Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s2 Beta 1 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

This is an exciting release. For the first time we are not relying on Debian’s grub packages but on our own grub2 build system. Yes, just like the distributions do when they build their own packages.

This improvement let us to track grub git so that we can use its latest features. Sometimes you choose to rely on an stable grub release but sometimes some features are needed  as right now.

One of these features is being able of booting from EFI system from a hard disk or usb in EFI mode. (That feature was wrongly announced in the past releases of Super Grub2 Disk as being functional). And, what it’s better than that… The same disk also works for BIOS based boot and also for CDROM boot.

Let me repeat it slowly. With Super Grub2 Disk hybrid iso you will be able to boot from:

  • EFI mode. Cdrom or DVD media.
  • EFI mode. USB or hard disk media.
  • BIOS mode. Cdrom or DVD media.
  • BIOS mode. USB or hard disk media.

Another fix from upstream grub enables us to avoid showing Super Grub2 Disk device itself as a (wrongly detected) Mac OS X installation. This error arised on last beta and we discovered that grub itself did not work ok when testing two expressions if the first one was detecting if a file existed or not. You can check this grub commit if you are interested.

That same fix might make Super Grub2 Disk run faster because now our tests will work as expected. I haven’t tested Super Grub2 Disk speed myself so if you have feedback on it please report here on the comments.

Dedicated to forum.ubuntu-fr.org and malbo

I want to dedicate this release to the Communauté francophone d’utilisateurs d’Ubuntu forum people and specially to malbo who managed to make Super Grub2 Disk to boot from a USB thanks to the standalone version. Now the Super Grub2 Disk hybrid version should boot in either BIOS or EFI mode when burned to a cdrom and also when dd to a hard disk. No need to build your own usb version for that.

I know that around that community there are many great people that did find many ways of dealing with EFI specifics (Hopefully I can reuse some of these next year for Rescatux) but I chose malbo because he is great at writing howtos or step-by-step instructions so that other people can debug why their systems do not boot and hopefully they can finally boot into them.

Unfortunately Microsoft’s approved secure boot is not in my Super Grub2 Disk TODO list because of ethical reasons. That would even help even more, till then, make sure you disable secure boot when booting from Super Grub2 Disk in an EFI machine.

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. Use dd to put Super Grub2 Disk in your usb device if you want to make use of it.

 

Recommended download (Valid for i386, x86_64, and x86_64-efi):

 

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s1 Beta 1 Main menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s1 Beta 1 Main menu

 

EFI x86_64 standalone version:

Floppy, CD & USB in one downloads:

About other downloads

As we no longer rely on Debian grub packages some of the releases have been removed (till someone teachs me how to rebuild them). The downloads you will not be finding are: coreboot, i386-efi, ieee1275, standalone i386-efi and standalone ieee1275. Help is welcome on this subject and also feedback if someone was actually using them or not. Else I might remove them completely.

How to test

Try to boot your desired operating system with this version. If it does not boot try the 2.00s2 stable version. If you can boot with the stable version but not with this beta version please report it to the bug tracker.

This is a Super Grub2 Disk tutorial that it’s not based in this beta version but that can help you understand what you can do with Super Grub2 Disk.

Development miscelanea:

  • This release was built in a Debian jessie system but using upstream 2.02 grub version (commit 8e5bc2f4d3767485e729ed96ea943570d1cb1e45).
  • Please check the new DEVELOPMENT file if you plan to build Super Grub2 Disk on your own very often.

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

Note: 2.02s2-beta1 means:

  • 2.02: Upstream Grub 2.02 version
  • s2 : Super Grub2 Disk scripts version (inside this Upstream Grub version)
  • beta1: Beta 1

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s1 Beta 1 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

Changelog

  • Based on Grub 2.02 (commit bac5d1a64ab4191058a8fd4c05f6b3b339e249e7 )
  • 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.

