Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s6 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s6 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 2.00s5 version and released on October 2016 (3 months ago) . New features or changes since previous stable version are:

  • Added Russian language
  • Improved Arch Linux initramfs detection
  • Added i386-efi build support
    Most of you won’t need this image. There are very few machines which specificially need i386-efi boot.
  • Added i386-efi to the hybrid iso
    Now the hybrid iso is even more powerful by being able to autodetect i386-efi and load its modules.
  • Grub itself is translated when a language is selected.
    That means that the strings about such as “Use the up and down keys to select …” from grub itself will be also translated into your own language (if upstream Grub2 supports it)
  • Added loopback.cfg file (non officially supported)
    Some people would like to be able to chainload into Super Grub2 Disk scripts from another Super Grub2 Disk or a custom Grub2 Disk. Now you can do it by doing a configfile to our loopback.cfg. However this way of working is not officially supported. So do not ask for support if it does not work as you expect to.
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 - Detect and show boot methods in action
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 – Detect and show boot methods in action

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.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s6 downloads

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
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
  • Enable all native disk drivers *experimental* crashes Virtualbox randomly

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

94f600567ccf71d5984db94cd7755578  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6_source_code.tar.gz
de3edf82f9dc69f5a7edd105841be040  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s6.iso
bae56cb9c8dc741c198e6850df2c3f64  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s6.iso
367250d7dbd99bc28de18a747e371533  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s6.iso
210669a6675aa64f7a12c0f270ee1526  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s6.EFI
1f07c7333f16a390acd6c2024502ec06  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.EFI
ad370d006a6dbfe06ae05492c5157424  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.iso

SHA1SUMS

515448774c79864c5bd8423985cca495ed45f6b5  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6_source_code.tar.gz
30f21c486b0874dd708dd28d03651074ac776867  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s6.iso
ac7c3e0627119a6c0383c7f191d68b2408ec213a  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s6.iso
32f9aebfb61c1e1c5939ecb91d562a212ba408dd  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s6.iso
8ba74bbb1b6c262b4a0e9d6cef334227f68362f6  super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s6.EFI
aca02a3d0186649d69505688f1d6613cd12fbcfa  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.EFI
a118644da399852e9e95257c669963dc35ba2170  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.iso

SHA256SUMS

a387b4f0dbde79779ab258079ca3b7ec9b929aa218ee42a9e31f33dfd1c1df2c  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6_source_code.tar.gz
06d8ad3c3faaeb3ad24f28c42774a6bbb4aa80cd1bf64f7f2a0cfe3b161d5b44  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s6.iso
9ac3e38279871d922f3d23bf2a749dd1b331256c70093a9ab9cd8a9088a9c012  super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s6.iso
e08e228bd5f27ef8252759eb400ba3b4e77e3b2da843a1a03e45c380242275a6  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6/super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s6.iso
a445505c66b18d582311a1a4b2c4f15d4fd1140273a6f25966539ca5f9f92dc5  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6/super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s6.EFI
c7cf206231fe3c07771a2891eb2f24bba02495937eaac84dae26262f648a2161  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6/super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.EFI
e3cbf3e63f3cc5a102affb54a567816c2874aaf03e356485cd42a333b2a9460c  super_grub2_disk_2.02s6/super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s6.iso

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

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:

  • bfree (Niall Wash): For his work in readding the i386-efi support and for being there when I did live development streams.
  • jim945: For his work on Russian language and improving Arch Linux initramfs detection.
  • schierlm: For his pull request for adding loopback.cfg support.

The person who writes this article is adrian15 and he added some scripts for easing official releases.

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

There are two main improvements than can be made to Super Grub2 Disk in the next releases:

  • Fix md5sum files associated to iso files so that they don’t have to full path.
  • Use new upstream Grub release. We still use the upstream 2.02 beta 3 version. According to a recent announce a new Grub will be released on next February.

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, 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 2.02s5 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 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 2.00s4 version and released on March 2016 (7 months ago) . New features or changes since previous stable version are:

  • Make UEFI only options and BIOS/CMS only options clear.
    If you boot in UEFI mode you are not able to chainload partitions (Operating systems installed in BIOS mode). Now we make that fact clear by prepending BIOS-BOOT-REQUIRED to these entries. Same thing applies in the reverse case. If you boot in BIOS mode you are not able to load EFI files (Operating systems installed in UEFI mode). Now we make that fact clear by prepending UEFI-BOOT-REQUIRED to these entries. If you insist on booting those entries Super Grub2 Disk refuses to boot them and explains why.
  • New option: Chainload directly /ntldr or /bootmgr.
    (Note this new option will only work in BIOS/CSM mode). This option chainloads Windows’ ntldr or Windows’ bootmgr. It should be useful if you have somehow corrupted your Windows partition boot record. It might also be useful if you clone Windows into another hard disk and it refuses to boot.
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 - Detect and show boot methods in action
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s5 – Detect and show boot methods in action

