How to install grub to a CD-RW?

jkoop

6/4/24, 5:32 PM

My very old server only has BIOS, no UEFI, and the boot order routine aborts booting when it encounters a drive larger than 2TB. The boot order is: CDs, HDDs, USBs, network. I cannot change the boot order because I don't know the BIOS password.

How can I install grub to a CD-R or CD-RW?

All of my HDD bays are taken by 4TB drives and I'm not changing that.

1 + 0

ubuntu

bios

grub

Score:2

Server

Hawshemi

6/4/24, 5:46 PM

You will need a package named grub-pc-bin and another one named xorriso.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-pc-bin xorriso

mkdir ~/cdrom
mkdir ~/cdrom/boot
mkdir ~/cdrom/boot/grub

nano ~/cdrom/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Here's an example of a grub.cfg file that boots the first hard disk:

set timeout=10
set default=0

menuentry "Boot from Hard Drive" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='hd0,msdos1'
    chainloader +1
}

You will need to use grub-mkrescue to create an ISO file that can be burned to a CD.

grub-mkrescue -o bootable.iso ~/cdrom

You can use a tool like Brasero or k3b to burn the ISO file to a CD. If you prefer to use the command line, you can use cdrecord (you might need to install it first with sudo apt-get install cdrecord):

sudo cdrecord -v speed=4 bootable.iso

Boot from CD.

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