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.
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