mbusb

multiboot usb mainly for distro hopping and easy installations, but contains lines to boot sysadmin tools too.

####List of supported OS(s):####

• Android

  • Android 4.4 RC2

• Linux

  • Arch Linux 2014.07.03
  • Fedora 20-1
  • GRML 2014.03
  • Kali Linux 1.0.7
  • Linux Mint 17 Quiana
  • Puppy Slacko 5.7
  • Tails liveCD 1.0.1

• Tools

  • SystemRescueCD x86 4.2.0
  • GParted Live 0.18.0-2
  • Clonezilla Live 20140331
  • Memtest86+ 5.01
  • DBAN 2.2.8

Description

This is a method to boot multiple OS(s) from a single usb drive without ever needing to write any CD or creating separate USB keys for each OS, all we need is a vFAT(FAT32) formatted USB drive.

Currently using grub2 as the bootloader, and booting the iso files with loopback.
x86_64 OSs will be hidden by default if the system does not support them.

Installation

First, the USB has to be made bootable, so After inserting USB, do

sudo fdisk -l

and note down the device id of the USB, in our case its /dev/sdb, and the partition is /dev/sdb1. Now, format the partition as vfat by typing

sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

(if there's no .vfat option, the dosfstools package is probably not installed.) mount the USB in /mnt/

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/

and make a directory called boot in /mnt

sudo mkdir /mnt/boot

Now to install the bootloader,i.e grub2, enter (be sure to write /dev/sdb as we're installing grub in the drive, not the partition)

sudo grub-install --no-floppy --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdb

Now you can unmount /mnt with

sudo umount /mnt

After that, mount the drive as a user, clone/download-as-zip this repo somewhere in your storage, and copy the files (after unzipping for the latter) over to the /boot/ folder of the USB. Replace the existing files if there are any conflicts (mostly themes).

The iso files go into /boot/iso/, and if the .iso comes in two versions separately (x86 and x86_64),they should be in their own subdirectory (e.g Linux Mint, Kali Linux etc..) check the /boot/iso/hierarchy.txt if you have any confusion about filenames or locations.

Now remove the USB and put it to good use. Use it just to run Live OS(s) or Install in computers, the possibilities are infinite.

Troubleshooting

Error while installing grub:

source_dir doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory

Find grub2 directory in /usr/lib and specify

grub-install --directory=/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdb