All posts by adrian15

Rescatux 0.72-beta4 released

Download

Rescatux 0.72-beta4 ISO (685 MB)
(Torrent)MD5SUM: c48f16fc0c509c7b6c682893debad2fb

Summary

This is another beta version of Rescatux. The last Rescatux beta was released on October 2019. That’s about three weeks ago.

This new version checks for Gparted, Photorec and Testdisk before running them. A new option called System Info Script based on Inxi has been added. In order to improve usability a generic documentation page for non-documented options has been added. Finally bootinfoscript has been updated to use Debian’s package instead of the outdated custom embedded bootinfoscript.

New Inxi option

Note: If you don’t like the current background please contribute to 2019 Background should be improved issue .

What’s new on Rescatux

  • New 2019 November background

What’s new on Rescapp

  • Gparted, Photorec and Testdisk are now checked before running them
  • Add an specific non-documented documentation page.
  • Added System Info Script (Inxi) option
  • bootinfoscript was updated to use system’s installed bootinfoscript

Known bugs

  • Unknown behavior when some steps fail (e.g. no hard disks are found).

Rescatux 0.72-beta2 released

Download

Rescatux 0.72-beta2 ISO (685 MB)
(Torrent)MD5SUM: 19280b16ca8374fb1ee9164a77f6d6e9

Summary

This is another beta version of Rescatux. The last Rescatux beta was released on October 2019. That’s about two weeks ago.

This new version puts Gparted back into the iso and updates to Rescapp 0.54b2 which features two important usability updates: An status label will show if an options is ready to start, running or finished. And a new messages box will show every step the option is performing highlighting the most important ones in bold. No more flickering of fast status messages pop-ups as it happened in earlier versions.

Additionally the user is driven first to click into the options to read their manuals and to read the manuals carefully before clicking the Run! button.

Rescapp 0.54b2 highlights important steps in bold

Note: If you don’t like the current background please contribute to 2019 Background should be improved issue .

What’s new on Rescatux

  • Gparted is installed again
  • Make sure log files are open with leafpad program.

What’s new on Rescapp

  • More compact UI
  • Added rescapp title and version to the main UI
  • Advice to choose an option to read its manual
Rescapp 0.54b2 main screen improvements
  • After selecting an option it shows its name in the option screen
  • Advice to read the manual before hitting run on the option screen
Rescapp 0.54b2 advises you to read the manual
  • New status label shows the option being ready to run, running or finished
Rescapp 0.54b2 status label blinking ‘Running.’
  • New messages box that show the actions the option is performing
  • New simple logs containing only steps performed by the option

Known bugs

  • Unknown behavior when some steps fail (e.g. no hard disks are found).

Rescatux 0.72-beta1 released

Download

Rescatux 0.72-beta1 ISO (673 MB)
(Torrent)MD5SUM: 0950dcca0256fb1a9bfbb8c06da55b3a

Summary

This is another beta version of Rescatux. The last Rescatux beta was released on May 2019. That’s about five months ago.

This new version features two important fixes: Now Grub recovery in tmpfs enabled distributions such as Ubuntu will work again. Some uefi systems with secure boot disabled that happened to crashed Rescapp no longer crash it.

Additionally Rescapp menu has been reworked. Finally Rescatux live cd uefi boot menu and bios boot menu have been reworked.

There’s an ongoing joke on the Internet on fixing someone else writing something wrong on the Internet. Hopefully our new background is ugly enough for someone to reach us on 2019 Background should be improved issue and correct us.

Rescatux 0.72-beta1 new background

What’s new on Rescatux

  • Added xterm package so that external programs can be opened from within rescapp
  • Move testdisk package dependency from Rescapp to Rescatux
  • New background and associated boot menues improved
  • Based on Debian Buster which now it’s officially stable

What’s new on Rescapp

Rescatux 0.72-beta1 featuring Rescapp 0.54b1
  • Added Xterm self test
  • There’s no longer a back button. Improved menu.
  • Fixed: Non secure boot UEFI mode make rescapp to crash before its menu.
  • Do not mount neither the root partition nor the tmp partition when performing chroot grub operations.
    That reenables being able to fix Ubuntu grub properly.
  • Rescapp was ported from python2 to python3
  • Improved compatibility with Fedora (Big thanks to cjg67)
  • Removed gddrescue and myrescue dependencies
  • Move testdisk package dependency from Rescapp to Rescatux
  • Move gparted package dependency from Rescapp to Rescatux
  • Add missing filesystem dependencies (debian package)
  • INSTALL: Added optional debian package runtime requirements

Known bugs

  • Gparted package is not installed. So trying to start it from the expert tools option will fail.

