Re: [Libreboot] Booting from usb/cd without grub graphics

[Marcel Maci]

Hello Bruno,
Thx a lot for taking time to answer my question. I read about that (i.e. using 
an existing system to install another one) today, but it seem's quite 
complicated (and I'm not a pro). Actually, I discovered that there's a much 
simpler way to do it:
Even if grub does not show up, it is active (which means you just don't see the 
entries). So when the system boots up you just press the down key of your 
keyboard (which is also active) until the system get's to a halt (which means 
that you are in the grub menu). From there you can directly select from the 
standard entries:
- u: to boot from usb
- d: to boot from cd rom
The problem then is that your installer will start in a low resolution vga-mode 
(from what I understand) and you still won't see anything on the screen. But if 
you know your distribution, you can blindly tap your way through the first 
steps (in Trisquel it's just language selection and choosing if you want to run 
live cd or install the system) until you finally get to the graphical installer 
(and from there on it's no problem).
I tried it with the CD today (and I suppose that USB should also work).
Thx + greetings,
Marcel

On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 15:24:44 -0400
Bruno Dantas <address@hidden> wrote:

> > I have two more questions:
> > 1) since grub doesn't show up - how can I boot from usb / cd?
> 
> Marcel,
> 
> Details greatly depend on the distro. Assuming you already have a distro 
> installed on your machine, I think this could be your general strategy:
> 
> 1. On a machine where you can see the grub menu, tinker with a custom entry 
> in /boot/grub/grub.cfg until you can successfully boot your usb
> 
> 2. On your libreboot machine, put that working custom entry in 
> /boot/grub/grub.cfg and make it grub's default (either by making it the first 
> menuentry or by editing /etc/default/grub as appropriate)
> 
> 3. Reboot your libreboot machine and it should boot your usb
> 
> 4. After you are done in the usb and before rebooting, mount the partition 
> containing your installed distro and edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg so that your 
> installed distro is once again the default
> 
> This worked for me for debian 8.5:
> 
> menuentry 'Debian usb' {
>   linux (usb0)/live/vmlinuz boot=live
>   initrd (usb0)/live/initrd.img
> }
> 
> Configuration for booting some other distros from usb can be found here:
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multiboot_USB_drive
> 
> -----------------------------
> 
> By the way, you don't even have to put the distro on a usb. Just having the 
> iso on your hard drive is good enough. This works for me:
> 
> menuentry 'Debian iso' {
>   set isofile='/home/bruno/Downloads/debian-live-8.3.0-amd64-mate-desktop.iso'
>   loopback loop $isofile
>   linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live config fromiso=/dev/sda4/$isofile
>   initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
> }
> 
> Configurations for booting some other distros from iso can be found here:
> http://www.howtogeek.com/196933/how-to-boot-linux-iso-images-directly-from-your-hard-drive/
> http://git.marmotte.net/git/glim/tree/grub2
> 


-- 
Marcel Maci
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079 772 50 30
address@hidden
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