blog.
USB-TestVM -> http://userbytes.com/extra/USB-TestVM.zip
VMware Player direct download -> http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMware-Player-2.5.3-185404.exe
Tools I use:
- Backtrack 4 Beta (the backtrack login is root/toor
- Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
- Ophcrack
- Ubuntu 9.04
- NTpasswd
- MemTest86
- Hirens Boot CD
- Gparted Partion Manager
- ERD Commander Now a Microsoft Product
Some of these tools are downright dangerous in the wrong hands. It would be terrible if say you were an IT Specialist at ohh I dunno… a “college” and you forgot it in one of the computers one day, and a student got their hands on it and used it for malicious mischief. YIKES !!!
Well I have an idea for that as well.
A password can be added by obtaining a UNIX md5. This can be done from Grub by:
1. Booting up the drive and pressing “c” at the grub prompt (you can do this in the VMWARE player)
2. Typing in “md5crypt” then entering in your desired password
3. Copying the resultant md5 hash on paper, etc. ( write it down. If you cant read it because of your splash screen, comment out your splash screen entry with a # and try again)
4. Adding the line password –md5 *your md5 here* either after the preliminary lines (i.e. – after timeout, splash image, etc.) (This will require a password to make any changes to the menu.lst from the grub prompt) AND/OR after the title of a distro (This will require a password to boot the distro) Sometimes I have had to place it right before the word boot.
UPDATE -11-20-2009
I took the liberty of creating you one in case you didnt want to do all that. You will need to copy and paste the following in your menu.lst
$1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0
That is the md5 encryption for the password userbytes.com …..once again in case you missed it, the password is userbytes.com
You will want to place it at the end of your item to be booted so that it prompts you before the item is booted.
Like this:
title DBAN (Darriks Boot and Nuke, Disk wiper)
kernel /dban/memdisk
initrd /dban/dban.ima
password –md5 $1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0
And if you have one with “boot” in it, put it before the “boot” like this:
title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
password –md5 $1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0
boot
This way if someone discovers your USB swiss army knife, this will slow them down a great deal.
There are many benefits to having one of these. Not only can you rescue computers, but you could also us it as a means to get on the internet while you are on vacation. Just insert the usb flash drive in one of those computers that you use in the hotel business office, and reboot into Ubuntu or Puppy Linux. This way you can securely check your banking and leave no tracks.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
the memdisk link that u provide does not work could u send it to me at pimp_masterflex@hotmail.com or repost on site please.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I fixed it. I zipped it up and now it will download.
December 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Hey,
I love this tutorial but had one question:
I see you have Ghost11.iso on the root of your usb drive but I don’t see the menu.lst entry for it. Can you tell me how you would get grub to boot this particular iso. I originally tried the following with no luck..
title Ghost
find –set-root /Images/Ghost.iso
map /Images/Ghost.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
Any advice?
Thanks for your great tutorial!
December 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I have Ghost on my pc and I made the iso that you would normally make a cd with, there is an option for usb stick and iso, I had it save to a file and not burn directly. Then I added it to the menu like this:
title Norton Ghost 11
map (hd0,0)/ghost11.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
Hope that helps. Thanks for reading!
December 11th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Hello,
Thanks for your timely response. Not to sound too silly but when you say there is an option for usb stick and iso, are you referring to a specific tool?
I have ghost 11 on a cd and I used ultraiso to convert it to an iso.
I’ve been at this ghost thing for a while now and this is the closest I have gotten!!!!
Thanks.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am
No I have Symantec Ghost installed on my computer and within it there is a Ghost Boot Wizard. With that you can create a bootable USB stick, or Bootable CD. I chose to make a bootable cd but without the option to burn it when done. Instead I took the iso it created and tossed it onto the custom usb multiboot stick.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Thanks. Will give it a try!
December 17th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Hello,
I did what you said. I created the iso from ghost boot wizard. But still no luck.
I am using a HDD formatted with NTFS. I also tried with fat32. The problem I get is that it says:
Autodetect number of heads failed.Use default value 255
Autodetect sectors per track failed. Use default value 63
Error 12. Unrecognized device string..
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
December 17th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I created the iso from ghost boot wizard. But still no luck.