You deserve 7 more years of beta-testing

Last stable Rescatux was in 2012. That’s about 7 years ago.

You know what? I’m a bit upset about many of the Rescatux users.

The main reason is the lack of feedback when things go wrong.

If Rescatux doesn’t do its job then they switch to another tool to recover their boot or gain access back to their system. Nothing but getting back to their computer matters to them.

If we release beta versions of Rescatux is to gain useful feedback to improve the distro for mankind. Rescatux developers (mostly one person at the moment) do not own every machine/computer/hardware out there to test Rescatux isos in all of them.

And they neither have the time to test all of the ways that Rescatux can be boot. Final users have the time because they are using Rescatux anyways.

My last rant about Rescatux users is about them not reporting Rescapp not working ok on Rescatux 0.71-beta7 version when booted in non secure-boot uefi mode. Rescatux is no longer useful in that mode because you never get to experience the full toolkit that Rescapp brings to you in an easy manner.

The average Rescatux user deserves another 7 years of beta-testing.

For the rest of you (you know who you are) thank you for your useful issue reports. Hopefully we can work as a team together and give birth to a new stable Rescatux version soon.

Added new non-free Rescatux download option

If you have some special hardware in your computer/laptop which doesn’t behave correctly with free-as-freedom drivers you might experience problems like:

  • Not getting a graphical desktop but a blank screen.
  • Getting unusable video resolutions.
  • Wifi not working.

In that case you might want to download a non-free version of Rescatux.

There is not such a thing but some instructions on how to run Rescapp on top of non-free Debian live images.

Please use this option as a last resort. By using these methods you are putting your freedom as a computer user at stake.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2 downloads







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

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Non scientific machine names Description
Oldie x86   These are very old machines that only have 32-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is i386.
Oldie 64bit   These are old machines, usually from 2010 year or before. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architectures for boot are: i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 64bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is: x86_64-efi. If you enable CSM (also known as legacy boot) support on them they also support i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 32bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They are very rare. They have either 64-bit processors or 32-bit processors but somehow boot initially in 32-bit mode. Their supported architecture for boot is: i386-efi. I highly doubt you can enable CSM support on these machines.

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2

USB Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Recommended. Modern UEFI 64-bit and 32-bit systems and also old BIOS systems. Includes additional BOOTISOS so that you can carry your loopback.cfg enabled distributions with you.

CD-ROM Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit and 32-bit systems and also old BIOS systems.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
i386 and x86_64 Old BIOS (non UEFI) systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Standalone Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Misc

Download Supported archs Notes
Source Code (Git repo)
N/A Let’s you build Super Grub2 Disk on non supported archs.
Download super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a zip file. For offline people.
Everything in a TORRENT
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a torrent file. For offline people.

About other downloads. These other downloads might be built in the future if anyone complains and helps enough on our mailing list: coreboot, ieee1275, standalone coreboot and standalone ieee1275.

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

8ea03a225a239837fdc77dc50e2e3396  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
3e4122add9256d7d7d03831fd48b78c5  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
9a40ded5cdeeb2d5fabd91aaa870a1e5  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
1bf7fa5858e5abf805ab5a18b7b29780  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
6220cea1205ea3acd5417b5c0be866ee  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
968826f225bd0645a2d893e274c24175  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
9cf23233cf70afad842d7ee9c29e46fb  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
4c34d123b3ab89f6c895694af32256a3  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
cd909f60c57fdb87a1f0f9c7e7ce27ac  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

