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I was looking for an easy way to manually save settings when booting from an iso-file in the hard disk with grub2, and load them the next boot; but maybe it would be easier to do a persistent boot that automatically restores the saved settings. The only info I have found talks about usb, complex tools or just ideas and plans but I haven't seen any solution. I guess this could be solved with a dedicated partition for the persistence or with a file in the same partition where the ISO files resides. I would prefer the last one because the idea of repartitioning a hard disk on a macbook with refit and dual boot doesn't thrill me.

...........

Note: Sadi's solution is not working for me (without the first line and the file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed parameter). Unfortunately, and according to other posts, there are many combinations possible: the casper-rw has to be on the root directory?, does it have to be in a vfat partition? the paramenters are persistent rw?, is a paramenter persistent-path needed?... and so on.

I can hardly believe there is not a single example that explains all this in a clear way.

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"when booting from an iso-file in the hard disk with grub2" I was unaware that you could do this. Could you edit your question to include more details about this? Thanks, and welcome to Ask Ubuntu! – Flimm Jan 29 at 19:54
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@flimm menuentry "Ubuntu Live 9.10 32bit" { loopback loop /boot/iso/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/boot/iso/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso noeject noprompt -- initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz } – Rinzwind Jan 29 at 20:04
@fimm: It runs much faster than the live cd and than virtualization (as far as the little I have tried virtualization). Today there is a lot of info about it and several details, depending on what linux distro you want to boot. So I will send you to google for "iso booting" >"hard disk/drive" etc. For a good start, try: help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot – Robert Vila Jan 29 at 21:14

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

  1. Your grub2 menu entry should be something like this:

    menuentry "Ubuntu iso" {
search --set -f "/ubuntu.iso"
loopback loop "/ubuntu.iso"
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz root=UUID=71C2-0118 iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso boot=casper file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed noprompt quiet persistent splash --
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

  2. To have the persistent option work, all you need is a persistent file named casper-rw (size depends on your needs) which can be produced (see: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-create-a-larger-casper-rw-loop-file/) or downloaded from internet (see: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/diskimg/).

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Than you Sadi, but that file, casper-rw, can be produced how? and placed where? It seems that the menu entry won't use its path, right? – Robert Vila Jan 29 at 20:49
I've added further info links regarding casper-rw file. The menu entry will just expect it to be at the same location as the iso file. – Sadi Jan 29 at 21:01
I don't have that /cdrom/preseed/ in my iso, I have /preseed/ with 3 seed files in in. Also, I don't use the search --set -f "/ubuntu.iso" line, is it necessary for this? – Robert Vila Jan 29 at 21:04
If you can successfully boot from iso, it's fine, you only need to add the persistent option there. Please also note that iso filename "ubuntu.iso" and UUID value "71C22-0118" are just examples. These menu entries can be a little different in each case. – Sadi Jan 29 at 21:09
Yes, I understand and am aware of the last two things you mentioned. I'll try to make an ext3 filesystem file named 'casper-rw' (I guess that is what is all about) and place it next to the iso file, in the same dir. Thank you. I won't be able to report because the cookies won't be here next time I boot and I am not subscribed. – Robert Vila Jan 29 at 21:22
up vote 0 down vote

After trying different combinations around Sadi's solution, the only thing that has worked for me is to place the ext2 file called casper-rw in a FAT partition (I haven't been able to boot if the file is not in the FAT partition) and the only parameter that I need to add to the menu entry in grub2's menu that already booted the iso-image is "persistent" (no reference to the FAT partition). The menu etry is like this:

`

menuentry 'ISO Booting - Ubuntu-64bit.iso live' { set isofile="/home/user/Desktop/ISO/Ubuntu-64bit.iso" loopback loop (hd0,3)$isofile linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile bootkbd=es console-setup/layoutcode=es persistent noprompt noeject -- initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz } `

The problem is that the the whole FAT partition that contains the casper-rw, ext2 file, becomes unaccesible; it can't be mounted because it's busy.

Any workarounds?

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