Boot CDROM through GRUB

All latest computers can boot from CD when there is a bootable CDROM in the drive. It is the ability of the BIOS. But legacy PCs does not have that feature. Many operating systems provide bootable floppy for this purpose. But it is pain to prepare boot floppy for different operating systems. So we need a solution to address this issue.

Recently I tried install Slackware 11.0 with first CD, which is bootable. But my PC does not boot through CDROM, it skips CDROM goes to grub installed in first harddisk (Primary Master). But other bootable CDs works fine in my PC. This happens to only Slackware 11.0 CD-1 only (I have to check whether the culprit is Slackware CD or GnomeBaker, that is different story..). So my PC is not CD bootable atleast for this Slackware CD. Then I found the following method to solve this issue and it works like charm. This method is applicable for all legacy PCs which can’t boot from CDROM drive.

Step 1: Download the memdisk.bin from here or if you have syslinux installation, you can use the installed memdisk.bin.

Step 2: Download the sbootmgr.dsk from here or here or if you have any version of Slackware CD-1, /isolinux/sbootmgr/sbootmgr.dsk file you can use.

Step 3: Copy both memdisk.bin and sbootmgr.dsk in your grub existing grub installation path, /boot/grub.

Step 4: Add the following entry in your existing grub menu. Note: root(hd0,0) should be according to your configuration.

title CDROM

root(hd0,0)

kernel /boot/grub/memdisk.bin

initrd /boot/grub/sbootmgr.dsk

Step 5: I hope you need not to run grub-install again. If necessary you can do.

Step 6: Reboot the machine.

Step 7: You can see an entry called CDROM in grub menu list. Select the entry. You will be shown boot device selection screen showing all your harddisk and CDROM drives. Insert your bootable CDROM in the CD Drive and select that drive from menu. Waavv..!! your machine is booted from that CD.

Yesterday I had a wonderful time in getting this done. Hope you too!

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13 Responses to “Boot CDROM through GRUB”

Simmel on June 14th, 2007 at 4:50 am

Hi there,

on this page might be an explanation why it didn’t work out. Could it be that your Pc is a little bit older?

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Making-a-GRUB-bootable-CD_002dROM.html

Just at the bottom it says:

Note that the -boot-load-size 4 bit is required for compatibility with the BIOS on many older machines.

Maybe you should try it out…

C ya,
Simmel
jameswillisisthebest on September 9th, 2007 at 1:39 am

This is my first post
just saying HI
ms-trex on September 22nd, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Well man this is superb
kar on October 25th, 2007 at 8:35 am

hi i installed grub and booted in windows xp. i then decided to partion my harddisk using manage harddisk option in mycomputer, when i re booted i got a err17. i can not even boot from my cd drive . (i tried to re install windows/linux). i am locked out… help
Neil on November 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

Note sure what to do here:
“Note: root(hd0,0) should be according to your configuration.”

How do I work out what this should be?

Otherwise a great walkthrough, and much appreciated.
Neil on November 8th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

Ok, just me being a bit dense. Must point to grub folder (hd0,4 for me).
civiXier on December 7th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

You’ve just saved the life on one of my lappys. This worked like a charm, thanx
Valentino on January 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm

tried this on a macbook and …

booted from cd but canceled grub’s disk mapping…
Password BIOS dimenticata su notebook - PcTuner Forum on February 16th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

[...] GRUB installer for windows questo ti installa grub da win (occhio, non l’ho mai provato ) Boot CDROM through GRUB « myself and my computer qui spiega come bootare un cdrom da grub non è certo il migliore dei modi, ma è l’unico che mi [...]
Rene on March 2nd, 2008 at 1:58 am

thanks this help me a lot
Name on March 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm

How come there are other bootloaders that allow booting to a CD-ROM with no extra files? Is it that the functionality isn’t built into GRUB?
how to install a floppy drive on July 17th, 2008 at 1:43 am

i had to boot to a floppy a few days back, i forgot how slow they are !!!
pat5star on May 3rd, 2009 at 5:21 am

Awesome. I was looking for a way to do this and this worked perfectly. Thanks very much for posting it and keeping it up!

-Pat

Well said!

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