SHA1SUMS

215a27eb48fcd6546278413016116dae33bbf7b7  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
a650c5181363bda863230436eac4fd10df176764  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
4cd05a9417838b6ac183149f943b378b8d72faa8  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
5e9c8e5d5197f54cc708b61cbc64c20fb012dfe2  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
d64b1cdd8d23dcce0c41cbc41357f78369348d39  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
2b1a2654d68efb6c55f2aa256658a0d571deb893  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
9d954f402bbc177f4bcb78f8a0428292a8245def  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
af2ba56447eeab0fb916f2bb3e5fa9e972f5d349  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
3385be38de87b5012bd9eed140d98e9f3a55f2d7  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

SHA256SUMS

263cc337b1e34bc958dcdd9a4b9748d05cfa9ee5f6e26c2cc153b16a01a1b8b1  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
9e0b054bc2439c4662b65d566ae7f3e14dadb9eb00bc1034154810d8e4bedd7c  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
39816ecfc579bb2859d5d78c697411b7d7b10af05eef2ab95dd4d93d25a53a6c  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
22f7faaa6d83f699838961d65997fc0df460b07ea2c8da3b677f7693972ab26a  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
3b479c455a9dec4ae4607b2031c1967f36f81cb9d97e24c46bc3dcdf38510f08  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
74c1719a3ec425a33e64000d75169fc5923eac73d46761cbbf5c4b74cf737ffa  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
56e51549e88f09d07562b221b51ad2a88d1ccdaba78f5c803d7b70f44777f3f1  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
9903a5bbfd2baf7a11c40324f49a3821be2e34bb8316095c0055bce37295d20e  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
ca79c0027f059ac038e1da1455c77d84c5669b3a07792fff09dc5cd3771a0a90  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2 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 beta release

This new release features a new usb based image which lets you carry your loopback.cfg enabled distros in a second partition. Power users will be glad to learn that you can edit any Super Grub2 Disk file and make bigger the ISOs partition. Filenaming scheme for released files was improved. Finally Korean translation was added.

 

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







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

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Non scientific machine names Description
Oldie x86   These are very old machines that only have 32-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is i386.
Oldie 64bit   These are old machines, usually from 2010 year or before. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architectures for boot are: i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 64bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is: x86_64-efi. If you enable CSM (also known as legacy boot) support on them they also support i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 32bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They are very rare. They have either 64-bit processors or 32-bit processors but somehow boot initially in 32-bit mode. Their supported architecture for boot is: i386-efi. I highly doubt you can enable CSM support on these machines.

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s2-beta2

USB Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Recommended. Modern UEFI 64-bit and 32-bit systems and also old BIOS systems. Includes additional BOOTISOS so that you can carry your loopback.cfg enabled distributions with you.

CD-ROM Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit and 32-bit systems and also old BIOS systems.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
i386 and x86_64 Old BIOS (non UEFI) systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Standalone Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Misc

Download Supported archs Notes
Source Code (Git repo)
N/A Let’s you build Super Grub2 Disk on non supported archs.
Download super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a zip file. For offline people.
Everything in a TORRENT
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a torrent file. For offline people.

About other downloads. These other downloads might be built in the future if anyone complains and helps enough on our mailing list: coreboot, ieee1275, standalone coreboot and standalone ieee1275.

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

8ea03a225a239837fdc77dc50e2e3396  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
3e4122add9256d7d7d03831fd48b78c5  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
9a40ded5cdeeb2d5fabd91aaa870a1e5  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
1bf7fa5858e5abf805ab5a18b7b29780  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
6220cea1205ea3acd5417b5c0be866ee  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
968826f225bd0645a2d893e274c24175  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
9cf23233cf70afad842d7ee9c29e46fb  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
4c34d123b3ab89f6c895694af32256a3  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
cd909f60c57fdb87a1f0f9c7e7ce27ac  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

SHA1SUMS

215a27eb48fcd6546278413016116dae33bbf7b7  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
a650c5181363bda863230436eac4fd10df176764  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
4cd05a9417838b6ac183149f943b378b8d72faa8  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
5e9c8e5d5197f54cc708b61cbc64c20fb012dfe2  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
d64b1cdd8d23dcce0c41cbc41357f78369348d39  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
2b1a2654d68efb6c55f2aa256658a0d571deb893  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
9d954f402bbc177f4bcb78f8a0428292a8245def  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
af2ba56447eeab0fb916f2bb3e5fa9e972f5d349  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
3385be38de87b5012bd9eed140d98e9f3a55f2d7  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

