Tool/ways to burn multiple bootable images to same usb stick

[smithi]

Any idea about whether you can use Ventoy to create a GPT rather than MBR device?

Why would it matter, what difference would it make?

Only if a machine you want to install to can't boot from an MBR-based USB stick, which would be unusual, but I guess some Windows UEFI / Secureboot may go there?

For older machines I expect that many may not boot from a GPT stick at all, you'd have to test it, but there's no intrinsic advantage in GPT over MBR in this situation.

Just checked https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_disk_layout_gpt.html and it appears so but am unsure about how to create this if you simply dd the ISO to a disk...

That page looks sound, as all the Ventoy docs do, so you could certainly try that on another stick.

But either way, once you've chosen what type of FS to use for the main partition - the default exFAT makes most sense, and is easily installed on Freebsd - you still need to copy (cp(1)) your installation .ISO or .img files to the main partition; you do NOT use dd.

It looks like there are options when you use the Windows installation app.

Or Linux, as per that page.

Whether this may help with your original problem is something else. You say 13.1 didn't work, so try 13.2, then 12.4 ...

Good luck!

 

[Al Seitsinger]

This can also be accomplished with just the base system.

1. Partitioning:

/sbin/gpart destroy -F /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart create -s GPT /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart bootcode -p /boot/pmbr /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-boot -l boot /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart bootcode -b /boot/gptboot -i 1 /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l top /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l usr_local /dev/da0
/sbin/gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l var /dev/da0

2. Writing:

/bin/dd if=<path-to-top-img> of=/dev/ufs/top bs=8m conv=sync,noerror
/bin/dd if=<path-to-usr_local-img> of=/dev/ufs/usr_local bs=8m conv=sync,noerror
/bin/dd if=<path-to-var-img> of=/dev/ufs/var bs=8m conv=sync,noerror

---

Also, the memstick images that are offered for each release are supposed to be written directly onto the USB device.

/bin/dd if=/path/to/release.img of=/dev/da0 bs=8m conv=sync,noerror

---

It's also worth mentioning that using MBR instead of GPT affords you the ability to toggle the active slice/partition. Combining this with multiple versions of each partition allows you to have an active version and an inactive (perhaps unused because stale) version of the geom.

 

[smithi]

This can also be accomplished with just the base system.

If by 'this' you mean the topic subject, yes, and your howto looks good.

However balanga hopes to use Ventoy, which handles any number of installation images, .ISO or .img (etc), to allow selection from a menu to install from there.

You may need to read the whole thread, including a couple of others linked, to see the relevance to trying Ventoy for his very specific problem with 32bit UEFI.

1. Partitioning

I needn't repeat your method, which looks fine for purpose, but not relevant re Ventoy.

[Also, the memstick images that are offered for each release are supposed to be written directly onto the USB device.

/bin/dd if=/path/to/release.img of=/dev/da0 bs=8m conv=sync,noerror

In the case of Ventoy, you'll copy (cp) the .img file to the Ventoy main partition, to let it handle installation using a Linux boot and Ventoy code.

It's also worth mentioning that using MBR instead of GPT affords you the ability to toggle the active slice/partition. Combining this with multiple versions of each partition allows you to have an active version and an inactive (perhaps unused because stale) version of the geom.

Again, very true for FreeBSD-based installations. You can even use boot0cfg to offer function key selection of which of 4 slices to boot.

 

[balanga]

Why would it matter, what difference would it make?

Only if a machine you want to install to can't boot from an MBR-based USB stick, which would be unusual, but I guess some Windows UEFI / Secureboot may go there?

For older machines I expect that many may not boot from a GPT stick at all, you'd have to test it, but there's no intrinsic advantage in GPT over MBR in this situation.



That page looks sound, as all the Ventoy docs do, so you could certainly try that on another stick.

But either way, once you've chosen what type of FS to use for the main partition - the default exFAT makes most sense, and is easily installed on Freebsd - you still need to copy (cp(1)) your installation .ISO or .img files to the main partition; you do NOT use dd.



Or Linux, as per that page.

Whether this may help with your original problem is something else. You say 13.1 didn't work, so try 13.2, then 12.4 ...

Good luck!