I am using a HDD formatted with NTFS. I also tried with fat32. The problem I get is that it says:
Autodetect number of heads failed.Use default value 255
Autodetect sectors per track failed. Use default value 63
Error 12. Unrecognized device string..
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
December 18th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Got it to work. Thanks guys!
December 18th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Thank you. As you stated, all too often am I needing more utilities to fix computers. I also like the idea that I can use the USB drive to keep my utilities and virus defs current with out the constant need for a stack of older CD/DVDs (coasters). I would also add, you should include Avira’s AntiVir Rescue System.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hi,
I see you are using the ISO for ERD Commander. How did you set the syntax in the menu.lst file for that?
Thanks!!
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Here is what I have for ERD Commander so far:
title ERD Commander for Windows XP
find –set-root –ignore-floppies /ERD50.iso
map /ERD50.iso (0xff)
map –hook
root (0xff)
chainloader /i386/setupldr.bin
It boots fine, but shorting after the WindowsXP splash, I get BSOD 7B error. Any ideas of what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks again!
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Mine is like this:
title Windows Vista/Win7 32bit Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset
map (hd0,0)/ERD60_x86_WinVista_SP2.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
I too get the 7b BSOD at times and this is because it doesn’t have the sata drivers for the machine. Sometimes you can go into the bios and enable legacy mode for hdds and it will not bsod.
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Thanks for the reply. Here’s what I get when using that one.
Booting ERD Commander for Windows Vista
map -hook
ERROR 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part which should lead the filename.
Thanks again!
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I got it to work! Here is what I had to use:
title ERD Commander for Windows Vista
find –set-root /ERD60.iso
map –mem /ERD60.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
Now I just have to find Vista SATA drivers!! LOL
Thanks again for all your help!
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 am
I’m having trouble getting ERD to work as well. I tried using
title ERD Commander
find –set-root /ERD60.iso
map –mem /ERD60.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
But it first came up with
find -set-root /ERD60.iso
Command not recognized
So I truncated that and now get:
Booting ERD Commander
map -hook
ERROR 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part which should lead the filename.
Any suggestions?
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:01 am
one last question…as a tech, what do you use Ubuntu for?
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
make sure you have the iso at the root of your usb as thats what your string is calling for it to be at.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
I have often used it to edit files on an NTFS drive, ftp files off a computer, etc. Its very handy
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Jake, I don’t know enough about Grub to really understand, but what I found yesterday is that it can be touch with case sensitivity. For example: ERD60.iso is the same as erd60.iso
You may want to check the case on your actual filename.
Now I have it loading okay, but my drives are SATA and I can’t get them to recognize any OS’s. So some programs in ERD will not work.
USERBYTES, when you load ERD60, does it see your OS? Can you use programs like Locksmith?
December 30th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Got it working for an ERD based on a Win 7 image. Going to have to go the RAMDISK route for ERD COmmander 2005, though.
At any rate, anyone found a reliable download for SATA drivers to incorporate into the ERD image? Boots fine and all but doesn’t detect an OS on SATA drives….
January 21st, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Hey trying to use this method to load up various symantec ghostcast os’s so that i can use the central ghost server to push out various images. The custom made iso’s load up on multiple key singularily just fine but when attempting various coding in the menu.lst it does not boot whatsoever. Is there anything in specific i should try?
January 21st, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Post your menu.lst
January 28th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
When I try my use my menu.lst file which contains the following with other entries:
________________
splashimage /bgimage/yourimage.xpm.gz
color blue/black yellow/blue
timeout 120
title Dban
map (hd0,0)/Dban.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title Restart The Computer
reboot
________________
I get the following error for all entries when selecting them from the menu. Note all .iso’s are on the root of the usb drive
Error:
Booting Dban
Map uhook
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part which should lead the filename.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
try this, and make sure the dban.iso is at the root of your usb stick
Here is an entry for an ima which is an image that you may can find on the net.
title DBAN
kernel /memdisk
initrd /dban.ima
Here is an iso version
title DBAN
map (hd0,0)/dban.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
Notice the two dashes before the word hook?
January 29th, 2010 at 3:32 am
Is it possible to use the above method to load win7 and/or xp installations from their ISOs?
Also, I tried booting Ubuntu 9.10 (ISO) via the method above (copying your bootstrings wholesale, only replacing filename in the process), no go too, got an “Error 15: File not found” msg.