SHA256SUMS

263cc337b1e34bc958dcdd9a4b9748d05cfa9ee5f6e26c2cc153b16a01a1b8b1  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2.zip
9e0b054bc2439c4662b65d566ae7f3e14dadb9eb00bc1034154810d8e4bedd7c  super_grub2_disk_2.04s2-beta2_source_code.tar.gz
39816ecfc579bb2859d5d78c697411b7d7b10af05eef2ab95dd4d93d25a53a6c  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-CD.iso
22f7faaa6d83f699838961d65997fc0df460b07ea2c8da3b677f7693972ab26a  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_efi-STANDALONE.EFI
3b479c455a9dec4ae4607b2031c1967f36f81cb9d97e24c46bc3dcdf38510f08  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-i386_pc-CD.iso
74c1719a3ec425a33e64000d75169fc5923eac73d46761cbbf5c4b74cf737ffa  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-CD.iso
56e51549e88f09d07562b221b51ad2a88d1ccdaba78f5c803d7b70f44777f3f1  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-multiarch-USB.img.zip
9903a5bbfd2baf7a11c40324f49a3821be2e34bb8316095c0055bce37295d20e  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-CD.iso
ca79c0027f059ac038e1da1455c77d84c5669b3a07792fff09dc5cd3771a0a90  supergrub2-2.04s2-beta2-x86_64_efi-STANDALONE.EFI

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

Changes since 2.04s1 version:

  • Add Korean Translation
  • Use LIVEID in each secureboot vendor cfg
  • USB hard disk now has an additional partition for ISO files.
  • supergrub-mkusb: New script for normal (non secure boot) usb creation
  • New filename standard * ${SUPER_GRUB2_DISK_FILE_PREFIX}-${sgrub_version}-${TARGET_PLATFORM}-${TARGET_DEVICE}.iso * Now we specify not only the media where SG2D is supposed to be put (TARGET_DEVICE) but also the architectures which should be boot on (TARGET_PLATFORM). * Makes all of the filenames consistent * Devices are in capital letters like in Debian disks * Old ‘hybrid’ names are now renamed into ‘CD’ so that usb only users choose the ‘USB’ multiarch one. * Filenames are now separated by “-” and no longer by “_” in order to meet other distros filenaming schemes * super_grub2_disk prefix now it’s just: supergrub2: ** That makes super grub2 disk filenames shorter ** It removes confusion because ‘disk’ might imply a cdrom
  • Zip USB based images

Changes since 2.02s10 version:

  • Use grub-2.04 upstream grub2 tag

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

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1 downloads







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

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Non scientific machine names Description
Oldie x86   These are very old machines that only have 32-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is i386.
Oldie 64bit   These are old machines, usually from 2010 year or before. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architectures for boot are: i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 64bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is: x86_64-efi. If you enable CSM (also known as legacy boot) support on them they also support i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 32bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They are very rare. They have either 64-bit processors or 32-bit processors but somehow boot initially in 32-bit mode. Their supported architecture for boot is: i386-efi. I highly doubt you can enable CSM support on these machines.

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1

CD/USB/HD Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Ideal for everyone. Recommended.
Download super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
i386 and x86_64 Old BIOS (non UEFI) systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Standalone Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Misc

Download Supported archs Notes
Source Code (Git repo)
N/A Let’s you build Super Grub2 Disk on non supported archs.
Download super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a zip file. For offline people.
Everything in a TORRENT
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a torrent file. For offline people.

About other downloads. These other downloads might be built in the future if anyone complains and helps enough on our mailing list: coreboot, ieee1275, standalone coreboot and standalone ieee1275.

