[choollaBard]

This instruction works with Ubuntu 8.10.

This is instruction that may be useful to you if you are looking to boot more than just Ubuntu or Fedora or other flavor of Linux from your Flash drive (aka usb drive, keydrive, thumbdrive). Especially if you are an IT personal like myself you will want to have all your neat useful tools on hand and want to be able to boot to them from a single menu.

First you need a good decent size usb drive. Try going for at least a 4Gig. These days you can get a 4Gig at such a low price.


Ok, next you need software.

You do NOT need HP format utility. That's a real ugly and old way of doing it.
You can do this either in windows or linux.
You CAN run other bootable apps such as memtest, partition magic, acronis true image.
Does NOT need to be multi-partitioned usb. No need for swap partition or casper-rw labeled partition.

Step1:
Make your usb bootable.


Download Syslinux from
Index of /pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux

After you download, extract to a folder. Plugin your usb drive.
run the command
syslinux -sf [device]

ex: if linux and your usb device is listed as /dev/sdb1
syslinux -sf /dev/sdb1

if windows and your usb drive letter is d:
syslinux -sf d:

Note: if after following all steps usb still does not boot, even with bios set properly check to make sure that fat32 partition of your usb drive's BOOT Flag is set.

Step 2:
Copy files.

Most of the apps you want to use may be pretty easy to install. You just have to copy the files from ISOs, CDs, or other USBs to the target USB. If 2 programs have same folder names, then rename one of the folders. Often they don't have a problem if you rename the folder as long as syslinux is pointing to the correct location in the menu.

You will NOT need a Linux OS if you just want to create a usb drive with bootable diagnostic or other apps only. However, you WILL still need the syslinux folder from at least ubuntu or fedora linux because that will be our menu. Go into the syslinux folder and rename the isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.

Step 3:
Edit your menu.

Below is my text.cfg file inside the syslinux folder which you can edit to add your own list of menu entries.

You will notice most of the entries will have
menu
kernel
append

for Linux based apps, you kernel is the target app
append is options.

for Dos based apps, kernel needs to point to a file called memtest which allows dos files to run and append points to the dos program you want to run.

for some of the other apps such as Acronis recovery software and some others it will be different. (I'll explain this one further.)


default ubuntu
label ubuntu
menu label ^Ubuntu 8.10
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --
LABEL acronis
menu label ^Acronis True Image Echo
kernel /acronis.bss
append -
LABEL tinyxp
menu label ^TinyXP sp2
bss bartpe.bss
append -
LABEL ntpass
menu label ^Change NT/2K/XP/2K3 Passwords
kernel /chntpw/vmlinuz
append rw vga=1 init=/linuxrc initrd=/chntpw/initrd.cgz,/chntpw/scsi.cgz
label memtest
menu label Test ^memory
kernel /mt86plus
append -
menu begin Hard Disk Drive Diagnostic Tools
menu Hard Disk Drive Diagnostic Tools
LABEL dlgdiag
menu label Western Digital Drive Diagnostics 5
kernel /memdisk
append initrd=/FLPYS/DLGDIAG5.IMZ
LABEL dft
menu label IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test (Generic hdrive diag)
kernel /memdisk
append initrd=/FLPYS/dft.igz
LABEL seatools
menu label SeaTools (Seagate/Maxtor) Drive Diagnostics
kernel /memdisk
append initrd=/FLPYS/seatools.igz
label mainmenu
menu label ^Back..
menu exit
menu end
LABEL ksink
menu label Kitchen Sink DOS (WIPECMOS+Doc Mem)
kernel /memdisk
append initrd=/FLPYS/KS-144.IMZ
label local
menu label Boot from local drive
localboot 0xffff

Step 4
Making acronis and other apps that do not use 'memdisk' and needs to have its own boot kernel bootable.

Acronis has its own usb bootable creator just like ubuntu. Which means it creates its own boot info in the bootsector of the disk. You obviously can't have 2 apps fighting over one boot sector.

So the solution is this. Download HDHacker from Dimio's Tools
I know the site looks like it hasn't been maintained in a decade. But the app is great, still works, even on Vista 64. After you download and launch the app, it will list available drive letters under "Logical drives" dropdown. Under "select sector", choose "First sector". Then under "Read commands" click "Read sector from disk". Then under "Write commands" click "Save sector to file" and name it anything you want within 8 character filename with bss file extesion. It MUST end with .bss because that will let syslinux know it's a 512 byte boot sector file. Copy that file to your usb and now you can run 2 different apps each having its own bootsector. In the menu entry just make sure you add an item that looks like this.

menu label [type your label]
kernel /[the boot sector file].bss
append -


If you want a bit more detailed instructions with some screenshots and links to programs, check out the blog entry ILoveGothChicks: Multiboot USB Instruction - Part2