I'm very new to Ventoy and am only just now experimenting with it to see what I can do with it. Ideally I would like to have a multiboot disk for both installing and being able to boot multiple operating systems. I thought I would be able to use GPT to create numerous boot partitions and use Ventoy for starting an installation from ISO with the target being a separate partition on the same device, but can't find any way of doing that.

I don't yet know if I can copy an existing installation to Ventoy and simply use Ventoy to start it.

Not sure how well I have explained what I'd like to do.

I do have a Grub based multiboot disk from which I can launch various OSes but have difficulties getting the Grub menu entries correct for various Linux systems.

 

[Alain De Vos]

I use Devuan-grub as bootloader
Currently it allows me to boot Window11-Devuan(linux)-Gentoo(linux)-FreeBSD13.2
The only thing i needed was a few lines in /etc/grub/40_custom for freebsd.

 

[Al Seitsinger]

https://www.ventoy.net/

Perhaps I'm not familiar enough, but I can't figure out why an image wouldn't be bootable and would require special software to make it possible. Doesn't this information reside in the partitioning table?

 

[Alain De Vos]

I remember using a software to make a bootable USB-stick from a Windows DVD iso.
The software allowed during boot of the stick to understand the Windows-parition & Windows-file-system & to load the programs in memory from the stick.
I used "Rufus" or something similar.
This link explains a bit the freebsd solution for booting,

The FreeBSD Boot Process - Klara Systems

Understand the FreeBSD boot process, including differences between UEFI and legacy BIOS, GPT and MBR partitioning, and filesystem options like ZFS and UFS.

klarasystems.com

I use linux-grub as this seems to be the most flexible and allows to boot different OS's.
Grub has an "OS" prober to detect alot.

 

[GoNeFast_01]

GLIM

Alain De Vos you have something like this ? Can you do a posting about the setup... Seems like a good option.

I found the above googling how to make GRUB in USB + MULTI ISO.

 

[balanga]

GSLIM

I see no mention of FreeBSD. Can it be used?

 

[rsronin]

Installing GRUB on an hybrid BIOS/UEFI stick

Played with this before, it works. Played with it when tired and late at night, nuked my FreeBSD partition.

 

[GoNeFast_01]

I see no mention of FreeBSD. Can it be used?

Yes it seems....

GLIM

Similar to the rsronin link its essentially same flow/tasks....

You install/build the GRUB2 into the USB stick and after you edit the grub menu + add the ISO..... In GLIM seems like it does everything for you including the USB gpart partition config.

I have not used neither options but seems like an interesting solution.

 

[Alain De Vos]

It's relative easy to do. But it's rather hard to explain in words or on a forum.
The easiest is install a linux distro on a free disk partition and then use update_grub & grub-mkconfig & grub_install & edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom.

 

[smithi]

Re: https://www.ventoy.net/

Perhaps I'm not familiar enough, but I can't figure out why an image wouldn't be bootable and would require special software to make it possible. Doesn't this information reside in the partitioning table?

Ventoy is one answer to the question in post #1 of this topic. Nothing more, nor less.

Documentation is thorough and well written; check it out.

Plenty of reasons why .ISO or .img files mightn't boot on certain platforms, e.g. balanga's issue with 32-bit UEFI and FreeBSD 13. Or .ISOs meant to burn to CDs like my X200 BIOS update, which is why I used Ventoy.

 

[balanga]

It's relative easy to do. But it's rather hard to explain in words or on a forum.
The easiest is install a linux distro on a free disk partition and then use update_grub & grub-mkconfig & grub_install & edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom.

Can you give an example of /etc/grub.d/40_custom which would boot FreeBSD?

Are talking about a disk which already has a bootable FreeBSD partition and where you have created one or more empty partitions?

 

[balanga]

Re: https://www.ventoy.net/



Ventoy is one answer to the question in post #1 of this topic. Nothing more, nor less.

I've installed Ventoy and am pretty pleased with it, but wondered if would be possible to boot an ISO and install an OS on the same device in a separate partition and be able to boot from it by including it as an additional GRUB menu entry...