Recommended download (Valid for i386, x86_64, and x86_64-efi):

 

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s1 Beta 1 Main menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s1 Beta 1 Main menu

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: standalone EFI x86_64, coreboot, i386-efi, i386-pc, ieee1275, x86_64-efi, standalone coreboot, standalone i386-efi, standalone ieee1275. Help is welcome on this subject.

How to test.

Try to boot your desired operating system with this version. If it does not boot try the 2.00s2 stable version. If you can boot with the stable version but not with this beta version please report it to the bug tracker.

This is a Super Grub2 Disk tutorial that it’s not based in this beta version but that can help you understand what you can do with Super Grub2 Disk.

Development miscelanea:

  • This release was built in a Debian jessie system but using upstream 2.02 grub version (commit bac5d1a64ab4191058a8fd4c05f6b3b339e249e7).
  • I want to thank Jordan Uggla to teach me about what were the Grub2 native disk drivers and what nativedisk command did actually. phcoder did try once to explain it but I wasn’t smart enough to understand it. Hopefully I can help with nativedisk help text inside Grub2.
  • This new “Enable all native disk drivers” option unloads the usually default biosdisk drivers which talks to the bios to access hard disks (Like did MS-DOS in the old days) and replaces it with native drivers (as a normal Operating System would do). It also manages to find somehow the old Super Grub2 Disk device and define the correct $prefix variable.
  • In my tests this new option: “Enable all native disk drivers” aborts Virtualbox. That means that we are also testing Grub2 or maybe Virtualbox. Please check my submitted bug.
  • We have renamed many menues so that their purpose is more clear.

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

Note: 2.02s1-beta1 means:

  • 2.02: Upstream Grub 2.02 version
  • s1 : Super Grub2 Disk scripts version (inside this Upstream Grub version)
  • beta1: Beta 1

Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 downloads

Download, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Stable

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

Floppy, CD & USB in one downloads:

Standalone versions:

Source code:

Everything (All binary releases and source code):

Hashes

In order to check the former downloads you can either download:

or you can check their contents right here.

MD5SUMS

8063a27f804c72c334ae168e6080d6d6  super_grub2_disk_coreboot_2.00s2.iso
4e7a64ceed96a072b6ccef3ea05aff00  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s2.iso
3642c487cda17d8a43aca699fd0a6f20  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.00s2.iso
e8d9d4efe4f29a90883f5c2ed6b45620  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.00s2.iso
86a029507e5e6d24d0381515d065f634  super_grub2_disk_ieee1275_2.00s2.iso
dde7dc3ce33b98af6d9721a0d9d3943d  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_coreboot_2.00s2.img
79acccf2a79ffe35a5cc538e3e61203c  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.00s2.EFI
b73f02be50f04cc9a97c739946890fec  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_ieee1275_2.00s2.img
b2a1fb232e0b30e4a8eeecdf33e1dbe9  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.EFI
ff122ad1f0e2fa269a3e5238bcd617cc  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.iso
7edd784638d4b46a08fa26318208c7a0  super_grub2_disk_2.00s2_source_code.tar.gz

SHA1SUMS

10d89d06ae327432b847fc2e8f95eaedb5466c63  super_grub2_disk_coreboot_2.00s2.iso
8093d72934e4c7764a30790505151fabedccb337  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s2.iso
a61f21a4829dd347d8688783c4d8e8b5c41aabe1  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.00s2.iso
fab1116b71ebafeb18aa82a5113f3b17b951a922  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.00s2.iso
ed8ecfb82e9543a71d0ddc22691a954d65216376  super_grub2_disk_ieee1275_2.00s2.iso
cadcd107de4ea15de34ed9ea6aa754cb3ee9df5e  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_coreboot_2.00s2.img
8849b47da51006b8ed6afc86bf78729506ab0db2  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.00s2.EFI
e1fd93f4959b8a1e35ef9b44f3362ec87ba68b40  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_ieee1275_2.00s2.img
8a371d464974e275723c427e17834d9b24fad69b  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.EFI
f973460399de09f7b96dffed89257e0de738e501  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.iso
2f3c2e93ee5e6ea3d1fd6d33682db8f3c0286850  super_grub2_disk_2.00s2_source_code.tar.gz

