Super Grub2 Disk

Super GRUB2 Disk is an open source project that allows users boot into broken operating systems, in an attempt to try to repair them. It mainly interacts with the GRUB2 bootloader and the booting process of the respective computer.

A complete rewrite of the 1st generation GRUB bootloader

As GRUB2 is a complete rewrite of the 1st generation GRUB bootloader, so is Super GRUB2 Disk, a complete rewrite of the Super GRUB Disk distribution, originally designed to interact with the GRUB bootloader.

When comparing the two editions of the operating system reviewed here, we can immediately notice that Super GRUB2 Disk has been engineered in such a way that it doesn’t write changes to disk drive and it can’t rewrite the MBR (Master Boot Record).

Distributed as a dual-arch Live CD

It is distributed as a single Live CD ISO-hybrid image that supports both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms. When booting the live medium, all you’ll see is a GRUB bootloader with a plethora of options.

First, you will be able to choose your favorite language for the entire system, turn the color of the bootloader on or off, boot an existing operating system manually, as well as to list devices and partitions.

Supports LVM, RAID, PATA and USB

In addition, the distribution provides some extra functionality, especially for the GRUB2 bootloader. For example, you will be able to enable support for LVM (Logical Disk Management), RAID, PATA, and USB, mount encrypted volumes (supports geli and LUKS), and enable serial terminal.

When entering the Boot Manually entry, you’ll see several options that allow you to boot ISO images, existing operating systems installed on the disk drive or to modify important GRUB configuration files on the fly. The extra search functionality will allow you to enable the distro to search in CD-ROM or floppy.

Bottom line

At the moment, Super GRUB2 Disk supports the English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Bahasa Melayu languages, and we can declare it the best tool for booting into broken GRUB bootloaders.

What is new in this release:

• Modify sg2d_directory and sg2d_dev_name variables so that SG2D is more portable
• ‘Enable all native disk drivers' option was improved. It no longer crashes.
• Now devices are cached and Super Grub2 Disk is faster
• Other minor improvements
• Standalone images are no longer broken and show main menu

What is new in version 2.02s9:

• Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02 . This is the final stable 2.02 upstream Grub release.
• Added Chinese translation (Thanks to shankerwangmiao)
• Added Finnish translation (Thanks to tavallinenvirtanen7)
• supergrub-release-news helps release team to generate a template for its news.
• Added supergrub-release-changes to help with the release team.
• Rename ‘(GRUB2 installation (even if mbr is overwritten))' to: ‘(GRUB2 installation)'

What is new in version 2.02s8:

• Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02~rc2 . This is the release candidate for final stable 2.02 upstream Grub release. Please use this build to give them (upstream Grub) feedback on this version. It's advised to ask here before reporting to them so that we discard the bug being a Super Grub2 Disk specific one.
• Thanks to a Necrosporus suggestion now default theme starfield is no longer included. Images are now smaller. E.g. the hybrid image size it's 19.3 MB while former version image size was 22 MB.

What is new in version 2.02s7:

• Updated grub 2.02 build to tag: 2.02~rc1 . This is the release candidate for final stable 2.02 upstream Grub release. Please use this build to give them (upstream Grub) feedback on this version. It's advised to ask here before reporting to them so that we discard the bug being a Super Grub2 Disk specific one.
• We are going to see which are the complete Super Grub2 Disk features with a demo video, where you can download it, the thank you - hall of fame and some thoughts about the Super Grub2 Disk development.

What is new in version 2.02s6:

• Added Russian language
• Improved Arch Linux initramfs detection
• Added i386-efi build support
• Most of you won't need this image. There are very few machines which specificially need i386-efi boot.
• Added i386-efi to the hybrid iso
• Now the hybrid iso is even more powerful by being able to autodetect i386-efi and load its modules.
• Grub itself is translated when a language is selected.
• That means that the strings about such as "Use the up and down keys to select ..." from grub itself will be also translated into your own language (if upstream Grub2 supports it)
• Added loopback.cfg file (non officially supported)
• Some people would like to be able to chainload into Super Grub2 Disk scripts from another Super Grub2 Disk or a custom Grub2 Disk. Now you can do it by doing a configfile to our loopback.cfg. However this way of working is not officially supported. So do not ask for support if it does not work as you expect to.

What is new in version 2.02s3:

• New option: "Enable all native disk drivers" so that you can try to load: SATA, PATA and USB hard disks (and their partitions) as native disk drives. This is experimental.
• Most options had their search code improved. Super Grub2 Disk should be faster.
• Based on grub 2.02 ( commit: 8e5bc2f4d3767485e729ed96ea943570d1cb1e45 )
• Super Grub2 Disk builds its own grub based on upstream grub instead of Debian grub.
• Mac OS X kernel detection was improved to avoid false detections.
• Thanks to upstream grub improvement now Super Grub2 Disk supports booting in EFI mode when booted from a USB device / hard disk. Actually SG2D was announced previously to boot from EFI from a USB device while it only booted from a cdrom.
• Many options titles were rewritten so that they are better understood.