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.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s6 downloads

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
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, x86_64-efi) (ISO)
  • EFI x86_64 standalone version (EFI)
  • Additional Floppy, CD and USB in one download (ISO)
    • i386-pc
    • x86_64-efi

Known bugs

  • Non English translations are not completed
  • Enable all native disk drivers *experimental* crashes Virtualbox randomly

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, 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:

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

5d8002217b96e1754b5e8a26c4fb02b5  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s5.iso
d1ef0ec79ef6cfb34457345d1e625d8c  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s5.iso
1d488871fb9fcbb02c49dea9145a14c3  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.EFI
edc135a543e2f2d91ec8fadf3a7a2455  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.iso

SHA1SUMS

896f65b8466b810cc0998b2949950c2b9c3b439f  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s5.iso
54d7965b3c4c3418ec2bbfbdb2a427d2246aeb6f  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s5.iso
35188ee4f3ffa7aaeaa646b008e62cd7dbef6c1c  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.EFI
3ea81df42e3a71d915b92c4dc35a55a90a7c593d  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.iso

SHA256SUMS

886b2bdedb94a009397a15812980ef12eb1f3f7be7d936433b16d2cb7c624f8d  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s5.iso
d41da27eae7d9bba3ccb341122cba36fc2bc36afd35661931953934f3a0bb451  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s5.iso
86342e9ee4ccc9030a4d5d63d158f924a74841eccd376cc8f202d3c7c7a2c86a  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.EFI
143bde6b79df2532d230c79772ede7f9473883ac138ad26eb9d67c8c12c79238  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s5.iso

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

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:

  • bfree (Niall Wash): For his work in adding the code that highlights options that need to be booted in BIOS mode if you boot from UEFI and viceversa. Also for his work on building i386-efi versions of Super Grub2 Disk and other flavours which we will probably use in next beta versions of Super Grub2 Disk.

The person who writes this article is adrian15 and he’s amazed he did not use ntldr command before because while doing UEFI tests it does not appear at all.

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

There are two main improvements than can be made to Super Grub2 Disk in the next releases:

  • Use bfree code so that we can build again files for i386-efi architecture.
  • Use new upstream Grub release. We still use the upstream 2.02 beta 3 version. According to a recent announce a new Grub will be released on next February.

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 2016. Now I need to add two UEFI features, 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 stats in a random 2016 day

I have choosen a random day from 2016 to generate some stats of Super Grub2 Disk usage (and their users). I could use some better stats from a longer period of time but being exact is not the purpose of this post.

Social networks

Unlike last year there has been no interaction from Google+.

Twitter (1),  yeah, some twits (2) can be found on twitter (3).

Video

There are people who watch old videos(4)  and new videos(5) on Youtube.

They happen to upload them into sendvid(6) too.

Reddit

Actually it was a subreddit (6).

Countries

  • Brasil (1)
  • (Probably) Brasil (6)
  • USA (2)
  • Germany (3), (5), (7)
  • Unknown (4)
  • Swaziland (8)
  • Italy (9)

Technology

Some people use flash disks (8) and some other chrome books (9). I guess many of them just use plain GNU/Linux (6).

 Summary

As you can see Super Grub2 Disk is being used daily on many parts of the globe on such distant places as Brasil, USA or even Swaziland. Given this year stats we could say that Germany is an IT country. You can learn that Chrome books are now among us. Hopefully many of the Super Grub2 Disk final users are young and will never need to ask for help.

See you next year!

Approximatively in a year I will redo the stats again so that we can compare with this year’s stats.

What happened last year?

If you want to check last year stats please check: Super Grub2 Disk stats in a random 2015 day.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 released

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 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 2.00s3 version and released on May 2015 (10 months ago) . New features or changes since previous stable version are:

  • Using upstream grub-2.02-beta3 tag as the new base for Super Grub2 Disk’s grub.
    If Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 let you boot into your OS but Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 does not let you boot into your OS please report it so that we can report it back to the grub team which tries to release a Grub 2.02 stable release.
  • Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on BCD) Windows Vista, 7, …
    That means that even if Windows 7 is alone in the hard disk (with no GNU/Linux) it will now be detected and you will be able to boot it if the partition boot record is ok. The fix was trivial, take into account that ntfs is case sensitive but, somehow, not enough people had complained about it. So, please, if something it’s not working as expected report it.
  • Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on ntldr) Windows XP, 2000, …
    Same explanation as per Windows 7 but applied to Windows XP.
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 - Windows 7 detected
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s4 – Windows 7 detected

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
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 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, x86_64-efi) (ISO)
  • EFI x86_64 standalone version (EFI)
  • Additional Floppy, CD and USB in one download (ISO)
    • i386-pc
    • x86_64-efi

Known bugs

  • Non English translations are not completed
  • Enable all native disk drivers *experimental* crashes Virtualbox randomly

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, 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:

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. Help is welcome on this subject.

