Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s10 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s10 stable is here.

Super GRUB2 Disk is a live cd that helps you to boot into most any Operating System (OS) even if you cannot boot into it by normal means.

A new stable release

The former Super Grub2 Disk stable release was 2.02s9 version and released on May 2017 (1 year and 6 months ago) . New features or changes since previous stable version are:

  • ‘Enable all native disk drivers’ option was improved. It no longer crashes.
  • Now devices are cached and Super Grub2 Disk is faster
  • Modify sg2d_directory and sg2d_dev_name variables so that SG2D is more portable
  • Standalone images are no longer broken and show main menu
  • Other minor improvements

 

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 - Detect and show boot methods in action
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 – Detect and show boot methods in action
Chinese Super Grub2 Disk main menu
Chinese Super Grub2 Disk main menu
Chinese Super Grub2 Disk - Detect all Operating Systems
Chinese Super Grub2 Disk – Detect all Operating Systems
Finnish Super Grub2 Disk main menu
Finnish Super Grub2 Disk main menu
Finnish Super Grub2 Disk - Detect all Operating Systems
Finnish Super Grub2 Disk – Detect all Operating Systems

We are going to see which are the complete Super Grub2 Disk features with a demo video, where you can download it, the thank you – hall of fame and some thoughts about the Super Grub2 Disk development.

Please do not forget to read our howtos so that you can have step by step guides (how to make a cdrom or an usb, how to boot from it, etc) on how to use Super Grub2 Disk and, if needed, Rescatux.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 main menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 main menu

Tour

Here there is a little video tour in order to discover most of Super Grub2 Disk options. The rest of the options you will have to discover them by yourself.

Features

Most of the features here will let you boot into your Operating Systems. The rest of the options will improve the Super Grub2 Disk operating systems autodetecting (enable RAID, LVM, etc.) or will deal with minor aspects of the user interface (Colours, language, etc.).

  • Change the language UI
  • Translated into several languages
    • Spanish / Español
    • German / Deutsch
    • French / Français
    • Italian / Italiano
    • Malay / Bahasa Melayu
    • Russian
    • Finnish / Suomi
    • Chinese

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Spanish Main Menu

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Spanish Main Menu

  • Detect and show boot methods option to detect most Operating Systems

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 Everything menu making use of grub.cfg extract entries option functionality

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 – Everything menu making use of grub.cfg extract entries option functionality

  • Enable all native disk drivers *experimental* to detect most Operating Systems also in special devices or filesystems
  • Boot manually
    • Operating Systems
    • grub.cfg – Extract entries

      Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 grub.cfg Extract entries option
      Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 grub.cfg Extract entries option
    • grub.cfg – (GRUB2 configuration files)
    • menu.lst – (GRUB legacy configuration files)
    • core.img – (GRUB2 installation (even if mbr is overwritten))
    • Disks and Partitions (Chainload)
    • Bootable ISOs (in /boot-isos or /boot/boot-isos
    • Extra GRUB2 functionality
      • Enable GRUB2’s LVM support
      • Enable GRUB2’s RAID support
      • Enable GRUB2’s PATA support (to work around BIOS bugs/limitation)
      • Mount encrypted volumes (LUKS and geli)
      • Enable serial terminal
    • Extra Search functionality
      • Search in floppy ON/OFF
      • Search in CDROM ON/OFF
  • List Devices / Partitions
  • Color ON /OFF
  • Exit
    • Halt the computer
    • Reboot the computer

Supported Operating Systems

Excluding too custom kernels from university students Super Grub2 Disk can autodetect and boot most every Operating System. Some examples are written here so that Google bots can see it and also to make more confident the final user who searchs his own special (according to him) Operating System.

