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melascoop

- melascoop
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:10 pm

## Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:17 pm

Hi All,
I am trying to create a custom Wheezy Debian build with refractasnapshot and I need for it to run the installer from the ISO boot menu. Is there anyone that has already done this or can advise on how this can be done? I tried adding the installer location as an option on the ISO boot menu (like memtest) but this did not work.
Any suggestions ? I really need help soon on this. Thanks
nadir

- nadir
- Posts: 1160
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- Location: here

## Re: Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:12 pm

Me thinks the folks from the grml distro did what you are asking for:
[email protected]
:/home/user# apt-cache search grml
grml-debootstrap - wrapper around debootstrap for installing pure Debian
grml-rescueboot - Integrates Grml ISO booting into GRUB
grml2usb - install Grml system / ISO to usb device
[email protected]
:/home/user#
**** knows if it works with debian or refracta too. Might be worth a try.
fsmithred

- fsmithred
- Posts: 2101
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

## Re: Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sun Apr 24, 2016 2:53 am

Refractainstaller uses rsync to copy the running live system, so no, it's not possible to run it from the boot menu. You must boot into the system to run the installer. Why do you need it in the boot menu?
melascoop

- melascoop
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:10 pm

## Re: Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:05 pm

[quote="nadir"]Me thinks the folks from the grml distro did what you are asking for:
[email protected]
:/home/user# apt-cache search grml
grml-debootstrap - wrapper around debootstrap for installing pure Debian
grml-rescueboot - Integrates Grml ISO booting into GRUB
grml2usb - install Grml system / ISO to usb device
[email protected]
:/home/user#
**** knows if it works with debian or refracta too. Might be worth a try.
Interesting.. I will give it a try then.
melascoop

- melascoop
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:10 pm

## Re: Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:08 pm

> fsmithred wrote:Refractainstaller uses rsync to copy the running live system, so no, it's not possible to run it from the boot menu. You must boot into the system to run the installer. Why do you need it in the boot menu?

Fred, I'm having to create a direct copy of an install used for a bootstrapped application but it needs to be 'installable'. I was curious about adding it to the live boot menu to keep things simple for the implementation team. I suppose I can just instruct them to boot and run the refractainstaller, is there a way to seed this installer with pre-set configurations for gparted or the disk partion options?
fsmithred

- fsmithred
- Posts: 2101
- Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

## Re: Is there a way add installer to ISO boot menu?

Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:40 pm

There's no mechanism for pre-seeding the install options, but it wouldn't be very difficult to change it to do that. It's just a bash script, and a lot of the code is for user interaction to put values into variables such as which partitions and filesystems to use. I'd recommend going with the cli script (/usr/bin/refractainstaller). You could remove large portions of code and replace them wtih something like:

Code:
  `some_variable="whatever_value"`

You might want to take a look at copy2partition -
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kyloris/files/
It's a simple script based on the same commands that refractainstaller is based on and written by the original author of refractainstaller. It probably works with little or no modification. Compare the excludes list in this with the one in refractainstaller. You might need to add some items.
Oh, right; this one assumes that you already created a partition for the installation. If you want automatic partitioning, you'd have to work parted into the script. I've thought about doing that, but I get nervous at the idea of giving people something that will automatically partition their drive. I'd rather that the user would make their own wrong choice than I make an automatic wrong partitioning choice for them.
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