SHA256SUMS

c96dadd25928f64fc51627737c36546fe439279c4fb7e05d73794b4d77a39413  super_grub2_disk_coreboot_2.00s2.iso
99f729d083fb4aaa2dff357d100f460a7120313c93cfbfa619ef83e52061b7d9  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.00s2.iso
3cbdd672f27b441c7296ca360ca52373a6c90b2c1b34f1ad939ee86450e7acba  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.00s2.iso
c2a60b8cdd332c45218e3eadee88debbbfe4a6597a47ef5bb98a1221363dddff  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.00s2.iso
23f3259cf9156eac11c6f1d26ffdbf587ab988ae3f0496f57e333e94e9367cb9  super_grub2_disk_ieee1275_2.00s2.iso
725987d2ad3abbd8ce7e25768d2b751428525cb718a8cde2a4fd29f5149eb62d  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_coreboot_2.00s2.img
88d56819eaad29a4b618d42d00f9625e9cd2d3cb6baf3991cbf56fb0b7478047  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.00s2.EFI
ad9bcb42f3971e99fbbe739ea9ca69dfd43106da5e63bcbe7843d83909273758  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_ieee1275_2.00s2.img
333c520a6206e050fd151b577a2e17a921e3412909ef9ed8776cc7584172dd7d  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.EFI
52ba8c5d3c576188c800a5522c785c758f46fb67e4fa3b1e28cc94c77320c0af  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.00s2.iso
4fd9326f7c224e7f06fca038f305ae9658d2c19bfe8f728b1026acc8338a6495  super_grub2_disk_2.00s2_source_code.tar.gz

Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 Release Candidate 5 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

Please spread the word.

We need people to hard test this release so that we can release as an stable one !!! Hopefully in one month time.

Note: Previous release was 2.01rc3, that’s right. We have changed versioning back to previous method. 2.00s2rc4 means:

  • 2.00: Upstream Grub 2.00 version
  • s2 : Super Grub2 Disk scripts version (inside this Upstream Grub version)
  • rc4: Release Candidate 4

sorry for the confusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTR7Pkrd-1g

This is a release candidate release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker.

Recommended download (Valid for i386, x86_64, and x86_64-efi):

Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 rc4 Mac OS X entries
Super Grub2 Disk 2.00s2 rc4 Mac OS X entries (Image credit to: Smx)
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Main Menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 rc2 Main Menu

EFI x86_64 standalone version:

Floppy, CD & USB in one downloads:

Standalone versions:

Changelog

  • Fix OS X Boot thanks to Smx.
  • Add extra boot parametres for OS X kernels. Thanks to Smx which inspired the code from his own repo.
  • Quote menuentries or functions parametres to avoid problems with variables with spaces on them.

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

Development miscelanea:

  • This release was built in a Debian testing system using 2.00-22 grub version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 Release Candidate 3 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

Please spread the word. We need people to hard test this release so that we can release as an stable one !!! Hopefully in one month time. Latest RC2 version already did it by finding a new bug and fixing it in less than 24 hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTR7Pkrd-1g

This is a release candidate release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker.

Recommended download (Valid for i386, x86_64, 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:

Floppy, CD & USB in one downloads:

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

Standalone versions:

Changelog

  • EFI detection: Make sure to detect all the lower-upper case combinations of efi files.

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

Development miscelanea:

  • This release was built in a Debian testing system using 2.00-22 grub version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 Release Candidate 2 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

Please spread the word. We need people to hard test this release so that we can release as an stable one !!! Hopefully in one month time.

This is a release candidate release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker.