  • Windows
    • Windows 10
    • Windows Vista/7/8/8.1
    • Windows NT/2000/XP
    • Windows 98/ME
    • MS-DOS
    • FreeDOS
  • GNU/Linux
    • Direct Kernel with autodetected initrd
      Super Grub2 Disk - Detect any Operating System - Linux kernels detected screenshot
      Super Grub2 Disk – Detect any Operating System – Linux kernels detected
      • vmlinuz-*
      • linux-*
      • kernel-genkernel-*
    • Debian / Ubuntu / Mint
    • Mageia
    • Fedora / CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    • openSUSE / SuSE Linux Enterpsise Server (SLES)
    • Arch
    • Any many, many, more.
      • FreeBSD
        • FreeBSD (single)
        • FreeBSD (verbose)
        • FreeBSD (no ACPI)
        • FreeBSD (safe mode)
        • FreeBSD (Default boot loader)
      • EFI files
      • Mac OS X/Darwin 32bit or 64bit
Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 rc4 Mac OS X entries
Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 rc4 Mac OS X entries (Image credit to: Smx)

Support for different hardware platforms

Before this release we only had the hybrid version aimed at regular pcs. Now with the upcoming new EFI based machines you have the EFI standalone versions among others. What we don’t support is booting when secure boot is enabled.

  • Most any PC thanks to hybrid version (i386, x86_64, i386-efi, x86_64-efi) (ISO)
  • EFI x86_64 standalone version (EFI)
  • EFI i386 standalone version (EFI)
  • Additional Floppy, CD and USB in one download (ISO)
    • i386-pc
    • i386-efi
    • x86_64-efi

Known bugs

  • Non English translations are not completed

Supported Media

  • Compact Disk – Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) / DVD
  • Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices
  • Floppy (1.98s1 version only)

Downloads







Recommended download (Floppy, CD & USB in one) (Valid for i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi):

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Main Menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Main Menu






 

 

 

 

 

EFI x86_64 standalone version:

EFI i386 standalone version:

CD & USB in one downloads:

About other downloads. As this is the first time I develop Super Grub2 Disk out of source code (well, probably not the first time, but the first time in ages) I have not been able to build these other downloads: coreboot, i386-efi, i386-pc, ieee1275, x86_64-efi, standalone coreboot, standalone i386-efi, standalone ieee1275. bfree has helped on this matter and with his help we might have those builds in next releases. If you want such builds drop a mail in the mailing list so that we aware of that need.

 

Source code:

Everything (All binary releases and source code):

Hashes

In order to check the former downloads you can either check the download directory page for this release

or you can check checksums right here:

MD5SUMS

76bfb212af216907c3e2d7df20cbc261  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10_source_code.tar.gz
ce31b52304dc92610d7a0f14413aaaad  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s10.iso
b908d95d474d59d6c0ee6f2d4b07ef1e  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s10.iso
0e1aca462a06c81ea1aee6ba0088be4c  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s10.iso
856e7e6b5a905416ab33d3c666095b54  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s10.EFI
8b0d7488dce4adac990c397dc1b92ed0  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.EFI
ee6b79fadec969fbed4d85569a3b47dd  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.iso
1097fc7d02d4e8c810b5cc80c8cddef8  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10.zip

SHA1SUMS

db244c56c609bede9f547d8feaf3458c6414bfaf  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10_source_code.tar.gz
f87f8b511ea128a80cc3bcb71ad8c4f7fe2a14be  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s10.iso
b6205d9eeee95b87bb731b41e463c8c82bd30b66  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s10.iso
9088a1fffbc678473007da33a391fc02e7cf5335  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s10.iso
b541cbc15c7c5e6bbb681b9b49ca50a13900c23b  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s10.EFI
e6b6afff2b2283ac261000f8e38bf1fc61f8d572  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.EFI
2b6bec29fb696cce96c47895f2263d45e2dc822e  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.iso
ea3093d9a27585319707d6abf62ab5ea4dfe47d0  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10.zip

