need GRUB menuentry to make Clonezilla2 boot from multi-ISO LiveUSB

[Tom Roche]

summary

The following post contains 2 sections:

Section=background describes what I'm trying to do; it can probably be skipped by anyone who is expert on Linux LiveUSBs, ISOs, GRUB2, etc (which I suspect the Clonezilla team is, but that section may be useful to others).

Section=problem (now omitted :-) described what was not working for me, which was (in summary): a Clonezilla ISO=clonezilla-live-2.4.2-10-amd64.iso, when tested on 2 different test hosts, hung after initrd with console spew ending with

(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system
modprobe: module ehci-orion not found in modules.dep

Section=solution describes what is now working for me.

background

I'm setting up a multiboot/multiISO Linux LiveUSB as detailed here, which I intend for use on multiple hosts (i.e., any arbitrary PC I decide I need to boot).

solution

I'm testing my LiveUSB on 2 laptops, both legacy BIOS:

1. a 10-year-old 32-bit ThinkPad
2. a 6-year-old 64-bit Clevo/System76

My LiveUSB currently has

1. Clonezilla ISO=clonezilla-live-2.4.2-10-i586.iso at the following path relative to the LiveUSB filesystem's root: /ISOs/clonezilla-live-2.4.2-10-i586.iso
2. /boot/grub/grub.cfg containing the following menuentry (et al), which correctly boots it on both test hosts:

    menuentry 'Clonezilla 32-bit (i586, no PAE) ISO' {
      set gfxpayload=text # ~= vga='normal'
      # isofile_abspath is relative to LiveUSB root.
      set isofile_abspath='/ISOs/clonezilla-live-2.4.2-10-i586.iso'
      # isofile_devpath is relative to (and begins with) "/dev"
      set isofile_devpath="${devroot}${isofile_abspath}"
      # "mount" the ISO
      loopback loop "(${root})${isofile_abspath}"

      echo -e 'About to boot kernel ...'
      # Following line adapted from ISO's menuentry='Clonezilla Live (Failsafe mode)' and from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multiboot_USB_drive#GParted_Live
      linux '(loop)/live/vmlinuz' boot='live' union='overlay' username='user' config components noswap edd='on' nomodeset nodmraid noeject locales='' keyboard-layouts='' ocs_live_run='ocs-live-general' ocs_live_extra_param='' ocs_live_batch='no' ip='' acpi='off'irqpoll noapic noapm nodma nomce nolapic nosmp nomodeset nosplash findiso="${isofile_abspath}"
      echo -e 'Done boot kernel.'

      echo -e 'About to boot RAMdisk ...'
      initrd '(loop)/live/initrd.img'
    }

[Steven Shiau]

So this is for uEFI machine or legacy BIOS machine?

Steven.

[Tom Roche]

@Steven Shiau: 'uEFI machine or legacy BIOS machine'

Doh! I should have specified that in the original post, which I have updated to include the following information:

Both laptops on which I'm trying to boot Clonezilla are legacy BIOS: one is a 10-year-old 32-bit ThinkPad and the other is a 6-year-old 64-bit Clevo.

[Tom Roche]

I have a fix! more in a bit after I update my docs ...

[Steven Shiau]

Cool! Thanks for sharing that.

Steven.