Super Grub2 Disk 2.02s8 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 2.02s7 version and released on February 2017 (1 month ago) . New features or changes since previous stable version are:
- Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02~rc2 . This is the release candidate for final stable 2.02 upstream Grub release. Please use this build to give them (upstream Grub) feedback on this version. It’s advised to ask here before reporting to them so that we discard the bug being a Super Grub2 Disk specific one.
- Thanks to a Necrosporus suggestion now default theme starfield is no longer included. Images are now smaller. E.g. the hybrid image size it’s 19.3 MB while former version image size was 22 MB.
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
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
- 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.
- FreeBSD
- FreeBSD (single)
- FreeBSD (verbose)
- FreeBSD (no ACPI)
- FreeBSD (safe mode)
- FreeBSD (Default boot loader)
- EFI files
- Mac OS X/Darwin 32bit or 64bit
- Direct Kernel with autodetected initrd
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) 2.02s8 [i386-pc] (ISO)[Mirror #1]
- Super Grub2 Disk (Floppy, CD & USB in one) 2.02s8 [x86_64-efi] (ISO)[Mirror #1]
- Super Grub2 Disk (Floppy, CD & USB in one) 2.02s8 [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
6d2cf16a731798ec6b14e8893563674b super_grub2_disk_2.02s8_source_code.tar.gz 294417a0e5b58adc6f80ef8ee9b3783e super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s8.iso b74cac92e6f74316dd794e98e5ba92e6 super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s8.iso 7345fdcfad9fa9cd7af6e88d737bc167 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s8.iso 0d21930618d36f04826251e51d9f921e super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s8.EFI ba803db5593b0e5cc50908644fd02fba super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.EFI 02bed470193e14ca7578ef045f8cc45a super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.iso cce6f2fae3c7b8507b7635417cc6426e super_grub2_disk_2.02s8.zip
SHA1SUMS
70f22db153c4d5275c6668b6746b2d2902b7ef40 super_grub2_disk_2.02s8_source_code.tar.gz cf652d1fe21743180f555a34e89f95763310aaf3 super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s8.iso 31c8a20049bc22cf6e6dd6e4f8c3cb95ef9a71e4 super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s8.iso 5d47e42a967b9b13809956b21d86f77bcead73c9 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s8.iso cad195239ec05234d4f8d801e087cf8277f7cb53 super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s8.EFI 3c1a8b1f86349b66241706adeeef31ac14d415f1 super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.EFI a942195ca18ffa74874bbde909fe3aa6200dad7c super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.iso d119ed8ae06475e689106ec9c48e19970f14517b super_grub2_disk_2.02s8.zip
SHA256SUMS
2a7b845358c6fe5dfc62ea7f0b1d927793fc8b5ee6725760e79ab1bbfd10ffeb super_grub2_disk_2.02s8_source_code.tar.gz 83e37560147cbe730f95e6a70b2670a68049016cd2460849bbeb8a0b9c1a62be super_grub2_disk_hybrid_2.02s8.iso 42a9cad65a183a8e924b74ef8c2e1fe6a00fc490021380d99ca817b11c97ea0a super_grub2_disk_i386_efi_2.02s8.iso badb54279d5f35a866c043921b56a1583f6d1ee88a80fd3790931cc0aa315709 super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.02s8.iso 5196bec9f32132f1855876e3cce8ba3400f6ce7d1fd8d78c7458b2ac4c7c716a super_grub2_disk_standalone_i386_efi_2.02s8.EFI 55f094295bc22b775009ce2531a6ec99f2dbbd1380d38a155e9f8eb6cce420f3 super_grub2_disk_standalone_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.EFI f1c0dbb02fb42f2262937f571a2707a718677c2b8cd6a6fb7c899a8d89fffe20 super_grub2_disk_x86_64_efi_2.02s8.iso c50d2e13e5b03b8abec64f8036767170e99a9944e04b3c6ffb0f6df27940e236 super_grub2_disk_2.02s8.zip
Changelog (since former 2.00s2 stable release)
Changes since 2.02s7 version:
- Use grub-2.02-rc2 upstream grub2 tag
- Default theme starfield is no longer included. This will make images smaller.
- (Devel) Make sure normal isos and standalone images have hash files without its full path.
- (Devel) File hashes generation has been rewritten to work from the single supergrub-mkcommon generate_filename_hashes function
- (Devel) Now MD5SUMS, SHA1SUMS and SHA256SUMS files are generated as part of the official build.
Changes since 2.02s6 version:
- Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02~rc1
Changes since 2.02s5 version:
- Added Russian language
- Improved Arch Linux initramfs detection
- Added i386-efi build support
- Added i386-efi to the hybrid iso
- Grub itself is translated when a language is selected
- Added loopback.cfg file (non officially supported)
- (Devel) sgrub.pot updated to latest strings
- (Devel) Added grub-build-004-make-check so that we ensure the build works
- (Devel) Make sure linguas.sh is built when running ‘grub-build-002-clean-and-update’
- (Devel) Updated upstream Super Grub2 Disk repo on documentation
- (Devel) Move core supergrub menu under menus/sgd
- (Devel) Use sg2d_directory as the base super grub2 disk directory variable
- (Devel) New supergrub-sourcecode script that creates current git branch source code tar.gz
- (Devel) New supergrub-all-zip-file script: Makes sure a zip file of everything is built.