 

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

dcb779162fad41805839f709897f8c9e super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s4.iso
aa5c41e32554f9e5150f70e0fa621d80 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s4.iso
48c7a8464543d783936cf92656bf4b5f super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.EFI
91e81de1e92d3364026823a722d050b7 super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.iso

SHA1SUMS

6fed370c439d298d64aa99bf10d0ffc8d078de5e super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s4.iso
cde22454c213d050c96643e4d93d45f7592bc2d5 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s4.iso
41e5de11fea74ce2ba7a543be3a00ecb6d8f2333 super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.EFI
e3864e1a8b41021a38885f8bfba5dc57f0ec323d super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.iso

SHA256SUMS

a60bc71148e3f8f669ba2a131c4bc1352e0f34164f1f0ddae695462ad6f9ae7b super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s4.iso
d2fc6346885ef2aa96360f288b6fc3f3c8c2880c8f7e86bdf60d77a65958a6e9 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s4.iso
009092adcd4af6eaca051873d87976684be8142ec5dfb6cccb843ad6e001fe5a super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.EFI
d6cbddfd762db93ef03b374700bed061fd2a50a8d8523272cba8804b7833952d super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s4.iso

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

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:

  • bfree (Niall Wash): For his work in rethinking how Super Grub2 Disk grub script might be rewritten although we never used that code. For adding code for EFI chainloader, helping on building and testing Super Grub2 Disk EFI releases.
  • Jordan_U (Jordan Uggla) (jordan.uggla AT gmail DOT com): For his work in rewriting Lua Super Grub2 Disk into new Grub2 scripting. Also for his work in translation system based on gettext and po. And also I want to thank him for all this work in Super Grub2 Disk in many many ways.
  • nox (Juergen Lock) (nox AT freebsd DOT org): For his work in fixing *BSD boot entries and helping adding new *BSD boot entries and testing.
  • Smx (Stefano): For his Mac OS X / Darwin boot fixes and testing. He has also worked in redesigning some of the menues and probably his work will be included in next Super Grub2 Disk versions. He has also worked in a keyboard selection menu on his own too. That will be also included in next versions.

The person who writes this article is adrian15 and is proud of being responsible among other things for the rewriting of options as if they were libraries. And also for the User Interface (UI) complete redesign.

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 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 2016. It’s a shame because last time I predicted July 2015. But, well, I don’t want to maintain many forks myself. That’s why I want to contribute some of these subprojects (E.g. UEFI support on Debian Live) to Debian properly and that takes some time.

(adrian15 speaking)

Getting help on using Super Grub2 Disk

More information about Super Grub2 Disk

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 released

I am not proud to announce Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 stable.

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 2.00s2 version and released on May 2014 (one year ago). This release does not have as many new features as the previous stable version but some of them are quite interesting:

  • New option: ‘Disks and Partitions (Chainload)’ adapted from Smx work.
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 - Chainload Disks and Partitions
Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s3 – Chainload Disks and Partitions
  • 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.
  • Most options had their search code improved. Super Grub2 Disk should be faster.
  • Based on grub 2.02 ( commit: 8e5bc2f4d3767485e729ed96ea943570d1cb1e45 )
  • Super Grub2 Disk builds its own grub based on upstream grub instead of Debian grub.
  • Mac OS X kernel detection was improved to avoid false detections.
  • 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.
  • Many options titles were rewritten so that they are better understood.

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.

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 2.02s3 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
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 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, x86_64-efi) (ISO)
  • EFI x86_64 standalone version (EFI)
  • Additional Floppy, CD and USB in one download (ISO)
    • i386-pc
    • x86_64-efi

Known bugs

  • Non English translations are not completed
  • Enable all native disk drivers *experimental* crashes Virtualbox randomly

Supported Media

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

Downloads







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:

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. Help is welcome on this subject.