 

[smithi]

I've installed Ventoy and am pretty pleased with it, but wondered if would be possible to boot an ISO and install an OS on the same device in a separate partition

Possible? Possibly, depending on which OS you're talking about.

As Ventoy docs show, you can leave as much space as you like after the first (.ISO, .img etc data) partition and second (Ventoy system) partition.

Assuming you're using the default BIOS/MBR scheme, these partitions are slices 1 & 2, leaving 3 & 4 available.

These could be used as UFS for a FreeBSD installation if you allow enough space, or as e.g. fat32 to save data.

I've left 4GB free on mine.

Advisable? Probably not. I'd just install each OS onto its own other USB stick, they're cheap as chips these days.

and be able to boot from it by including it as an additional GRUB menu entry...

Ventoy does appear to use grub. I've no idea whether you can mess with it to do that.

Let us know after trying it; you've nothing to lose.

 

[balanga]

Possible? Possibly, depending on which OS you're talking about.

As Ventoy docs show, you can leave as much space as you like after the first (.ISO, .img etc data) partition and second (Ventoy system) partition.

Assuming you're using the default BIOS/MBR scheme, these partitions are slices 1 & 2, leaving 3 & 4 available.

These could be used as UFS for a FreeBSD installation if you allow enough space, or as e.g. fat32 to save data.

I've left 4GB free on mine.

Advisable? Probably not. I'd just install each OS onto its own other USB stick, they're cheap as chips these days.



Ventoy does appear to use grub. I've no idea whether you can mess with it to do that.

Let us know after trying it; you've nothing to lose.

I've specifically set up a GPT scheme so I can create as many partitions as I want.

After copying a Linux installation to gpt3 I'm hoping to try and boot from it but need to change the UUIDs in GRUB's menuentry as well the fstab entries.
This will probably take some time as I need to establish the correct values. Presumably I can get FreeBSD to provide the updated UUIDs and then use a sed script to change them.
That's the theory anyway.

I'd also like to try and add a FreeBSD installation. Do you know if Ventoy can handle UFS or ZFS filesystems?

 

[smithi]

I've specifically set up a GPT scheme so I can create as many partitions as I want.

As you prefer.

After copying a Linux installation to gpt3 I'm hoping to try and boot from it but need to change the UUIDs in GRUB's menuentry as well the fstab entries.
This will probably take some time as I need to establish the correct values. Presumably I can get FreeBSD to provide the updated UUIDs and then use a sed script to change them.
That's the theory anyway.

I have no experience with that; perfectly happy with BIOS, MBR and UFS. I hope to never run Linux again.

Good luck.

I'd also like to try and add a FreeBSD installation. Do you know if Ventoy can handle UFS or ZFS filesystems?

Ventoy handles installing from ISO, img etc files from the first partition, which is one of its listed filesystems; fat32, exfat, ext2-4 at least.

Ventoy lives in and boots from the second partition or slice which is 32MB EFI.

strings(1) finds 'ZFS' therein quite a few times but I've not explored the context.

'UFS' occurs but once; docs don't mention UFS support.

Other partitions you add are no concern of Ventoy's, they are just for 'own use'.

All this to save $20 for a couple of extra USB sticks?

Feed back what you learn.

 

[balanga]

As you prefer.


Feed back what you learn.

Looks like I've made good progress....After creating a new freebsd-ufs partition on the Ventoy USB disk, formatting it and extracting kernel and base txz onto it and editing /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.conf, I managed to boot FreeBSD via a Super-Grub ISO, so am pretty pleased with what I've managed to achieve.

My next task is to try to make FreeBSD an available option from the initial Ventoy boot screen.

 

[balanga]

Looks like I've made good progress....After creating a new freebsd-ufs partition on the Ventoy USB disk, formatting it and extracting kernel and base txz onto it and editing /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.conf, I managed to boot FreeBSD via a Super-Grub ISO, so am pretty pleased with what I've managed to achieve.

My next task is to try to make FreeBSD an available option from the initial Ventoy boot screen.

I now have installed numerous pkgs including X.org on my FreeBSD partition and it seems to work OK.

I have also found that the Ventoy navigation is controlled by /dev/da0p2/grub/grub.cfg, a rather long script, which I think I need to change to be able to select my FreeBSD partition as one of the primary options.

