A question about multiple boot options and live boot iso images

[Bret Busby]

On 31/10/2019, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 31/10/2019, Brian <ad44 at cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>> On Thu 31 Oct 2019 at 20:00:26 +0000, Bret Busby wrote:
>>
>>> On 31/10/2019, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > On Thu, 31 Oct 2019 at 16:53, Brian <ad44 at cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> 1. Make a partition on the drive to hold GRUB's files and install
>>> >> GRUB
>>> >>    to the MBR of the drive.
>>> > [...]
>>> >> 6. Repeat for other ISOs.
>>> >
>>> > Sounds like a lot of work to me.
>>> >
>>> > This device does the same thing, entirely automatically with zero
>>> > intervention.
>>> >
>>> > http://www.zalman.com/contents/products/view.html?no=212
>>> >
>>> > As I said in my blog post, and spelled out in my last message.
>>> >
>>>
>>> So, I assume from that, that you are saying that it can not be done
>>> with a common USB thumbdrive?
>>
>> Did it enter your mind to try it yourself and come to a decision? After
>> all, the full instructions should help. :)
>>
>
>
> "not always as easy as it sounds"
>
> Original query -
> "whether something like a removable USB drive can
> be easily set up, ..."
>
> Your response indicates a complicated possible solution, that you
> assessed as "not always as easy as it sounds".
>
> What I was hoping to be the level of simplicity, was something like
> copy a set of iso's to a USB thumbdrive, and either run a utility (if
> such a utility exits) that writes a GRUB instance to the thumbdrive,
> and that does a thing like update-grub, to configure GRUB to provide
> boot options for the iso's on the thumbdrive, thence, for one of the
> iso's booted from the thumbdrive, to be able to copy and add another
> iso (or, more iso's) to the thumbdrive, and, to be able to run again,
> update-grub on the thumbdrive, to provide options to boot the added
> iso's.
>
> Years ago, from memory, when the Linux Format (and/or, another,
> similar) magazine was/were in print and being sold, copies of the
> magazine were sold with a DVD that contained more than one Linux iso,
> allowing the user to choose which iso to boot.
>

As a single example, that I just happened to easily find, Linux Format
DVD107 has on it, Ubuntu 8.04 AND Mandriva One 2008 Spring.

> That was from a time when a Linux iso was CD size, so allowing
> multiple iso's to fit on a DVD, and, from a time when new laptop
> computers all came with built in removable optical drives (DVD’s or
> CD's).
>
> So, now, when laptop computers are being sold without CD/DVD drives,
> but can be booted from USB thumbdrives, I am wondering whether what
> used to be done with the magazine DVD's - having multiple iso's on
> them, from which, a user could choose one (at a time) to boot, could
> now easily (with emphasis on the "easily") be done with USB
> thumbdrives.
>
> --
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> ..............
>
> "So once you do know what the question actually is,
>  you'll know what the answer means."
> - Deep Thought,
>  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
>  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
>  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
>  written by Douglas Adams,
>  published by Pan Books, 1992
>
> ....................................................
>


-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................