How to boot from non-Ubuntu live ISO images like Fedora or CentOS?

Booting from iso is a feature which must be supported by the distro, and the iso-scan/filename= option will not work in Fedora or others. Those might have other kernel options for this feature or the feature may be not supported at all.

I have found a method to boot Fedora 16 DVD, here's below.

Booting Fedora 15 DVD iso from grub

menuentry "Fedora 15 (DVD)" {
 insmod loopback
 insmod iso9660
 set isofile="/Fedora-15-x86_64-DVD.iso"
 loopback loop (hd0,2)$isofile
 linux (loop)/isolinux/vmlinuz rootfstype=auto  root=live:UUID=:$isofile ro quiet
 initrd (loop)/isolinux/initrd.img
}

It assumes your iso file is at the root of second partition of the internal hard disk.

source: this page

You can search for other distribution in google, since it is not a distro-independent feature.

Note 1: It also worked with Fedora 16, I have just tested it.
Note 2: It seems that the method worked when you place the iso file in a fat or ext4 partition.

Booting grml small iso from grub2

Grml can also be booted from grub2. Note that it uses findiso option instead of iso-scan/filename option, indicating that Booting from iso is implemented as different options in different distributions.

(menuentry "Grml small 2009.10" {
  loopback loop /boot/iso/grml-small_2009.10.iso
  linux (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 findiso=/boot/iso/grml-small_2009.10.iso apm=power-off lang=us vga=791 boot=live nomce noeject noprompt --
  initrd (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz
}

This page has several examples of other distros booting from Grub2.

Booting openSUSE 13.1 Live from iso

Here is the only solution that worked (all others gave me a Failed to find MBR identifier and stopped). In this example the iso is placed at the first disk’s third partition in the directory /home/username/.

menuentry "openSUSE_13.1_GNOME_Live" {
  load_video
  insmod gzio
  insmod part_msdos
  insmod ext2
  set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
  set isofrom_device='/dev/sda3'
  set isofrom_system='/home/username/openSUSE-13.1-GNOME-Live-i686.iso'
  set loader='/boot/i386/loader'
  loopback loop $isofrom_system
  linux   (loop)$loader/linux isofrom_device=$isofrom_device isofrom_system=$isofrom_system ramdisk_size=512000 ramdisk_blocksize=4096 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff preloadlog=/dev/null showopts
  initrd  (loop)$loader/initrd
}

Source is janeppo’s comment.

Fedora 17 Gnome Live Iso

Here is the boot menu grub.cfg entry for Fedora 17. the iso is placed at the first disk's third partition. Also the filename is changed.

menuentry "Fedora Live" {
    loopback loop (hd0,3)/fedora.iso
    linux (loop)/EFI/BOOT/vmlinuz0 root=live:/fedora.iso rootfstype=auto ro liveimg quiet rhgb rd.luks=0 rd.md=0
    initrd (hd0,3)/initrd-fromiso
}

Last Note: I think this answer serve as an example. It should not be elaborated more with examples.

Here is which iso files I figured out to boot using grub2.

I have successfully booted following ISOs

• Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04 ISO
• SystemRescueCd
• Boot Hardware Detection Tool
• Free Dos
• Hiren's boot CD
• Ultimate Boot CD

I found that if you want to boot other ISOs like Hiren's Boot CD, etc. you can use MEMDISK utility as kernel.

Where to Get MEMDISK ?

Download Syslinux from here. Move it to Desktop.

How to make it work ?

cd ~/Desktop/
tar xvif syslinux-4.05.tar.xz 
cd syslinux-4.05/memdisk/
sudo mkdir /customboot
sudo mv memdisk /customboot/
cd /customboot/
sudo mv memdisk memdisk4.05
gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom 

Then paste below entries in gedit. You'll need to change set isofile="/path/to/iso-file.iso".

Then issue update-grub. Reboot and check.