 

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

e7515b7d4e9ea90f28b7f5a534906b85  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s3.iso
1538893f58fa9dbd3a1fd5a3789f7cb5  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s3.iso
38260bfd2b93586a25b2db1a27072661  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.EFI
247f2219579d1826cf6fbdbee37d1296  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.iso

SHA1SUMS

e1f0da49d4e600383647875f773f6182a5e3f3c4  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s3.iso
c4087937567d28f46f18c100ee047057d3acbac4  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s3.iso
7af5cbbf947caa975a406b70c43fad803ba9c10d  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.EFI
1e49427f95dcff3dc0318f20bbe934b4a5eb3493  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.iso

SHA256SUMS

74def37a1208e4e2f54bbe4bd1b66337b6f026a6c553a3b8e7db8e2206fd59ed  super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s3.iso
ce46670541ed9506832d1bf255a454273ac493beee68e88f823687c8ae3cc340  super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s3.iso
c4589c1d12fdf1260d025d11908f985a4e2b5c6b63e61d64ef0fc36e27613b30  super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.EFI
3ba7724f871f83d6996b74a529c79e6b7c237d7951eb642fd5fb7740f5d0464c  super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s3.iso

Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)

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:

  • bfree (Niall Wash): For his work in rethinking how Super Grub2 Disk grub script might be rewritten although we never used that code. For adding code for EFI chainloader, helping on building and testing Super Grub2 Disk EFI releases.
  • Jordan_U (Jordan Uggla) (jordan.uggla AT gmail DOT com): For his work in rewriting Lua Super Grub2 Disk into new Grub2 scripting. Also for his work in translation system based on gettext and po. And also I want to thank him for all this work in Super Grub2 Disk in many many ways.
  • nox (Juergen Lock) (nox AT freebsd DOT org): For his work in fixing *BSD boot entries and helping adding new *BSD boot entries and testing.
  • Smx (Stefano): For his Mac OS X / Darwin boot fixes and testing. He has also worked in redesigning some of the menues and probably his work will be included in next Super Grub2 Disk versions. He has also worked in a keyboard selection menu on his own too. That will be also included in next versions.

The person who writes this article is adrian15 and is proud of being responsible among other things for the rewriting of options as if they were libraries. And also for the User Interface (UI) complete redesign.

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 to be stalled

There has not been too much feedback for Super Grub2 Disk betas. Hopefully this new stable release come back with new bugs (Yes, it’s sad to say so). As I want to focus on new Rescatux stable if no one wants to help on Super Grub2 Disk development there won’t be any new release (stable or beta) in a long time.

Rescatux development

I want to focus on Rescatux development on the next months so that we have an stable release on July 2015. I will probably base it on newest Debian Jessie.

(adrian15 speaking)

Getting help on using Super Grub2 Disk

More information about Super Grub2 Disk

Super Grub2 Disk stats in a random 2015 day

I have choosen a random day from 2015 to generate some stats of Super Grub2 Disk usage (and their users). I could use some better stats from a longer period of time but being exact is not the purpose of this post.

Social networks

There are people who use Google + (1), and comment on it (2). Yeah, although you might not believe it some people use Google+ (3).

Twitter (8),  yeah, some twits (9) can be found on twitter (10).

Video

There are people who record their videos on Youtube (1) or that use it (2). Actually Youtube (3) is quite popular.

Countries

Operating Systems

Some people still use the quite old Windows 7 (4). Other people use Gentoo (11).

 Summary

As you can see Super Grub2 Disk is being used daily on many parts of the globe on such distant places as Japan, USA or Iran. You can learn that Windows 10 has not been released yet because people still use Windows 7. Hopefully many of the Super Grub2 Disk are young and will never need to ask for help.

See you next year!

Approximatively in a year I will redo the stats again so that we can compare with this year’s stats.

Improve grub detect loop (Super Grub2 Disk – Live Development)

This live development is about improving grub detect script so that it does not loop so much. We will also try to do other improvements.

I would have liked to announce it more in advance but that’s you what you get. Two days or so.

It will take about half an hour or an hour. Depending on it I might do an additional live development for Rescatux after it.

So if you want to join the conversation you need to join the #sgrub channel at freenode.

March 1, 2015  at 15:00 UTC Time.

Check the exact time for your country.

Remove SG2D devices from search (Super Grub2 Disk – Live Development)

Last week I learnt (adrian15 speaking) about other people doing live streams while programming. It sound as something stupid you doing a live streaming when you develop but as I saw all the streamings most of them where in non open source languages or non open source projects. So I told myself that I had to do it too.

The other reason is that it might help other people who are doubtful about contributing to Super Grub2 Disk to finally begin to do so. Because, it’s not as difficult as it might seem.

So last weekend I performed a public live devopment streaming which I announced in Super Grub2 Disk chat channel.

As you might see there are two things to be improved in the video:

  • Sound quality (I need something to remove my laptop fan noise at runtime)
  • Video quality. I think I will record with my second screen at 1024×768 instead of squeezing my bigger screen to 1024×768. This might improve video quality.

So I promise I’ll try to announce the live development streamings with more time, probably three or fours days in advance so that you can join by the chat.

So, here there is the video about how I managed to remove Super Grub2 Disk devices from search by default. You can find its associated commit here.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s2 Beta 1 released

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