SHA256SUMS

606f1e137a4cb0c3c65d23c984c04144267024f7afa4a288b3d8cc871a6891d9  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10_source_code.tar.gz
93eb54c9f6d9f1a59df502ce2a8ff17e7db5536cf292a954cbb518e46e2f72f8  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s10.iso
feab8f3ef63bb23f6a8f4bddeb2364f0e5d791b7f9108bec34b534a1458bec89  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s10.iso
a232ac2f6005fe4c0388117d6c00b52d8935f3d7ae83760402606685695cacd1  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s10.iso
eeb4bb5aed7348a555c4f3466de4a7f352ab551ece4d406c94556a6a5b83e3aa  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s10.EFI
6f08f01c26b22c5a61e9955eb55326bdf967e2ff1a0f261308128452ef3ab06d  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.EFI
bd12b4aa8e7ec167d33185aad27d1711c82d8a40dda9a3a2dc2579eb6d32f99f  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s10.iso
5d9de73f0a62d726a9fedf22b5c54bb03e333768ab4892d973531e24e63f3089  super_grub2_disk_2.02s10.zip

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

Changes since 2.02s9 version:

  • ‘Enable all native disk drivers’ option was improved. It no longer crashes.
  • Now devices are cached and Super Grub2 Disk is faster
  • Modify sg2d_directory and sg2d_dev_name variables so that SG2D is more portable
  • Standalone images are no longer broken and show main menu

Changes since 2.02s8 version:

  • (Devel) supergrub-release-news helps release team to generate a template for its news. Initial implementation.
  • (Devel) Added supergrub-release-changes to help with the release team.
  • (Devel) INSTALL: Improved explanation about what release scripts and file outputs.
  • Rename ‘(GRUB2 installation (even if mbr is overwritten))’ to: ‘(GRUB2 installation)’
  • Use grub-2.02 upstream grub2 tag (Stable version)
  • Added Chinese (zh-cn) translation
  • Added Finnish translation (Thanks to tavallinenvirtanen7)

Changes since 2.02s7 version:

  • Use grub-2.02-rc2 upstream grub2 tag
  • Default theme starfield is no longer included. This will make images smaller.
  • (Devel) Make sure normal isos and standalone images have hash files without its full path.
  • (Devel) File hashes generation has been rewritten to work from the single supergrub-mkcommon generate_filename_hashes function
  • (Devel) Now MD5SUMS, SHA1SUMS and SHA256SUMS files are generated as part of the official build.

Changes since 2.02s6 version:

  • Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02~rc1

Changes since 2.02s5 version:

  • Added Russian language
  • Improved Arch Linux initramfs detection
  • Added i386-efi build support
  • Added i386-efi to the hybrid iso
  • Grub itself is translated when a language is selected
  • Added loopback.cfg file (non officially supported)
  • (Devel) sgrub.pot updated to latest strings
  • (Devel) Added grub-build-004-make-check so that we ensure the build works
  • (Devel) Make sure linguas.sh is built when running ‘grub-build-002-clean-and-update’
  • (Devel) Updated upstream Super Grub2 Disk repo on documentation
  • (Devel) Move core supergrub menu under menus/sgd
  • (Devel) Use sg2d_directory as the base super grub2 disk directory variable
  • (Devel) New supergrub-sourcecode script that creates current git branch source code tar.gz
  • (Devel) New supergrub-all-zip-file script: Makes sure a zip file of everything is built.
  • (Devel) supergrub-meta-mkrescue: Build everything into releases directory in order to make source code more clean.
  • (Devel) New supergrub-official-release script: Build main files, source code and everything zip file from a single script in order to ease official Super Grub
    2 Disk releases.

Changes since 2.02s4 version:

  • Stop trying to chainload devices under UEFI and improve the help people get in the case of a platform mismatch
  • (Devel) Properly support source based built grub-mkfont binary.
  • New options were added to chainload directly either /ntldr or /bootmgr thanks to ntldr command. They only work in BIOS mode.

