That was only the beginning
Now I'd like to consider in more detail how to deploy vBoot using Windows 7 x64 setup disk.
I assume we have a clean PC without any partitions on a single HDD and a portable USB HDD with following folders:
* vboot -- unpacked vboot archive (downloaded from this site);
* images -- folder with HDD images;
* config -- folder with modified grub.cfg (with all entries set up as necessary, see attachment).
We will be using following HDD layout:
* partition 1 (label vBoot) -- vBoot files, 500 Mb;
* partition 2 (label ScratchPad) -- persistent user files (preserved between reboots), 150 Gb;
* partition 3 (label VHDs) -- disk images, all remaining space.
1. Boot from Windows setup disk
2. On first GUI screen press Shift+F10 to invoke command prompt
3. Run DISKPART.EXE and issue following commands (commands are in
bold and my comments are in
small italics); you can find more info on diskpart tool at
support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
Select first (the only) HDD, indexes begin with 0
select disk 0
Create partition 1 (BTW, partition indexes begin with 1 in diskpart), size in Mb
Note: diskpart automatically selects a partition when you create one
create partition primary size=500
Quick format the partition to NTFS file system
format label="vBoot" quick
Mark the partition as active
active
Assign a drive letter
Note: on my system letter D: is assigned to the CDROM and letter X: is assigned to the ramdisk
assign letter=y
Now perform basically the same steps for the second partition
DO NOT make this partition active
Do not assign a drive letter as we do not need this partition right now
create partition primary size=150000
format label="ScratchPad" quick
And for the third partition
We do not specify any size so partition occupies all unpartitioned space
create partition primary
format label="VHDs" quick
assign letter=z
Now close diskpart
exit
At this point we have drive letters Y: and Z: pointing to partitions for vBoot and disk images respectively.
5. Connect portable USB HDD (I will assume it receives E: drive letter)
4. Invoke command
e:\vboot\vbootedit64.exe install /drive y: /mbr
to install vBoot to the master boot record and copy necessary files to the drive y:
5. Invoke command
copy e:\config\grub.cfg y:\vboot\grub
and overwrite existing config with the custom one (of course you have to edit grub.cfg according to your needs); you could replace grub.cfg in the original vboot folder on portable HDD too, but I prefer to keep vboot distribution clean and unmodified
6. Invoke command
copy e:\images\<your_hdd_image> z:\
to copy disk image to the respective partition
7. Close command prompt and abort Windows setup; the system will reboot and you should be able to boot OS from your image
The steps presented here are generic enough. You could tweak commands a little to install vBoot from Windows 7 x32 or Windows XP setup environments.
Note: the attached file renamed to grub.txt as forum doesn't allow uploading files with arbitrary extensions.
File Attachment: File Name:
grub.txtFile Size: 1051