What is new in version 2.00s2 / 2.02s1 Beta 1:

• Based on Grub 2.02 (commit bac5d1a64ab4191058a8fd4c05f6b3b339e249e7 )
• Added new option: "Enable all native disk drivers" so that you can try to load: SATA, PATA and USB hard disks (and their partitions) as native disk drives. This is experimental.
• Removed no longer needed options: "Enable USB" and "Enable PATA".
• "Search floppy" and "Search cdrom" options were moved into "Extra GRUB2 functionality menu". At the same time "Extra Search functionality" menu was removed.
• Added new straight-forward option: "Enable GRUB2's RAID and LVM support".
• "List devices/partitions" was renamed to "Print devices/partitions".
• "Everything" option was renamed to "Detect and show boot methods".
• "Everything +" option was removed to avoid confusions.
• Other minor improvements in the source code.
• Updated translation files. Now most translations are pending.
• Updated INSTALL instructions.

What is new in version 2.00s2:

• Change the language UI
• Translated into several languages:
• Spanish / Espanol
• German / Deutsch
• French / Francais
• Italian / Italiano
• Malay / Bahasa Melayu
• Everything option to detect most Operating Systems
• Everything plus option to detect most Operating Systems also in special devices or filesystems
• Boot manually:
• Operating Systems
• grub.cfg - Extract entries
• grub.cfg - (GRUB2 configuration files)
• menu.lst - (GRUB legacy configuration files)
• core.img - (GRUB2 installation (even if mbr is overwritten))
• Bootable ISOs (in /boot-isos or /boot/boot-isos
• Extra GRUB2 functionality:
• Enable GRUB2's LVM support
• Enable GRUB2's RAID support
• Enable GRUB2's PATA support (to work around BIOS bugs/limitation)
• Mount encrypted volumes (LUKS and geli)
• Enable serial terminal
• Extra Search functionality:
• Search in floppy ON/OFF
• Search in CDROM ON/OFF
• List Devices / Partitions
• Color ON /OFF
• Exit:
• Halt the computer
• Reboot the computer

What is new in version 2.00s2 RC5:

• Fix OS X Boot thanks to Smx.
• Add extra boot parametres for OS X kernels. Thanks to Smx which inspired the code from his own repo.
• Quote menuentries or functions parametres to avoid problems with variables with spaces on them.

What is new in version 2.01 RC3:

• EFI detection: Make sure to detect all the lower-upper case combinations of efi files.

What is new in version 2.01 Beta 3:

• Added a new option: ‘grub.cfg - Extract entries‘. Now you can load your own grub.cfg entries even if you had setup a 0 seconds timeout by default
• New Exit menu that let's you halt or reboot your machine
• Several improvements to the UI. Now you can see what option you have choosen and it is easier to return to previous menu.

What is new in version 2.01 Beta 2:

• Most every option was rewritten in a library way:
• That makes easier to update Super Grub2 Disk
• It also makes it easier to have a consistent UI
• New option: ‘Everything +‘:
• Which initially loads LVM, RAID, PATA, USB and also tries to mount encrypted volumes
• Then tries to find all the bootable entries thanks to Everything entry
• Most of the options now have a consistent UI

What is new in version 2.01 Beta 1:

• New option: ‘Everything‘ to boot most anything with a single enter
• UI redesign of final boot options so that they are clearly distinguished
• UI redesign of extra options into submenu
• UI redesign of manual options into submenu
• New script: supergrub-meta-mkrescue for building several target+platform combinations
• New boot technology based on conditional AFD
• Improved build documentation

What is new in version 2.00 Beta 6:

• FreeBSD boot wasn't working ok. Fixed.
• Added default boot loader entries for FreeBSD at OS detection script
• If you want to translate into your language please check TRANSLATION file at source code to learn how to translate into your language.
• This is a beta release so please comment any issue you find at the forum.
• Development miscellaneous:
• Jordan Uggla has said he would have some spare time to work in SG2D. Let's hope it's true.
• Thanks to nox- from irc for the FreeBSD testing and fixing.
• Thanks to Niall Walsh for his current work on trying to improve the OS autodetect feature.
• As a side note the current HEAD at git says that SG2D version is 2.00s1-beta5 while it's actually 2.00s1-beta6. Next beta should be the 7th one.

What is new in version 2.00 Beta 5:

• Added x86_64-efi support so that EFI files are detected and can be booted.