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Partitions, setup and configuration of the Debian Complete Collection USB
written September 28, 2022 by TimeTraveler
Category: BlogEntry Tags: Debian; USB Partitions; GRUB; #44
We had a few questions on problems booting a Debian USB Complete Collection USB while working with a multi-boot laptop. The following is a bit more information that may help someone trying to configure another layer of booting prior to the USB. Note that the USB is meant to be the boot device, i.e. instead of booting to a hard drive, you would select the boot device to be the USB, NOT the hard drive. Be sure to refer to this first, and for other links on how to configure a system to boot from USB: What NOT to do with a Bootable USB Drive or Collection. The following info is for people that are trying to work with a different boot option and want more details on what is going on with the USB, its partitions, and its configuration. For the average person, you want to make sure you are booting from the USB, and all will be fine.
If you can't boot the USB due to your mutli-boot setup, then you can't view the details embedded in the grub menu. GRUB (for GRand Unified Boot loader) is the first code that runs when the USB boots. It does some simple things, and displays a menu, providing all the choices that can be loaded from the USB. As part of the grub menu, there are details on the partitions on the USB. Here is that info for reference:
==> Notes on Partitions (Volumes on this USB)
There are 4 primary partitions
1) EFI Boot partition (Do Not Use)
2) USB_Boot (100+ GiB) partition - Boot and ISOs (Do Not Use)
3) DebianInst partition - install DVD and ISO (Do Not Use)
4) USB_Storage (2+ GiB) partition - user data/compatible format (DOS/FAT)
So the EFI partition is a FAT32 type format, while the second (USB_Boot) is ext4, and the third (DebianInst) & fourth (USB_Storage) are vfat.
When creating the USB, there is a basic grub setup for i386 and x86_64 EFI on the drive/first partition. This uses a grub menu to select/boot the other items - reference grub.cfg. So assuming the USB is /dev/sdb, grub-install is run with the indicated details. The grub-install for i386 is on /dev/sdb, with the boot-directory option pointing to /dev/sdb2/boot/grub. For the x86_64-efi grub install, the efi-directory is /dev/sdb1 with the same /dev/sdb2/boot/grub for the grub config. You will find grub.cfg in the /dev/sdb2/boot/grub location (e.g. /media/user/USB_Boot/boot/grub/grub.cfg). Theoretically, if you are booting to some other grub or menu setup, you can refer to the menu options in grub.cfg to run what you want to run.
This is a side point, but if you want to access the ISOs or use the ISOs to make bootable media, this blog item might be helpful: How to create a separate bootable USB for specific Live version from Debian USB Complete Collection
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