Changes since 2.02s3 version:

  • Using upstream grub-2.02-beta3 tag as the new base for Super Grub2 Disk’s grub.
  • Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on BCD) Windows Vista, 7, …
  • Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on ntldr) Windows XP, 2000, …

Changes since 2.02s2 beta 1 version:

  • (Devel) grub-mkstandalone was deleted because we no longer use it
  • Updated (and added) Copyright notices for 2015
  • New option: ‘Disks and Partitions (Chainload)’ adapted from Smx work
  • Many files were rewritten so that they only loop between devices that actually need to be searched into.
    This enhacement will make Super Grub2 Disk faster.
  • Remove Super Grub2 Disk own devices from search by default. Added an option to be able to enable/disable the Super Grub2 Disk own devices search.

2.02s2 beta 1 changelog:

  • Updated grub 2.02 build to commit: 8e5bc2f4d3767485e729ed96ea943570d1cb1e45
  • Updated documentation for building Super Grub2 Disk
  • Improvement on upstream grub (d29259b134257458a98c1ddc05d2a36c677ded37 – test: do not stop after first file test or closing bracket) will probably make Super Grub2 Disk run faster.
  • Added new grub build scripts so that Super Grub2 Disk uses its own built versions of grub and not the default system / distro / chroot one.
  • Ensure that Mac OS X entries are detected ok thanks to Users dir. This is because Grub2 needs to emulate Mac OS X kernel so that it’s detected as a proper boot device on Apple computers.
  • Thanks to upstream grub improvement now Super Grub2 Disk supports booting in EFI mode when booted from a USB device / hard disk. Actually SG2D was announced previously to boot from EFI from a USB device while it only booted from a cdrom.

2.02s1 beta 1 changelog:

  • Added new option: “Enable all native disk drivers” so that you can try to load: SATA, PATA and USB hard disks (and their partitions) as native disk drives. This is experimental.
  • Removed no longer needed options: “Enable USB” and “Enable PATA”.
  • “Search floppy” and “Search cdrom” options were moved into “Extra GRUB2 functionality menu”. At the same time “Extra Search functionality” menu was removed.
  • Added new straight-forward option: “Enable GRUB2’s RAID and LVM support”.
  • “List devices/partitions” was renamed to “Print devices/partitions”.
  • “Everything” option was renamed to “Detect and show boot methods”.
  • “Everything +” option was removed to avoid confusions.
  • Other minor improvements in the source code.
  • Updated translation files. Now most translations are pending.
  • Updated INSTALL instructions.

Finally you can check all the detailed changes at our GIT commits.

If you want to translate into your language please check TRANSLATION file at source code to learn how to translate into your language.

Thank you – Hall of fame

I want to thank in alphabetical order:

  • The upstream Grub crew. I’m subscribed to both help-grub and grub-devel and I admire the work you do there.
  • Necrosporus for his insistence on making Super Grub2 Disk smaller.

The person who writes this article is adrian15 .

And I cannot forget about thanking bTactic, the enterprise where I work at and that hosts our site.

Some thoughts about Super Grub2 Disk development

Super Grub2 Disk development ideas

I think we won’t improve Super Grub2 Disk too much. We will try to stick to official Grub2 stable releases. Unless a new feature that it’s not included in official Grub2 stable release is needed in order to give additional useful functionalities to Super Grub2 Disk.

I have added some scripts to Super Grub2 Disk build so that writing these pieces of news is more automatic and less prone to errors. Check them out in git repo as you will not find them in 2.02s8 source code.

Old idea: I don’t know when but I plan to readapt some scripts from os-prober. That will let us detect more operating systems. Not sure when though. I mean, it’s not something that worries me because it does not affect too many final users. But, well, it’s something new that I hadn’t thought about.

Again, please send us feedback on what you think it’s missing on Super Grub2 Disk.

Rescatux development

I want to focus on Rescatux development on the next months so that we have an stable release before the end of 2017. Now I need to finish adding UEFI features (most finished), fix the scripts that generate Rescatux source code (difficult) and write much documentation.

(adrian15 speaking)

Getting help on using Super Grub2 Disk

More information about Super Grub2 Disk

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