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.
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.
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
- Detect and show boot methods option to detect most Operating Systems
- 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 - 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 - 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.
- Direct Kernel with autodetected initrd
- FreeBSD
- FreeBSD (single)
- FreeBSD (verbose)
- FreeBSD (no ACPI)
- FreeBSD (safe mode)
- FreeBSD (Default boot loader)
- EFI files
- Mac OS X/Darwin 32bit or 64bit
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):
EFI x86_64 standalone version:
EFI i386 standalone version:
CD & USB in one downloads:
- Super Grub2 Disk (Floppy, CD & USB in one) 2.02s6 [i386-pc] (ISO)[Mirror #1]
- Super Grub2 Disk (Floppy, CD & USB in one) 2.02s6 [x86_64-efi] (ISO)[Mirror #1]
- Super Grub2 Disk (Floppy, CD & USB in one) 2.02s6 [i386-efi] (ISO)[Mirror #1]
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)
