Notes on using Grub2 for BIOS-based platforms ============================================= 1. Create a disk image dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1M count=32 2. Partition it (either legacy or GPT style partitions work) cfdisk disk.img - Create one partition, type Linux, for the root filesystem. The only constraint is to make sure there is enough free space *before* the first partition to store Grub2. Leaving 1 MB of free space is safe. 3. Setup loop device and loop partitions sudo losetup -f disk.img sudo partx -a /dev/loop0 4. Prepare the root partition sudo mkfs.ext3 -L root /dev/loop0p1 sudo mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt sudo tar -C /mnt -xf output/images/rootfs.tar sudo umount /mnt 5. Install Grub2 sudo ./output/host/sbin/grub-bios-setup \ -b ./output/host/lib/grub/i386-pc/boot.img \ -c ./output/images/grub.img -d . /dev/loop0 6. Cleanup loop device sudo partx -d /dev/loop0 sudo losetup -d /dev/loop0 7. Your disk.img is ready! Using genimage -------------- If you use genimage to generate your complete image, installing Grub can be tricky. Here is how to achieve Grub's installation with genimage: partition boot { in-partition-table = "no" image = "path_to_boot.img" offset = 0 size = 512 } partition grub { in-partition-table = "no" image = "path_to_grub.img" offset = 512 } The result is not byte to byte identical to what grub-bios-setup does but it works anyway. To test your BIOS image in Qemu ------------------------------- qemu-system-{i386,x86-64} -hda disk.img Notes on using Grub2 for EFI-based platforms ============================================ 1. Create a disk image dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1M count=32 2. Partition it with GPT partitions cgdisk disk.img - Create a first partition, type EF00, for the bootloader and kernel image - Create a second partition, type 8300, for the root filesystem. 3. Setup loop device and loop partitions sudo losetup -f disk.img sudo partx -a /dev/loop0 4. Prepare the boot partition sudo mkfs.vfat -n boot /dev/loop0p1 sudo mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt sudo cp -a output/images/efi-part/* /mnt/ sudo cp output/images/bzImage /mnt/ sudo umount /mnt 5. Prepare the root partition sudo mkfs.ext3 -L root /dev/loop0p2 sudo mount /dev/loop0p2 /mnt sudo tar -C /mnt -xf output/images/rootfs.tar sudo umount /mnt 6 Cleanup loop device sudo partx -d /dev/loop0 sudo losetup -d /dev/loop0 7. Your disk.img is ready! To test your EFI image in Qemu ------------------------------ 1. Download the EFI BIOS for Qemu Version IA32 or X64 depending on the chosen Grub2 platform (i386-efi vs. x86-64-efi) http://sourceforge.net/projects/edk2/files/OVMF/ 2. Extract, and rename OVMF.fd to bios.bin and CirrusLogic5446.rom to vgabios-cirrus.bin. 3. qemu-system-{i386,x86-64} -L ovmf-dir/ -hda disk.img 4. Make sure to pass pci=nocrs to the kernel command line, to workaround a bug in the EFI BIOS regarding the EFI framebuffer.