Those of you Grub4DOS users who are on 64bit Linux/Windows might have been annoyed by the fact that you can’t use Grub4DOS’s ‘bootlace.com’ utility (or its GUI frontend Grub4DOS Toolbox for Windows) to install Grub4DOS boot record onto your disks, partitions or disk image files.
Those of you Grub4DOS users who also use non-x86 smart devices like phones/tablets might or might not have thought to yourself: hey, wouldn’t it be nice and convenient if I could just prepare a Grub4DOS flash disk or flash card using my phone/tablet, whenever and wherever I have to?!
You can now. Feel free to try this new web application from yours truly: Cloud Bootlacer. Here is an excerpt from the app’s FAQ to give you a rough idea as to what it is:
‘Bootlace.com’ is a DOS/Windows/Linux utility that ‘installs [Grub4DOS’s ] GRLDR.MBR boot record to the MBR of a harddrive or of a harddrive image file, or to the boot sector of a floppy[/partition] or a floppy[/partition] image’ (quoted from Grub4DOS README).
Unfortunately, ‘bootlace.com’ can not be executed from within 64bit Windows or 64bit Linux without virtualization. Neither can it be expected to run on non-x86 platforms, such as most smart phones and tablets. No trivial modification of ‘bootlace.com’ source code could possibly fix these issues.
What is offered here is a lazy solution that completely circumvents the platform architecture problem. The installer is served from a 32bit Linux host, which is capable of executing ‘bootlace.com’. You upload the boot sectors of you disk/floppy/partition (image) in a small image file, specify the commandline options to ‘bootlace.com’ you would like to use, and get the ‘bootlaced’ image back as a download. In 2010s’ terminology, ‘bootlacing’ occurs ‘in the cloud’ and all you need to enjoy this cloud service is a ‘dd’ utility, a modern browser and an internet connection.
Note that the app is not extensively tested, especially in remotely hosted context. Please use with caution.
For comments, suggestions, bug reports, etc., please use the newly opened forum. There is a new forum for Grub4DOS Toolbox for Windows too.
Test and Enjoy!