The ubuntu iso is confirmed at the root of my usb stick and the filename is exactly same as used in strings.
Thanks much in advance!
January 29th, 2010 at 8:23 am
I gave that a try and get similar error. Do you know why in the error it is displaying a “u” in front of hook?
New error:
Booting Dban
Map u-hook
Error 11: Unrecognized device string, or you omitted the required DEVICE part which should lead the filename.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:51 am
What is the logic behind having memtest, ntpassword, and boot and nuke with their own menu entries as they are included in the UBCD and/or HBCD? Seems redundant and was wondering if I am missing something. Also is there a way of setting the path in the menu so you don’t have to have the same file on the root?
ex. Kernel /HBCD/memtest
February 6th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Hey Chip! The “logic” for me is I dont have to wait on the UBCD to boot. I can get right to them quickly. I guess you overthought it and missed that.
February 11th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
hi;
I’ve tried this in win7 32bit.
it boots i see reboot and the file menu.lst but not the boot options
in the file.
then it goes to a grub prompt.
this is on a 16gig drive.
any help you can give would be great.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:48 am
Hi,
Can you tell me what the string is for installation iso win 7 32-bit and win 7 64-bit?
thanks in advance!
February 27th, 2010 at 6:08 am
Just been looking at this and It’s brilliant, had some messing around to do though and I think maybe able to help the ubuntu issue.
I was trying with 9.10 as it has a brilliant disk checking utility but it wouldnt work at all as per the previous posts, missing files etc.
I extracted the contents of 9.10 iso and found the problem; initrd.gz needs to be changed to initrd.lz so to get 9.10 to work just use this (obviously making sure your iso name matches up etc)
title Ubuntu LiveCD
find –set-root /ubuntu.iso
map /ubuntu.iso (0xff)
map –hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso quiet splash –
initrd /casper/initrd.lz
boot
Also for those who want the full menu available from Hiren you can just use this
title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
Found that this command pretty much works with quite a few iso’s so testing what else I can put on, eg Acronis, Windows Installers etc..thanks for this!!!
February 27th, 2010 at 6:09 am
whoops I mean….
title Hiren 10.2
map (hd0,0)/Hiren.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
February 27th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Hi all! Thanks I think this a brilliant topic. I am bit of newbee on this. Anyways I tried the bit of Ubuntu 9.10, but I get after the “map” command : Error 60: File for drive emulation must be in one contiguous disk area. What does this mean and how do I fix ? I have the iso file in the root of the usb drive. Had same thing with other iso’s.
February 28th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Ok I manage to fix this one. See http://partedmagic.com/documentation/124-grub4dos-iso-booting.html
It refers to two utils Contig (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx)
and WinContig (http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/en/)
never knew you can defrag iso files…..
March 1st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
DD read this–>
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-multiboot-usb/
U need desfragment ur ISOs
bye
March 1st, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Hi, I need run Win 7 and Win XP installer, my conf is this –>
title Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x86
find –set-root /7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_es-es_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_ES_DVD.iso
map /7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_es-es_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_ES_DVD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 Corporate
find –set-root /Microsoft-Windows-XP-Professional-SP3-Corporate.iso
map /WindowsXPSP3.iso (hd32)
map –hook
root (hd32)
chainloader (hd32)
no foud, show a ERROR on Win 7 and Ble screen on Win XP
HELPME!!!
Thanz
March 1st, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I have another one: Does anyone knows if it possible to boot an iso of Win XP in this way off usb? I have tried, few times, and the process starts, but after some time I always get a fatal error showing “big blue screen of death”……
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:54 am
would love to be able to get Backtrack4 working but constantly get initrframs – busybox prompt that does nothing – any ideas?
March 15th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
This is excellent, thank you! I have a suggestion for a tool you may want to add. It’s called BootIt NG (terabyteunlimited.com) and it does many of the same things as GPartEd plus it has disk/partition imaging capabilities similar to Ghost. It’s particularly useful for setting up a multi-boot system (*especially* if you need more than 4 primary partitions!) I copied the ISO over and added it to my menu.lst using the ISO syntax (as with your UBCD menu entry) and it works great. For Linux systems, GPartEd is a better choice for editing partitions, but for Windows systems, BING rocks.
