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GRUB2 Live ISO Multiboot

https://github.com/thias/glim | http://glee.thias.es/GLIM

Overview

GLIM "[G]RUB2 [L]ive [I]SO [M]ultiboot" is a set of grub configuration files to turn USB memory stick containing GNU/Linux, *BSD and Windows ISO images into a neat device from which many different Live environments and Installation media can be used.

GLIM is a more basic but completely open source alternative to Ventoy. In fact, GLIM only provides basic GRUB scripts and GRUB configuations. Runtime binaries are simply copied from GRUB2 instance of the host.

Advantages over extracting files or using special Live USB creation tools :

  • A single USB memory can hold all Live environments (the limit is its size)
  • ISO images stay available to burn real CDs or DVDs
  • ISO images are quick to manipulate (vs. hundreds+ files)

Disadvantages :

  • There is no persistence overlay for distributions which normally support it
  • Setting up isn't as easy as a simple cat from the ISO image to a block device

As modern Linux ISOs often exceed the 4GB file size limit of FAT32, GLIM now supports a second partition using other filesystems supported by GRUB2, such as ext3/ext4, F2FS, NTFS or exFAT - but the distribution must also support booting from it, which isn't the case for many with NTFS (Ubuntu does, Fedora doesn't), F2FS (Ubuntu doesn't) and exFAT (Ubuntu doesn't, Fedora does). Ext4 is a safe bet for the second partition. Note: Writing to Ext4 on some flash drives can be extreamely slow, try adding -O ^has_journal,^uninit_bg,^ext_attr,^huge_file,^64bit when formatting.

Screenshots

Main Menu Ubuntu Submenu

Recent changes

  • GLIM now easily supports ISO files >4GB through the use of a second partition, although you can still use a single partition if you want.

  • The ISO folder has been moved from /boot/iso/ to just /iso/, so that it's easier to find, and also is in the same location whether you use one or two partitions. GLIM will search for '/iso' according to partitions order and use the first one found.

  • Glim now supports booting Windows (x64) 10+ Setup or Preinstall Environment from separate NTFS partitions.

  • Since vast majority of ISOs are uniquely named, only openbsd and calculate ISOs should be placed in their respective directories. The rest of the ISOs are expected to reside in /iso/.

Requirements / Layout

You need a USB memory stick (or external hard drive!) partitioned & formatted one of the following ways:

  1. A single partition formatted as FAT32 with the filesystem label GLIM. It doesn't matter if it uses MBR or GPT.

  2. Two partitions. The small first partition must be formatted as FAT32 with the filesystem label GLIM and recommended size of 32MB (actual GLIM size is only 12MB). The second partition should be formatted as Ext4 with the filesystem label GLIMISO. It's best if the USB stick uses MBR, but if it uses GPT (as GNOME's Disks utility does) then GRUB only supports installing for EFI (not BIOS) - unless you add a third BIOS Boot partition. GLIM needs the BIOS Boot partition to come after the other two partitions.

  3. Optionally you can add more paritions. For example:

  • Add generic partition for file transfers. It is recommended to format it as ExFAT.

  • Add LUKS/Ext4 parition to use with Linux LiveDVDs and Tails. To trick Tails to use this partition as Persistent storage:

    1. Name the LUKS container and the ext4 partition as "TailData"
    2. Change partitiontype to "Linux Reserved"
    3. Create folders: dont-ask-again, Persistent/Tor Browser owned by user 1000:1000
    4. Add /home/amnesia/Persistent source=Persistent to persistence.conf owned by user 115:122 Note: You might see a harmless warning regarding failed Persistent storage upgrade. It happens because Tails assumes the Tails image is directly on the USB drive when Persistent storage is available.

  • Add Windows Setup/PE paritions formated as NTFS and containing ISO content of your favorite Windows or LiveCD. You can also place autounattend.xml on those partitions if you want to allow customizations. Good starting point for create such customizations is here: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ Boot menu option will be added for each detected instance.

    Note: If you want to be able to mount one of the partitions on Android/Windows it is recommended to format it as FAT32 or ExFAT and place it as first prtition. To do that you need to toggle CHECK_ORDER variable in glim.sh during installation. Also it is recommended to mark the (GLIM/EFI) partition as "system" to hide it. Other partition might result in harmless warnings they are not supported by other OSs.

    Here is an example of a disk layout that covers all supported use cases:

Disk /dev/sda: 124GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name       Flags             Purpose
1      1049kB  64.4GB  64.4GB  exfat        GLIMXFAT   msftdata          [Generic file storage accesible on Linux/Windows/Andoird/MacOS]
3      64.4GB  98.8GB  34.4GB  ext4         GLIMISO                      [ISO storage and Generic Storage for Linux]
4      98.8GB  107GB   8594MB  luks+ext4    TailsData                    [Encrypted Persistent Storage for Tails]
5      107GB   116GB   8403MB  ntfs         GLIMWIN11  msftdata          [Windows 11 Setup]
6      116GB   124GB   8401MB  ntfs         GLIMWINPE  msftdata          [Windows PE (HBCD)]
2      124GB   124GB   33.6MB  fat16        GLIM       boot, hidden, esp [GLIM boot partition]

See the link below for details on how to create a BIOS Boot partition:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#GUID_Partition_Table_(GPT)_specific_instructions

But basically create an unformatted 1MB partition at the end of the disk, then change it's partition type to "BIOS Boot" (which has the GUID 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649). You can do this with GNOME's Disks utility, without resorting to the terminal!

