Want to run a Live-CD or install an new operating system? If you’re running out of dvd’s to burn and don’t have a usb drive around, booting a downloaded ISO-Image directly from the local hard drive is probably what you want to do. In this example, I will demonstrate how to boot into Linux Mint and Manjaro. You will need the bootloader Grub2 for it to work.
Place the ISO-Image in a folder on your hard drive. Any partition and folder can be used as long as it can be mounted by Grub. For the ease of use, I put the image directly in the root directory of the running linux system. Use administrator rights to gain write permission to root (sudo nautilus or sudo nemo).
/linuxmint-16-cinnamon-dvd-64bit.iso /manjaro-xfce-0.8.8-x86_64.iso
Now add the new boot menu entries to the Grub2 configuration file. Open following file with write permissions:
/etc/grub.d/40_custom
Append the following lines to the file while replacing #X with the number of the hard drive (starting at 0) and #Y with the number of the partition (starting at 1). Example: sda1=(hd0,1) or sdb2=(hd1,2). For Manjaro also replace the asterisks with the disk device name, e.g. sda1 or sdb2.
menuentry "Linux Mint 16" { set isofile="/linuxmint-16-cinnamon-dvd-64bit.iso" loopback loop (hd#X,#Y)$isofile linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz } menuentry "Manjaro 0.8.8" { set isofile="/manjaro-xfce-0.8.8-x86_64.iso" loopback loop (hd#X,#Y)$isofile linux (loop)/manjaro/boot/x86_64/manjaroiso img_dev=/dev/**** img_loop=$isofile misobasedir=manjaro misolabel=MJRO_086 nouveau.modeset=0 i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=0 initrd (loop)/manjaro/boot/x86_64/manjaro.img }
Update Grub by running the command:
sudo update-grub
Reboot and choose the new menu entry in Grub to boot the corresponding ISO-image.
If you boot into a Live-CD and you want to install the OS, simply run the following code to unmount the iso device before starting the installer.
sudo umount -l -r -f /isodevice
Hint: If the booting of the Manjaro image reports an error and you are stuck in a bash, type in these commands to bypass the problem:
mount -o loop /img_dev/manjaro-xfce-0.8.8-x86_64.iso /bootmnt/ exit
Enjoy!