March 21st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
What determines whether a “root” specification is placed within some distro listings?
What determines whether a “boot” instruction is placed at the bottom some distro listings?
What does the line “color blue/black yellow/blue” do?
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Can someone please answer the question regarding booting a Windows XP Install iso from grub. I currently have arrived at much the same problem as JoHa with a blue screen error after all drivers are loaded but before the options screen is shown. Current Menu.lst looks like this:
title Windows xp
map (hd0,0)/winxp.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
The Blue screen error is 0x07b. This iso worked perfectly when I burned it on a disk, so it shouldn’t be a problem there. The only thing I can imagine is that Setup attempts to read the cd, or that the drivers aren’t being loaded properly (copied to wrong place) Any help is very appreciated.
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:03 pm
usually 7b refers to sata drivers not installed.
April 19th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Guys! Help out with the windows problem please!
I want to use this usb to boot multiple windows installs (xp/7).
I’m having various problems. Can someone please explain it?
April 20th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
It should be map –hook and map –mem.
you’ll get errors with you use just one -.
April 24th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Hi. I appreciate your instructions as I decided today to lose the cd case, or at least bench it. I managed to get everything I wanted to boot and run properly except for UBCD4Win.
UBCD4Win boots, and makes it all the way to the Windows XP loading screen and then I get a BOSD. I am going to continue playing with it this weekend and see what I can come up with, but any advice would be great.
April 29th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
does any1 know the command to put in menu.lst to boot from hard disk???????????
May 8th, 2010 at 5:18 am
###%%%###################%%%############$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$#########
Here’s how to do it.
title Windows 7 32-bit
map (hd0,0)/Win7_32Home.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
Happy?
No spaces allowed in the iso name.
The title can be changed of course.
###%%%###################%%%############$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$#########
May 19th, 2010 at 3:25 am
[...] References http://www.userbytes.com/roll-your-own-multiboot-usb-flash-drive/ [...]
June 12th, 2010 at 8:55 am
I am having trouble getting backtrack to work. I am using the full release of BT4. Since I don’t have any conflicting folder names I left boot as boot, and capser as casper.
I added the following to my menu.lst
“”"
title BackTrack 4 Linux Penetration and Security
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz persistent vga=0×317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
boot
“”"”
When I go from the boot menu I get the following.
“”"
Booting BackTrack 4 Linux Penetration and Security
Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0x0B
{Linux-bzimage, setup=0×3000, size=0x4760d0}
{Linux-initrd @ 0x1f6b7000, 0x828d95 bytes}
Loading, please wait…
sd 3:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 3:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
– Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
– Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT /dev/ram0 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
BusyBox v1.10.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.10.2-1ubuntu7) built in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs) _
“”"”"
Can anyone point me in the right direction here? Not sure why the ramdrive isn’t mounting. Is it in my grub menu.lst, or do I need to modify something in the BT4 files?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
June 12th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Got it, All the references I was finding were using BT3, or BT4 Beta which looked like BT3
I was also wanting to put each distro on a seperate partition so that I could not have to rename the dir’s and have possibly more problems as a result of the path being different.
Below is the menu.lst statements that work!
title start BackTrack FrameBuffer (1024×768)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent rw quiet vga=0×317
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
title start BackTrack FrameBuffer (800×600)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent rw quiet vga=0×314
initrd /boot/initrd800.gz
title start BackTrack Forensics (no swap)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent rw vga=0×317
initrd /boot/initrdfr.gz
title start BackTrack in Safe Graphical Mode
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper xforcevesa rw quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
title start Persistent Live CD
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper persistent rw quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
title start BackTrack in Text Mode
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper nopersistent textonly rw quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
title start BackTrack Graphical Mode from RAM
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper toram nopersistent rw quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
title Memory Test
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
Good luck guys!
July 7th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Hi, I need help with the list
splashimage /zbackground.xpm.gz
color blue/black yellow/blue
timeout 120
title Partition Master v6.01 Server Edition
map (hd0,0)/PartitionMaster.v6.01.Server.Edition.iso (hd32)
map -–hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title MemTest x86 v.4.10
map (hd0,0)/memtestx867_mt410.iso
map –-hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title Acronis True Image Home 2010
map (hd0,0)/AcronisTrueImageHome2010_s_en.iso (hd32)
map –-hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD4WinBuilder.iso (hd32)
map -–hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
No luck. Always in all of them I get the Error 12 Unrecognized device string. The files are placed in the root of the USB stick and the file names are ok.