#############################################################
#############################################################
#############################################################
#######                 Main Process              ###########
#############################################################
#############################################################
#############################################################
   
set VENTOY_VERSION="1.0.91"

#ACPI not compatible with Window7/8, so disable by default
set VTOY_PARAM_NO_ACPI=1

# Default menu display mode, you can change it as you want.
#    0: List mode...
#    1: TreeView mode
set VTOY_DEFAULT_MENU_MODE=0
           
set VTOY_MEM_DISK_STR="[Memdisk]"
set VTOY_ISO_RAW_STR="Compatible Mode"
set VTOY_GRUB2_MODE_STR="GRUB2 Mode"
set VTOY_WIMBOOT_MODE_STR="WIMBOOT Mode"
set VTOY_ISO_UEFI_DRV_STR="UEFI FS"

set VTOY_F2_CMD="vt_browser_disk"
set VTOY_F4_CMD="ventoy_localboot"
set VTOY_F5_CMD="ventoy_diagnosis"
set VTOY_F6_CMD="ventoy_ext_menu"
set VTOY_HELP_CMD="ventoy_show_help"
set VTOY_CHKSUM_CMD="ventoy_checksum"
set VTOY_HELP_TXT_LANGUAGE="en_US"
set VTOY_CHKSUM_FILE_PATH="X"
set VTOY_LANG_CMD="ventoy_language"

I have no idea how/where I can add code to launch FreeBSD which I currently via a Super-GRUB ISO.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Al Seitsinger]

I now have installed numerous pkgs including X.org on my FreeBSD partition and it seems to work OK.

I have also found that the Ventoy navigation is controlled by /dev/da0p2/grub/grub.cfg, a rather long script, which I think I need to change to be able to select my FreeBSD partition as one of the primary options.

#############################################################
#############################################################
#############################################################
#######                 Main Process              ###########
#############################################################
#############################################################
#############################################################
 
set VENTOY_VERSION="1.0.91"

#ACPI not compatible with Window7/8, so disable by default
set VTOY_PARAM_NO_ACPI=1

# Default menu display mode, you can change it as you want.
#    0: List mode...
#    1: TreeView mode
set VTOY_DEFAULT_MENU_MODE=0
         
set VTOY_MEM_DISK_STR="[Memdisk]"
set VTOY_ISO_RAW_STR="Compatible Mode"
set VTOY_GRUB2_MODE_STR="GRUB2 Mode"
set VTOY_WIMBOOT_MODE_STR="WIMBOOT Mode"
set VTOY_ISO_UEFI_DRV_STR="UEFI FS"

set VTOY_F2_CMD="vt_browser_disk"
set VTOY_F4_CMD="ventoy_localboot"
set VTOY_F5_CMD="ventoy_diagnosis"
set VTOY_F6_CMD="ventoy_ext_menu"
set VTOY_HELP_CMD="ventoy_show_help"
set VTOY_CHKSUM_CMD="ventoy_checksum"
set VTOY_HELP_TXT_LANGUAGE="en_US"
set VTOY_CHKSUM_FILE_PATH="X"
set VTOY_LANG_CMD="ventoy_language"

I have no idea how/where I can add code to launch FreeBSD which I currently via a Super-GRUB ISO.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would recommend using /bin/sh over /bin/(t)csh. The only thing I can't convince it to do is display ASCII escape codes in the prompt.

 

[balanga]

I now have installed numerous pkgs including X.org on my FreeBSD partition and it seems to work OK.

I have also found that the Ventoy navigation is controlled by /dev/da0p2/grub/grub.cfg, a rather long script, which I think I need to change to be able to select my FreeBSD partition as one of the primary options.

After looking around the Ventoy system, I became aware of F6 which enables

Ventoy Menu Extension Plugin​

:-

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

www.ventoy.net

 

[elgrande]

I personally would make a decision for one system first.

 

[balanga]

After looking around the Ventoy system, I became aware of F6 which enables

Ventoy Menu Extension Plugin​

:-

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

www.ventoy.net

For some reason, I am unable to put ventoy_grub.cfg into the first partition.... or rather I put it there but it seems to get deleted automatically....