Ventoy DUD (Driver Update Disk) Plugin

Consider this case:I want to install rhel-server-7.3-x86_64-dvd.iso to a computer. But it can't recognize the hard disk because of driver missing.
In this case, you can find the right driver and patch it to the ISO file. This is a little troublesome because you need to create a new iso file.
Some linux distros provide a DUD mechanism. Give a Driver Update Disk image file and set some boot option during boot. Then the driver can be installed before disk scan. And hardware manufacturers generally also provide DUD images that conform to the corresponding distro requirement.

For detailed information about DUD inf Redhat series, please refer: Notes (Users who often install systems on servers may be familiar with dd.iso)
For detailed information about DUD inf Suse series, please refer: Notes

With the regular usage, you need to put the DUD file in some special location and add some special boot options.
This plugin provide a very simple way to use DUD file.

Attention:
You may have the experience to use DUD like "DUD cdrom connect" and "Tab Key" and "inst.dd" and "Select Driver".
That's the official method to use DUD, but when you use this DUD plugin, it's different from that.
You just need to set ventoy.json and that's all. You don't need to do "DUD cdrom connect" and "Tab Key" and "inst.dd" and "Select Driver" anymore.
Ventoy will automatically inject the dud iso files to the initrd and add inst.dud boot parameter and all of the work is transparent to you. So the driver in the dud iso file will be automatically loaded without prompt.

  • Supported Distros
Distros DUD Format
RHEL 7/8 dd.iso
CentOS 7/8 Fedora dd.iso
SUSE / OpenSUSE dud.iso / dud.img
  • Json Configuration

Recommend to use VentoyPlugson, a GUI ventoy.json configurator. Refer VentoyPlugson
A dud array is defined to describe the dud configuration in /ventoy/ventoy.json.

{
    "dud": [
        {
            "image": "/rhel-server-7.4-x86_64.iso",
            "dud": "/ventoy/dd.iso"
        },
        {
            "image": "/rhel-server-7.3-x86_64.iso",
            "dud": [
                "/ventoy/i40e_dd.iso",
                "/ventoy/qla2xxx-8.07.00.51.07.0-k-dd-rhel7u3-3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64.iso"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/SLE-12-SP1-Server-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso",
            "dud": "/ventoy/brocade_adapter_sles12sp1_dud_v3-2-7-0.iso"
        }
    ]
}

Key Type Description
image STRING The full path of the iso file. This option supports fuzzy matching, please refer About Path Matching
dud STRING or ARRAY The full path of the dud image file. This can be a single string or an array of strings.
  • Multi-Mode

Supported. You can set different configurations for different BIOS mode. Please refer Multi-Mode Option for details.