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:15 am
hi,
I’m having some trouble with the configuration of my grub on the disk. you see, when i boot up to the disk, grub goes directly to cmnd line interface. i’m using a diferent usb drive, mine’s a cruzer micro 4gb. here’s the menu.lst, tell me if you see anything funky please.
splashimage /bgimage/USBlogo.xpm.gz
color blue/black yellow/blue
timeout 120
title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot
title BackTrack 4 Linux Penetration and Security
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bootbt4/vmlinuz persistent vga=0×317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
initrd=/bootbt4/initrd.gz
boot
title Memtest86 (Memory Tester)
kernel /memtest/ISOLINUX/MEMTEST
title Ophcrack (Password Revealer, Resetter, Cracker)
kernel /bootoph/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal lang=C kmap=us screen=1024x768x16 autologin
initrd /bootoph/rootfs.gz
title
kernal
initrd
title Restart The Computer
reboot
THANK YOU
July 24th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
sry, my menu saved as menu.lst.txt
now i have a whole new problem
it says dev/ram0 doesn’t exist i’m not sure what this part of the code means.
October 4th, 2010 at 7:19 am
Thanks for this post, it works great!
Has anyone tried to get Slax 6.1.2 to work using this method? It seems to die during the boot process as it can’t find it’s own directory to load the core OS.
Please let me know if you’ve found a menu.lst setup that makes Slax work.
Thanks!
-Sid
November 12th, 2010 at 9:02 am
Hi,
Kindly need your advise for insert script for blacktrack 4R1 and unbuntu 8.
title BackTrack 4R1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /BT4/vmlinuz persistent vga=0×317 ramdisk_size=6666
initrd /BT4/initrd.gz
boot
title Ubuntu8
find –set-root /ubuntu8.iso
map /ubuntu8.iso (0xff)
map –hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu8.iso quiet splash –
initrd /
November 16th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Single most important post on the whole of the internet, best guide ever. TOTALLY AWESOME!
.
December 11th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Tried this with 5 of the above items, xp install, hirens, ubcd, puppy and gparted. All had some issues.
XP Install: After final install and modifying rdisk(1) to rdisk(0) in boot.ini I got it to boot form hd but the HD shows up as E: instead of C:
Hirens: Some of the stuff seems to work like memtest, only tried a few things but when going to the second menu and choosing grub4dos and then mini windows xp it gives a trap 00000006 exception loading windows
UBCD: I get the same Error 12, Autodetect heads failed etc that Vinny K got above, he says he got it to work but did not say how
Puppy: I get lupu-511.sfs not found, checked the dirctory and found lupu_511.sfs, renamed with dash instead of underline but same error
Gparted: Goes through a lot of the driver loading etc and ends with “This Debian Live image failed to load”
So, not a lot of luck here, any help appreciated, thanks.
December 14th, 2010 at 3:39 am
This is a great write up, thank you very much, now for anyone trying to get Backtrack 4 to work and getting the dreaded “ALERT /dev/ram0 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!” This is the configuration that worked for me:
title BackTrack 4
kernel /boot/vmlinuz BOOT=casper boot=casper persistent rw quiet vga=0×317
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
I hope it helps someone. Also it’s possible to use it with persistent changes, you just need to make an ext3 partition in the usb key and name “casper-rw”. Once again thank you very much for the the tutorial.
January 22nd, 2011 at 8:25 pm
what if i put:
hirens bbotcd 13 reload v4
win 7 64bit ultimate
win xp sp3
so how is the menu.lst look like??
thx in advance!
January 24th, 2011 at 6:01 am
There is a script to automate above said process. Have a look at this link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1518273 and this link https://sourceforge.net/projects/multibootusb/files/
February 13th, 2011 at 4:48 am
There are some typos in your password examples – you must use –md5 not -md5!!!
February 13th, 2011 at 4:49 am
use minus minus md5
(two minuses are coming out as one minus on this site!)
