Re: Booting Debian 10 installer ISO from USB

[prueba@finsakxim.com.mx]

On 2019-11-19 13:58, Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:

    On Tue 19 Nov 2019 at 10:20:16 -0600, prueba@finsakxim.com.mx wrote:

        I'm trying to boot Buster installer from a USB by using Grub's 
loopback
        device.
        I already installed grub in the USB and put Buster ISO in its 
data
        partition.

        I read this
        
https://wiki.debian.org/Installation+Archive+USBStick#Using_GRUB.27s_Loopback_Facility
        so I downloaded both hd-media kernel and initrd from here
        
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/
        and put them in same directory as ISO, renaming them as 
"DebianVmlinuz" and
        "debianGtkInitrd" respectively.

        This is my grub.cfg config:

        iso_path=/boot/iso/debian-10.1.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
        export iso_path
        search --set=root --file "$iso_path"
        loopback loop "$iso_path"
        menuentry "Graphical install" {
           bootoptions="findiso=$iso_path desktop=xfce vga=788 --- 
quiet"
           linux /boot/iso/DebianVmlinuz $bootoptions
           initrd /boot/iso/debianGtkInitrd.gz
        }

        So booting from the USB works; the installer starts. But after 
selecting
        languages it searches for the installer ISO, but always fails to 
find it. I
        get "Debian was unable to find an ISO installer image". Even if 
I tell it to
        browse the specific partition where ISO is it just fails with 
same error.


    The wiki page also warns:

      > There is no guarantee that mixing an hd-media initrd with
      > an ISO's kernel will produce a desirable outcome in all
      > circumstances.

    In other words, if the hack works for you - all well and good. If 
not,
    you get to piece it together yourself.

    Why is a loopback boot so important to you?


If you re-read my post you realize that I first tried the "rightful" way 
of using both kernel and initrd from hd-media, and didn't work.

Important because that would make it easier to make a multiboot USB with 
several Linux distributions by just copying ISO files instead of dd-ing 
multiple USBs or using 3rd party programs which modify the ISOs.

Sorry, I really didn't know Debian community actually disliked this 
general idea (by little to no supporting and turning blind eye). Though 
I fail to see a good reason for it...