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

3cd636aaa5418b7bfc81cde36098e153  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
7547168a534cca7cea819349f886e492  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
dc15f00af0ecb13859ae88e69edfcfa8  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
d5963058f2cb8693ba6a17c9d913bdae  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
b3a9778fd588334ed1ce0b4ae4f1e99c  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
e8f7873d16849c7257b3ea2da04f152f  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
ecf00e7a4501bbae14452831f1f0cc6f  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
7e69801ecc6b73ccd2b563e58cf6e84d  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

SHA1SUMS

95692272ae7c290154bb3a774080d826aec45df3  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
a7880034e1c3867d1b696b9ffb55451407f04175  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
afc9a4a1d8945df963c46a6fa98c61d50f86dbfc  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
d4cba6c9778480283ce54df1c3e5aabbe3caff61  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
c9d5c898c080fa93430617dfcadf864cdde4e3b7  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
5ffe3e2cedf90ffa9f75937d1897905bff6ce369  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
e3678f1161d2a3fd188a4275d298c7e03411bc4d  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
bdacf9de3af569188f32ae35cad65bf9dd9a163a  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

SHA256SUMS

d471b8bc16ecf70cf715506463e07afe9e4cd3b7127f7d1ce6e038f1dd2e4d59  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
a72eddad240c072105847a404e2af0541ee39d61919eb712242b3797e953f3b6  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
c72a7d32fea825c970a8d2941e725932ddef717727e3348a700e453ca5313b26  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
1c45a79c43904a3cc53214fa6ba23a0dc42e4960fa10433922d6a8995bdf43a3  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
5262b3ba85c1c381288e6ae4a0647a8d2a8bbfd93699b6cedd5dfbe97470e36e  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
9adf5400715f10479d760ba7cc18515f5493341a814507c1e2797cd2394441da  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
acb8a944ca3ec64bfad3956df5199efab8613006036196b82d744981241cd300  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
bf7604bd27e74e6346090f1f7b493783230abe91e4795400a5d747180eaa558a  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1 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

This new release features new upstream grub 2.04. Some of the grub 2.04 features which might be or might not be reflected on the SG2D UI are:

  • Support for multiple early initrd images
  • Support for the F2FS file-system
  • A verifier framework
  • RISC-V support
  • UEFI Secure Boot shim support
  • Btrfs Zstd improvements
  • Btrfs RAID5/RAID6 support
  • Xen PVH support
  • UEFI TPM 1.2/2.0 support

 

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







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

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Non scientific machine names Description
Oldie x86   These are very old machines that only have 32-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is i386.
Oldie 64bit   These are old machines, usually from 2010 year or before. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architectures for boot are: i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 64bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They have 64-bit processors. Their supported architecture for boot is: x86_64-efi. If you enable CSM (also known as legacy boot) support on them they also support i386 and x86_64.
UEFI 32bit   These are new machines, usually from 2011 year or after. They are very rare. They have either 64-bit processors or 32-bit processors but somehow boot initially in 32-bit mode. Their supported architecture for boot is: i386-efi. I highly doubt you can enable CSM support on these machines.

NOTE:   The hybrid version should work in most any machine you might have. Please download that version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.04s1

CD/USB/HD Bootable Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Ideal for everyone. Recommended.
Download super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
i386 and x86_64 Old BIOS (non UEFI) systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Standalone Images

Download Supported archs Notes
Download super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
x86_64-efi Modern UEFI 64-bit systems only.
Download super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
i386-efi Modern UEFI 32-bit systems only. Also known as ia-32.

Misc

Download Supported archs Notes
Source Code (Git repo)
N/A Let’s you build Super Grub2 Disk on non supported archs.
Download super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a zip file. For offline people.
Everything in a TORRENT
i386, x86_64, i386-efi and x86_64-efi Every binary and source code inside a torrent file. For offline people.

About other downloads. These other downloads might be built in the future if anyone complains and helps enough on our mailing list: coreboot, ieee1275, standalone coreboot and standalone ieee1275.

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

3cd636aaa5418b7bfc81cde36098e153  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
7547168a534cca7cea819349f886e492  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
dc15f00af0ecb13859ae88e69edfcfa8  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
d5963058f2cb8693ba6a17c9d913bdae  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
b3a9778fd588334ed1ce0b4ae4f1e99c  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
e8f7873d16849c7257b3ea2da04f152f  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
ecf00e7a4501bbae14452831f1f0cc6f  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
7e69801ecc6b73ccd2b563e58cf6e84d  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

SHA1SUMS

95692272ae7c290154bb3a774080d826aec45df3  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
a7880034e1c3867d1b696b9ffb55451407f04175  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
afc9a4a1d8945df963c46a6fa98c61d50f86dbfc  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
d4cba6c9778480283ce54df1c3e5aabbe3caff61  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
c9d5c898c080fa93430617dfcadf864cdde4e3b7  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
5ffe3e2cedf90ffa9f75937d1897905bff6ce369  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
e3678f1161d2a3fd188a4275d298c7e03411bc4d  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
bdacf9de3af569188f32ae35cad65bf9dd9a163a  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

