[Solved] No luck installing OS without external storage.

[sequencer]

Hello, I'm trying to reinstall linux from ram (without external storage)

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menuentry "debian-installer" {
  set isofile='/home/user/downloads/debian-xverison-abc.iso'
  loopback loop $isofile
  linux (loop)/instal.amd/vmlinuz priority=low toram
  initrd (loop)/instal.amd/initrd.gz
}

and stuck into "your installation media could not be mounted. when installing from cd-rom, this probably means that the disk was not in the drive. try again? retry, retry.."

[pbear]

Seriously? It's a secret which ISO you're trying to boot? For what it's worth, I spent many hours trying to find a consistent, replicable way to do ISO boot. There isn't one. Frankly, a Ventoy drive is a lot easier.

Update: Out of curiosity, took a stab at it. I've worked out more than a dozen of these at one point or another. Not saying this one is impossible, but it's not standard.

[sequencer]

No, not secret just debian netiso.
Uhm, is it possible to make partition with this iso installer? (If this would be easier)

[Aki]

Hello @sequencer,

Are you trying booting a Debian ISO from a running Debian system ?

[sequencer]

Hello @Aki,
As you see on photo, I had luck booting installation image (I guess this is right way to put words). But I always stuck at that step (doesn't give me permission to continue, just forcing me to have some installation media idk).
Yes from existing system, no not debian. Using grub (menu entry) to boot.

[Aki]

Hello,

[..]
Yes from existing system, no not debian. Using grub (menu entry) to boot.

What is the "existing system" ?

In any case, a similar topic has already been discussed here:

• [Solved] Boot Debian from an ISO file on HD?

Hope this helps. Please let me know.

[sequencer]

What is the "existing system" ?

sorry for ambiguity, I meant linux based system, to be exact xubuntu.

I don't really get what difference between my config letting it work for them. I also used not live-image. Exact iso is https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... etinst.iso

[pbear]

• [Solved] Boot Debian from an ISO file on HD?

I feel better now. That's not just non-standard, it's perverse. Paging @pwzhangzz.

[panpan]

This works well with grml-rescueboot.
After installing grml-rescueboot and reboot to install the iso, before that run:

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sudo umount -l -r -f /isodevice

[Aki]

Hello,

I don't really get what difference between my config letting it work for them. I also used not live-image. Exact iso is https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... etinst.iso

It is documented in "Debian bookworm -- Installation Guide" [1]:

• Hard disk installer booting from Linux using GRUB

I followed instructions from [1] and it works:

• I created a directory named "/newinstall" in the root directory.

• I downloaded files required by the installer:

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  # mkdir /newinstall
  # cd /newinstall
  # wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/initrd.gz
  # wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hd-media/vmlinuz
  # wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-12.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso
  # ls -la /newinstall/
  total 676232
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root          4096 Mar 31 12:41 .
  drwxr-xr-x 21 root     root          4096 Mar 31 12:36 ..
  -rw-r--r--  1 root     root  659554304 Feb 10 14:46 debian-12.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso
  -rw-r--r--  1 root     root      24634188 Feb  5 08:43 initrd.gz
  -rw-r--r--  1 root     root       8152768 Feb  1 09:05 vmlinuz
  

• Then, I edited /etc/grub.d/40custom like that:

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  #!/bin/sh
  exec tail -n +3 $0
  # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
  # menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
  # the 'exec tail' line above.
  menuentry "debian-installer" {
          insmod part_msdos
          insmod ext2
          set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
          linux /newinstall/vmlinuz
          initrd /newinstall/initrd.gz
  }
  

Then, updated grub configuration with the following command:

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update-grub

And it works like a charm.

See also here [2].

By the way, in your 40custom example, filenames of kernel and initrd do not match names in the Debian ISO.

--
[1] Debian bookworm -- Installation Guide
[2] Avoiding the Common Pitfall

[pbear]

Nicely done. I tried an internet search two days ago and didn't find that documentation. Nice to hear the developers have answered the question officially. Would be nice if the Linux community could agree on a consistent approach to ISO boot, but that's probably water under the bridge at this point. USB boot mooted the issue for the vast majority of users.

[sequencer]

Well, I fckd up. I should have been careful. Good docs link btw, thank you.
It works. Just want to tell other people to not repartition with hd-media/* images. My initial idea was to nuke existing system. Got to go back to usb approach.
Can somebody share docs to linux vm arguments? I don't like installer do full filesystem search for iso.

If you intend to use the hard drive only for booting and then download everything over the network, you should download the netboot/debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz file and its corresponding kernel netboot/debian-installer/amd64/linux. This will allow you to repartition the hard disk from which you boot the installer, although you should do so with care.

Alternatively, if you intend to keep an existing partition on the hard drive unchanged during the install, you can download the hd-media/initrd.gz file and its kernel hd-media/vmlinuz, as well as copy an installation image to the hard drive (make sure the file is named ending in .iso). The installer can then boot from the hard drive and install from the installation image, without needing the network.

By the way, in your 40custom example, filenames of kernel and initrd do not match names in the Debian ISO.

I dunno. but anyway I should have downloaded one of hd-media or netboot for this approach