Recommended download (Valid for i386, x86_64, and x86_64-efi):

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

EFI x86_64 standalone version:

Floppy, CD & USB in one downloads:

Standalone versions:

Changelog

  • osdetect: Linux entry now shows its device
  • osdetect: Mac OS X/Darwin entry now shows its device
  • Fixed wrong EFI files detection
  • supergrub-meta-mkrescue now builds standalone images for: x86_64-efi, i386-efi, i386-coreboot and i386-ieee1275
  • Bug Fix: Fix gfxterm trigger. Now translation work as expected. Special characters are shown ok
  • Spanish (es) translation was updated to match the new options
  • Translations files were updated to reflect new strings
  • Code was fixed so that all the visible strings can be translated
  • Minor design improvements

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

Development miscelanea:

  • This release was built in a Debian testing system using 2.00-22 grub version.
  • 2.01 Release Candidate 1 was not publicy release, that’s why you are seeing RC2 instead of RC1.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

This is a beta release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker. If you have non standard pc hardware please check Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 2 release so that you can give us feedback.

Recommended download:

 

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 grub.cfg Extract entries option
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 3 grub.cfg Extract entries option

 

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

 

 

Changelog:

  • Added a new option: ‘grub.cfg – Extract entries‘. Now you can load your own grub.cfg entries even if you had setup a 0 seconds timeout by default
  • New Exit menu that let’s you halt or reboot your machine
  • Several improvements to the UI. Now you can see what option you have choosen and it is easier to return to previous menu.

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

Development miscelanea:

  • The release an standalone release which might be useful for some EFI systems is still pending.
  • There’s no too much coding left. Just the part of making sure translations make sense. Although it is not difficult it will take some time.
  • This release was built in a Debian testing system using 2.00-22 grub version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 2 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

This is a beta release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker. If you use any of the images for the specific hardware please comment in this same post.

Recommended download:

Additional downloads for very specific hardware:

 

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 2 featuring 'Everything +' option
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 2 featuring ‘Everything +’ option

Changelog:

  • Most every option was rewritten in a library way:
    • That makes easier to update Super Grub2 Disk
    • It also makes it easier to have a consistent UI
  • New option: ‘Everything +‘
    • Which initially loads LVM, RAID, PATA, USB and also tries to mount encrypted volumes
    • Then tries to find all the bootable entries thanks to Everything entry
  • Most of the options now have a consistent UI

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

Development miscelanea:

  • We might also release an standalone release which might be useful for some EFI systems.
  • There’s no too much coding left. Just make sure translations make sense and probably the Exit menu for halting or rebooting the computer.
  • This release was build in a Debian testing system using 2.00-22 grub version.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 1 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

This is a beta release so please comment any issue you find at the bug tracker.

Download:

Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 1 - Main menu
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 1 – Redesigned Main menu

Changelog:

  • New option: ‘Everything‘ to boot most anything with a single enter
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 1 - Everything option in action
Super Grub2 Disk 2.01 beta 1 – Everything option in action
  • UI redesign of final boot options so that they are clearly distinguished
  • UI redesign of extra options into submenu
  • UI redesign of manual options into submenu
  • New script: supergrub-meta-mkrescue for building several target+platform combinations
  • New boot technology based on conditional AFD
  • Improved build documentation

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

Development miscelanea:

  • Expect to come two new options:
    • Everything + Extra functionality
    • Everything + Extra functionality + Extra Search

Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 beta 6 released

Download, News, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk, Super Grub2 Disk Beta

Alternatively you can also obtain Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 beta 6 included in Rescatux 0.31 beta 4.

This is the changelog:

  • FreeBSD boot wasn’t working ok. Fixed.
  • Added default boot loader entries for FreeBSD at OS detection script

If you want to translate into your language please check TRANSLATION file at source code to learn how to translate into your language.
This is a beta release so please comment any issue you find at the forum.

Development miscelanea:

  • Jordan Uggla has said he would have some spare time to work in SG2D. Let’s hope it’s true.
  • Thanks to nox- from irc for the FreeBSD testing and fixing.
  • Thanks to Niall Walsh for his current work on trying to improve the OS autodetect feature.

(adrian15 speaking)

As a side note the current HEAD at git says that SG2D version is 2.00s1-beta5 while it’s actually 2.00s1-beta6. Next beta should be the 7th one.