Installing GrUB into a file

[Alwin Leerling]

I am an embedded system programmer. I create a complete flash image on 
my development machine and use the BIOS utilities to flash the image 
into the NAND flash on my device. I'd like to install GrUB into my image 
file before I flashing. I have tried the following (with my file 
attached to a loop device: losetup /dev/loop0 device.img )
grub> device (hd0) /dev/loop0

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0)

This fails because grub cannot find /boot/grub/stage1 or /grub/stage1

My image file contains 3 ext3 partitions, the first is my boot partition 
with the grub directory and contents (stage1, stage2, menu.lst and 
e2fs_stage1_5). I also created a softlink to itself (ln -s . boot). My 
kernel files are all in the root of the first partition.

My next try was to access the file directly. I detached to loop device 
and ran:

grub> device (hd0) (path to file)/device.img

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup ( hd0)

This failed with the same reason (file not found)

I tried the same again but this time with the file mounted into my file 
system. Again this failed.

So my question is, is it possible to load GrUB into an image file, and 
if so how do I do it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Alwin