Installation

Mount the GLIM partition (and the GLIMISO partition if present) on your USB memory stick (or external hard drive).

Then clone the git repository (or use Code > Download ZIP before unzipping it), and just run the script (as a normal user) : ./glim.sh

Once finished, you may change the filesystem label to anything you like. The script will have created an /iso/ folder, inside of which you will see a few empty folders for distributions with oddly named ISOs. The rest if ISOs can be placed directly in /iso/ folder.

The supported ISOs (in alphabetical order) are:

Any unpopulated/unsupported folder and unsupported ISOs will be ignored. To disable any ISO just move it to unsupported folder or add one or more charachters in the beginning of its filename.

Download the right ISO image(s) to the /iso/ or dedicated directory. If you require boot parameter tweaks, edit the appropriate boot/grub2/inc-*.cfg file.

Items order in the menu

Menu items for a distro are ordered by modification time of the iso files starting from the most recent ones. If some iso files have the same mtime, their menu items are ordered alphabetically.

Here is a generic idea how to keep it nicely ordered when you have multiple releases of some distro:

  • touch your release iso files with the release date
  • touch your point release iso files with the original release date plus a day per point. This is a way to ensure point releases never pop above the next release like Debian 10.13.0 (released 10 Sep 2022) would still be below Debian 11.0.0 (released 14 August 2021)
  • in case there are multiple flavours of some iso but the version is the same, touch all of them with the same date for the whole group to be ordered alphabetically

Sample ordered menu:

iso mtime
Debian Live 12.0.0 amd64 standard 10 June 2023
Debian Live 11.7.0 amd64 gnome 14 August 2021 + 7 days
Debian Live 11.7.0 amd64 kde 14 August 2021 + 7 days
Debian Live 11.7.0 amd64 standard 14 August 2021 + 7 days
Debian Live 11.0.0 amd64 gnome 14 August 2021
Debian Live 11.0.0 amd64 kde 14 August 2021
Debian Live 11.0.0 amd64 standard 14 August 2021
Debian Live 10.13.0 amd64 standard 6 July 2019 + 13 days
Debian Live 9.13.0 amd64 standard 17 June 2017 + 13 days

Special Cases

iPXE

The .iso files don't work when booting using EFI, you simply need to use .efi files instead.

LibreELEC

LibreELEC isn't provided as ISO images, nor is it able to find the KERNEL and SYSTEM files it needs anywhere else than at the root of a filesystem. But it's useful to enable booting the installer by just copying both files to the root of the USB memory stick. Live booting is also supported, and the first launch will create a 512MB file as /STORAGE.

Memtest86+

The .iso file doesn't work. Use either the .bin or the .efi depending on the boot mode used.

Ubuntu

Recent Ubuntu desktop iso images bundle multiple versions on the Nvidia driver. With that, the images are over 4GB, the FAT32 max file size. For example ubuntu-20.04.6-desktop-amd64.iso is 4.1GB, ubuntu-22.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso is 4.6GB. The driver is not required in a live system, it can be removed to make an image fit into 4GB. For example, with 22.04.2 image in the current dir:

mkdir slim
iso=ubuntu-22.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso

xorriso -indev "$iso" -outdev slim/"$iso" \
    -boot_image any replay -rm_r /pool/restricted/{l,n} --

Now you can copy slim/ubuntu-22.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso to your FAT32 formatted GLIM USB stick.

Some Ubuntu flavours also bundle the Nvidia driver (like Kubuntu), some don't (like Xubuntu). The same trick can be used with the former.

Testing

With KVM it should "just work". The /dev/sdx device should be configured as an IDE or SATA disk (for some reason, as USB disk didn't work for me on Fedora 17), that way you can easily and quickly test changes. Make sure you unmount the disk from the host OS before you start the KVM virtual machine that uses it. For UEFI testing, you'll need to use one of the /usr/share/edk2/ovmf/*.fd firmwares.

Troubleshooting

If you have any problem to boot, for instance stuck at the GRUB prompt before the menu, try re-installing. If you have other exotic GRUB errors, such as garbage text read instead of the configuration directives, try re-formatting your USB memory from scratch. I've seen weird things happen...

Contributing

If you find GLIM useful but the configuration of the OS you require is missing or simply outdated, please feel free to contribute! What you will need is to create a GitHub pull request which includes :

  • All changes properly and fully tested.
  • New entries added similarly to the existing ones :
    • In alphabetical order.
    • With all possible variants supported (i.e. not just the one spin you want).
  • An original icon of high quality, and a shrunk 24x24 png version. Using convert -size 24x24 -background 'rgba(0,0,0,0)' original.svg small.png may work.
  • An updated supported directories list in this README file.

Credits

All configuration files included are public domain. Do what you want with them. The invader logo was made by me, so unless the exact shape is covered by copyright somewhere, do what you want with it. The background is "Wallpaper grey" © 2008 payalnic (DeviantArt) The ascii.pf2 font comes from GRUB, which is GPLv3+ licensed. For more details as well as the source code, see http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

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