- (Devel) supergrub-meta-mkrescue: Build everything into releases directory in order to make source code more clean.
- (Devel) New supergrub-official-release script: Build main files, source code and everything zip file from a single script in order to ease official Super Grub
2 Disk releases.
Changes since 2.02s4 version:
- Stop trying to chainload devices under UEFI and improve the help people get in the case of a platform mismatch
- (Devel) Properly support source based built grub-mkfont binary.
- New options were added to chainload directly either /ntldr or /bootmgr thanks to ntldr command. They only work in BIOS mode.
Changes since 2.02s3 version:
- Using upstream grub-2.02-beta3 tag as the new base for Super Grub2 Disk’s grub.
- Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on BCD) Windows Vista, 7, …
- Major improvement in Windows OS detection (based on ntldr) Windows XP, 2000, …
Changes since 2.02s2 beta 1 version:
- (Devel) grub-mkstandalone was deleted because we no longer use it
- Updated (and added) Copyright notices for 2015
- New option: ‘Disks and Partitions (Chainload)’ adapted from Smx work
- Many files were rewritten so that they only loop between devices that actually need to be searched into.
This enhacement will make Super Grub2 Disk faster. - Remove Super Grub2 Disk own devices from search by default. Added an option to be able to enable/disable the Super Grub2 Disk own devices search.
2.02s2 beta 1 changelog:
- Updated grub 2.02 build to commit: 8e5bc2f4d3767485e729ed96ea943570d1cb1e45
- Updated documentation for building Super Grub2 Disk
- Improvement on upstream grub (d29259b134257458a98c1ddc05d2a36c677ded37 – test: do not stop after first file test or closing bracket) will probably make Super Grub2 Disk run faster.
- Added new grub build scripts so that Super Grub2 Disk uses its own built versions of grub and not the default system / distro / chroot one.
- Ensure that Mac OS X entries are detected ok thanks to Users dir. This is because Grub2 needs to emulate Mac OS X kernel so that it’s detected as a proper boot device on Apple computers.
- Thanks to upstream grub improvement now Super Grub2 Disk supports booting in EFI mode when booted from a USB device / hard disk. Actually SG2D was announced previously to boot from EFI from a USB device while it only booted from a cdrom.
2.02s1 beta 1 changelog:
- Added new option: “Enable all native disk drivers” so that you can try to load: SATA, PATA and USB hard disks (and their partitions) as native disk drives. This is experimental.
- Removed no longer needed options: “Enable USB” and “Enable PATA”.
- “Search floppy” and “Search cdrom” options were moved into “Extra GRUB2 functionality menu”. At the same time “Extra Search functionality” menu was removed.
- Added new straight-forward option: “Enable GRUB2’s RAID and LVM support”.
- “List devices/partitions” was renamed to “Print devices/partitions”.
- “Everything” option was renamed to “Detect and show boot methods”.
- “Everything +” option was removed to avoid confusions.
- Other minor improvements in the source code.
- Updated translation files. Now most translations are pending.
- Updated INSTALL instructions.
Finally you can check all the detailed changes at our GIT commits.
If you want to translate into your language please check TRANSLATION file at source code to learn how to translate into your language.
Thank you – Hall of fame
I want to thank in alphabetical order:
- The upstream Grub crew. I’m subscribed to both help-grub and grub-devel and I admire the work you do there.
- Necrosporus for his insistence on making Super Grub2 Disk smaller.
The person who writes this article is adrian15 .
And I cannot forget about thanking bTactic, the enterprise where I work at and that hosts our site.
Some thoughts about Super Grub2 Disk development
Super Grub2 Disk development ideas
I think we won’t improve Super Grub2 Disk too much. We will try to stick to official Grub2 stable releases. Unless a new feature that it’s not included in official Grub2 stable release is needed in order to give additional useful functionalities to Super Grub2 Disk.
I have added some scripts to Super Grub2 Disk build so that writing these pieces of news is more automatic and less prone to errors. Check them out in git repo as you will not find them in 2.02s8 source code.
Old idea: I don’t know when but I plan to readapt some scripts from os-prober. That will let us detect more operating systems. Not sure when though. I mean, it’s not something that worries me because it does not affect too many final users. But, well, it’s something new that I hadn’t thought about.
Again, please send us feedback on what you think it’s missing on Super Grub2 Disk.
Rescatux development
I want to focus on Rescatux development on the next months so that we have an stable release before the end of 2017. Now I need to finish adding UEFI features (most finished), fix the scripts that generate Rescatux source code (difficult) and write much documentation.
(adrian15 speaking)