My entries in 40_custom file.

menuentry "Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 ISO" {
    set isofile="/OS/ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso"
    loopback loop (hd0,6)$isofile
    linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject --
    initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04 ISO" {
    set isofile="/OS/ubuntu-12.04-desktop-i386.iso"
    loopback loop (hd0,6)$isofile
    linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject --
    initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "SystemRescueCd" {
    set isofile="/OS/systemrescuecd-x86-2.7.0.iso"
    loopback loop (hd0,6)$isofile
    linux (loop)/isolinux/rescuecd isoloop=$isofile setkmap=us docache dostartx
    initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz
}
menuentry "Boot Hardware Detection Tool from iso using memdisk 4.05" {
    linux16 /customboot/memdisk4.05 iso
    initrd16 /customboot/hdt.iso
}
menuentry "Free Dos from iso using memdisk 4.05" {
    set isofile="/OS/fdbasecd.iso"
    linux16 /customboot/memdisk4.05 iso
    initrd16 (hd0,6)$isofile
}
menuentry "Hiren's boot CD using memdisk 4.05" {
    set isofile="/OS/Hiren's.BootCD.10.1.iso"
    linux16 /customboot/memdisk4.05 iso
    initrd16 (hd0,6)$isofile
}
menuentry "Ultimate Boot CD iso using memdisk 4.05" {
    set isofile="/OS/ubcd511.iso"
    linux16 /customboot/memdisk4.05 iso
    initrd16 (hd0,6)$isofile
}

All ISOs are kept on sda6/OS and MEMDISK is kept on partition where ubuntu is installed(in root) and renamed to memdisk4.05 so path to it is /customboot/memdisk4.05

note : fedora didn't work with the other answer given. Still trying to boot fedora :( .

unfortunatly none of these recommendation did not help me. So I have found the way and would love to share with you. To boot centos for example you need: Put iso image in the directory. if your root dir mounted on /dev/sda1, then create dir /iso and put iso there. go to grub console (when menu grub appear press 'c'.)

Choose appropriate device - hd0 means sda. You need to choose one where you iso is located.

loopback loop (hd0,msdos1)/iso/Redhat.iso 
linux (loop)/isolinux/vmlinuz inst.repo=hd:sda1:/iso/Redhat.iso 
initrd (loop)/isolinux/initrd.img 
boot

And boot it!

What you are asking is off topic here, as it requires knowledge of those other systems to be able to set up grub entries to boot them correctly. Yes it is possible.

However... You will find Multi System a competent tool for having very many different distro ISOs on one large USB drive. I find it works very well indeed but you will have to install it from a PPA:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/multiboot-create-a-multiboot-usb-from-linux/

I use it so that I can have the Gparted LiveUSB and other tools, as well as Ubuntu ones on one pendrive for InstallFests. As a bonus it allows a custom splash screen for the menu, which I have set to the logo for the Australian LoCo team.

Chris

As stated, Multisystem uses Grub2 to do what you want. Since this off-topic thread is being allowed, or at least tolerated here's the Fedora entry from my Multisystem Grub2:

 menuentry "Fedora-15-i686-Live-Desktop.iso" {
 linux /fedora1/isolinux/vmlinuz0 live_locale=en_AU.UTF-8 live_keytable=us live_dir=/fedora1 root=UUID=493A-D2EF rootfstype=auto ro liveimg quiet rhgb rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD noiswmd
 initrd /fedora1/isolinux/initrd0.img
 }

Note that you can't boot directly from the ISO as it's not supported as it is with Debian based distros. You will need the unpacked files from the ISO available on the hard drive as follows:

chris@chris-office:/media/RED8/fedora1$ ls -l
total 563972
drwx------ 2 chris chris      4096 Feb 11  2011 isolinux
-rw-r--r-- 1 chris chris     43503 May 14  2011 livecd-iso-to-disk
-r--r--r-- 1 chris chris      8192 May 14  2011 osmin.img
-r--r--r-- 1 chris chris 577449984 May 14  2011 squashfs.img

You will of course need to change the location of the /fedora/ directory and the UUID of the partition you are booting Fedora off. You should probably also change the mount mode from ro to rw, as well as anything else appropriate, such as the permissions on the squashfs.

You can also probably set up a virtual persistence disk, Although I see no reason why you couldn't mount your normal /home partition. Again, I can only suggest that you install Multidisk and do the config yourself to learn how to do it.

Chris

Seems as though 13.04 requires a different syntax to achieve this. Has anyone successfully booted the ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso from a physical disk and would care to share the grub syntax?

EDIT: Answered my own question. Need to rename vmlinuz to mvlinuz.efi and it works.

menuentry "Ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso" --class ubuntu {
set isofile="/archives/ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64.iso"
loopback loop (hd1,6)$isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noeject noprompt --
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}

I find using the loopback of grub2 invaluable for testing out new isos without requiring a usb stick or burning to CD. There are bugs filed against Fedora to make something similar work. Tracking down the current status is a little bit time consuming.

• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=557426
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=650672
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=723801

Try using Multisystem, installing the liveCDs you want, and then copying over the files to your / and merging the grub.cfgs! (I'm actually curious to see whether it would work!).