February 23rd, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Does anyone have a complete bootable USB GRUB. I am tire of getting around and can get it right.
Please let me know need it bad. I want to add multiple tools to troubleshoot my computers in my office.
March 18th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
You can also create a multiboot usb using a tool such as Xboot. You can see how to here: http://www.kimpl.com/?p=202
April 3rd, 2011 at 4:46 pm
I have formated my usb to 2 partitions first one with is fat 2 GB has the hiren cd on it, i want to add a title in the menu with win7 setup pointing to an iso image into the second partition.
here is my menu.lst
timeout 60
default 0
title Boot from Hard Drive
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
title ——————–
root
title Start Hiren’s BootCD
find –set-root /HBCD/boot.gz
map –mem /HBCD/boot.gz (fd0)
map –hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
map –floppies=1
boot
title Mini Windows Xp
find –set-root /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN
chainloader /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN
title Windows Win7 32bit
map (fd0,1)/WIn7.iso (fd0)
map –hook
chainloader (fd0)
boot
only the windows setup is not working, can you please tell me what to do
thanks
May 10th, 2011 at 11:02 am
how to change font color??
my hiren boot only in green font and black background??
can i change that??
May 29th, 2011 at 10:06 am
[...] Could I do something like this [...]
July 21st, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Hi,
I can not Get to work Booting Ultimate CD. I did what you told people to do. I downloaded the UBCD zip file and converted it to an ISO file. I copied the BSCD.iso file in to the root of the usb, but no luck. I got an error 13: invalid or unsupported executable format.
Thanks,
October 12th, 2011 at 6:44 am
Hi there fellas, I followed this guide and got my Multiboot USB flash drive working pretty well.
However, I had a problem with my ERDCommander2005.iso. It would start booting but bluescreen every time. I also had a problem with my ERD60 and DART_windows7 images booting successfully but never being able to recognise the windows installation on the fixed hard drive. This means the Locksmith and System Restore tools were useless (as some implied above).
I solved the problem with ERDCommander2005.iso BSOD by extracting the files with a utility called PeToUSB.exe and placing them in the root of the USB flash drive. To be exact, this places ‘Documents and Settings’, ‘minint’, ‘bootsect.bin’, ‘LICENCE.TXT’, ‘ntdetect.com’, ‘ntldr’, ‘WIN51′, ‘WIN51IS’, and ‘winbom.ini’ in the root of the USB flash drive. Now put into menu.lst:
title Boot Windows ERD Commander 2005
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr
The command comes from this link:
http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/boot.htm#mbr.
It describes it like this:
‘To directly chainload the NT loader file ntldr (installed on the first partition of the first hard disk) use this command’
This works perfectly to boot ERDCommander 2005. It also works on BartPE/WinPE images you have put together yourself. But this method only allows one ntldr-style system at a time on the USB drive, unless you want to invent some renaming or partitioning scheme for your stick.
I also got System Restore and Locksmith, etc tools working on ERD60 by doing much the same thing. Only this time, you don’t need PeToUSB.exe. Just extract all the files and folders from the ERD60.iso using isobuster, WINRAR or similar and copy straight to the root of the USB flash drive. IE. This places boot, EFI, sources and bootmgr on the root of the USB flash drive. Now put into menu.lst
title Boot msDART Windows 7 64bit
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr
Same deal as before. Grub chainloads, passing control to bootmgr which then boots into ERD60 environment. Same deal as before, only one such bootmgr-style system possible per flash drive, unless you invent some renaming/repartitioning scheme for your stick.
What you can do is put ERDCommander2005 and 1 version of ERD60 (eg. Vista 32bit) onto the same stick though. The ntldr and bootmgr systems don’t interfere with one another.
Hope this helps someone.
October 12th, 2011 at 6:54 am
Just to correct myself, with regard to putting the ERDCommander2005.iso files on the USB I said, “extract the files with a utility called PeToUSB.exe and place them in the root of the USB flash drive”.
That was not quite correct. First, you need to extract the files using winrar or isobuster or similar to a temp folder. Then you give this temp folder path in PeToUSB.exe where it says: “Source Path to Built WinPE/BartPE files”. Then click “Enable File Copy”. Untick “Enable Disk Format”, make sure your USB flash drive is set as the “Destination Drive” then click start.
It works trust me.