SHA256SUMS

d471b8bc16ecf70cf715506463e07afe9e4cd3b7127f7d1ce6e038f1dd2e4d59  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1_source_code.tar.gz
a72eddad240c072105847a404e2af0541ee39d61919eb712242b3797e953f3b6  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.04s1.iso
c72a7d32fea825c970a8d2941e725932ddef717727e3348a700e453ca5313b26  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.04s1.iso
1c45a79c43904a3cc53214fa6ba23a0dc42e4960fa10433922d6a8995bdf43a3  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso
5262b3ba85c1c381288e6ae4a0647a8d2a8bbfd93699b6cedd5dfbe97470e36e  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.04s1.EFI
9adf5400715f10479d760ba7cc18515f5493341a814507c1e2797cd2394441da  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.EFI
acb8a944ca3ec64bfad3956df5199efab8613006036196b82d744981241cd300  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.04s1.iso
bf7604bd27e74e6346090f1f7b493783230abe91e4795400a5d747180eaa558a  super_grub2_disk_2.04s1.zip

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

Changes since 2.02s10 version:

  • Use grub-2.04 upstream grub2 tag

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

Rescatux 0.71-beta7 – Not a review

Rescatux 0.71-beta7 – Not a review

Download

Rescatux 0.71-beta7 ISO (672 MB)
(Torrent)MD5SUM: ee5efcc09e4d9011d8bd865f354dae84

Introduction

This last week I have been unable to sleep. Why? My friend adrian15 told me about him releasing another beta version of Rescatux. The last Rescatux beta was released on December 2017. That’s more than a year ago.

He has been hyping me about all those new features that this iso is going to have for the past two months. And he has also bothered me with all the problems he had been finding along the way. He is very persistent because he has finally managed to work around most of them.

So, the first thing I want to point out is that Rescatux, as you might know is usually based on Debian stable. Well, Rescatux 0.51b3 was based on Debian Jessie 8 and Rescatux 0.71 beta is based on Debian Buster 10 which happens not to be a Debian stable because it has not been released yet.

Debian Buster 10 will be release as stable Debian in the next months

But Debian Buster is frozen and it will be released as Debian stable in less than a year.

Using Debian Buster 10 instead of Debian Jessie 8 as a base means that more recent hardware will be supported out of the box. And that’s great because I recently bought a HP250 G6 2SX60EA laptop and I want to test Rescatux on it. So that I can give adrian15 more work Ha Ha Ha !

The other nice about this iso is the many ways it can be booted. Super Grub2 Disk which has an hybrid boot that supports i386-pc, ia32-efi and amd64-efi boots is from the same author. So you should not an expect an amd64 only disk and an i386 only disk but an hybrid one.

And that’s what you get. Here there is a boot options summary table:

Secure BootBIOS/EFI platformKernel ArchBoot?
On
x64 EFI
amd64
Yes
On
x64 EFI
i386
Seems not to work
On
ia32 EFI
amd64
Non tested
On
ia32 EFI
i386
Non tested
Secure BootBIOS/EFI platformKernel ArchBoot?
Off
x64 EFI
amd64
Yes
Off
x64 EFI
i386
Yes
Off
ia32 EFI
amd64
Non tested
Off
ia32 EFI
i386
Non tested
Secure BootBIOS/EFI platformKernel ArchBoot?
Off
BIOS
amd64
Yes
Off
BIOS
i386
Yes

Have you noticed it? Yeah, that’s it. Now Rescatux 0.71 beta 7 gets Secure Boot support from Debian Buster. And it’s Secure Boot which works with Microsoft Secure Boot enabled machines. So we are not going to need to tweak our UEFI firmware to be able to boot Rescatux. Yay!

What more about boot? Yes, there is this liveid thing that adrian15 made up so that some hp laptops that come with live-build installations do not confuse Rescatux boot. That’s supposed to be a new standard for live cds but according to what he has told me not many distros are willing to adopt it.

It’s UUID for live cds he has told me. It should be make easier the work of Yumi, Rufus, Easy2Boot and similar tools if combined with loopback.cfg according to him. Go figure.

Hands on – Boot

Enough talking. Let’s boot the iso and see what we get at.

I’m getting an isolinux menu with a countdown when booted in BIOS mode. Look at that! The poor tux penguin has beta 7 all of over his face! XD XD XD . This needs to be fixed in the next stable release. #FreeTuxFromBeta7

Rescatux BIOS boot menu #FreeTuxFromBeta7

However when I boot in UEFI mode I am not getting a countdown and the default boot entry cannot be seen because it’s white and the background is also white. I remember seeing this same problem in Rescatux 0.51b3. This has not been definitively been fixed.

Rescatux UEFI boot menu

Rescatux Desktop

What about having a laptop with a semi broken screen? I had to install open-vm-tools-desktop package on my virtualbox instance but I finally managed to make it work with two screens. That way I can show it to you without using a blurry mobile phone photo 😉 . Guess what? Rescatux gets you covered because you can start the monitor settings when monitors are horizontally stretched. The dialogs concerning monitor settings are centered among the two monitors.

So that means that I can finally recover my old broken screen laptop. I just disable my laptop screen and leave enabled the external screen. And there’s no need for me to learn hotkeys and commands to run those screen setup screens manually.

Rescatux Startup Wizard centered between two screens
Change Monitor Settings centered between two screens

By the way this monitor settings dialog is a part of the new Rescatux startup wizard.

Rescapp was already a wizard for your rescue tasks but adrian15 managed to add this new wizard for the live cd itself. These new Rescatux startup wizard feature are quite neat so that you can customize your Rescatux session.

  • Change monitor settings
  • Change language/locale
  • Change keyboard layout
  • Turn off VNC Server or change its password

VNC Server. That is an interesting feature for youtubers and maybe cloud users.

Now Rescatux starts up a VNC server at startup so that you can access it from the network. I have asked adrian15 on how to setup an static ip from boot parametres as I had seen in the past in GRML but he has told me it is not implemented yet. ‘You have to rely on dhcp or setup the static ip manually.’ he has told me. Look at this, we are ready to run Rescapp. Finally! This was getting bored because Rescapp is what matters in this distro.

Is this Rescapp?

What do we have here? This is Rescapp. But this is not the Rescapp that I know of with all those options. Let’s read the windows title:

Rescapp Self-Test

Rescapp checks itself thanks to self-test new functionality

I first thought this screen was meant for people to know if they had boot in Secure Boot or in UEFI mode. That’s useful because when playing with UEFI and BIOS boot I have learnt that every OS in the computer needs to be either boot in UEFI mode or in BIOS mode. Not the two of them mixed.

Later on, while discussing with adrian15 about this option he has told me about him converting rescapp and chntpw (what makes possible to reset Microsoft Windows passwords) into proper Debian packages. As Rescapp is available as an upstream package or as a Debian package it might appear in other distros without being able to show its full potential.

So now when a distro lacks SELinux support you know. If the distro has not packaged the forked version of chntpw that Rescapp uses then you also know. But you are not forbidden of using Rescapp. Maybe SeLinux support (needed by RHEL, Fedora, Centos,…) is not used by your usual distro so it does not affect you.

So Self-test not only helps you to diagnose if you have boot in the proper mode (UEFI or BIOS) but also if your live cd is lacking some of the Rescapp requirements.

After you click on the Start Rescapp !!! button you finally get out beloved Rescapp.

Our beloved Rescapp UI

Rescapp not so updated and angry call

I took a depth look into Rescapp for about long thirty minutes but I didn’t see anything relevant. This was confusing. I was expecting some Secure Boot options now that Rescatux could boot from Secure Boot machines. I was expecting him to fullfill all of the options embeded html documentation that I had complained to him when he released 0.51b3 version and I had to dig inside his rescapp scripts to understand them.

I had to phone adrian15.

He laughed at me. He was expecting my call. Too much work on putting up Rescatux up to date and adding all of those fancy wizards was his explanation. When I was going to complain to him about the awful design of the beta7 text in front of the now sad penguin he told me: Pull requests are welcome and he hung up the phone on me!