Is there a possibility of using cd shell to pass on a command to GRUB that would boot, for example, Kubuntu? I don't want a separate GRUB menu popping up, but I just want the command to be passed through GRUB so it will boot Kubuntu from my main menu. I don't know how to go about 1) booting the live CD from GRUB, and 2) passing a command through GRUB. I'm going to try a few things. A few people would like this, so let's use this thread to come up with all ideas of booting Linux from a multi-boot disk. Thanks

I think I figured it out. I'll post my findings on this soon. Sorry for the double post. I should have posted it in the first one.

I tried using isolinux for this, but I cannot load into Linux. I am using the following:

LABEL live
menu label ^Start or install Kubuntu
kernel /kubuntu/casper/vmlinuz
append file=/cdrom/kubuntu/preseed/kubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/kubuntu/casper/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash --

This is in isolinux.cfg in the boot/isolinux/ folder. I got this information from isolinux in the kubuntu isolinux folder, and modified it to reflect the new file locations. Is there something wrong with this approach?

Well, i understood what u have in mind..

First : For Adding a menu in boot.ini to boot ubuntu/kubuntu linux, here is the steps

1) Here is the contents of boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\GRLDR="Ubuntu Linux 6.06"

2) Put the GRLDR from the GRUB in the root

3) Create a file with the name : menu.lst and fill it with the following contents

color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout 0
default 0

title Ubuntu 6.06
kernel (hd0,10)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/sda11 -ro quiet splash
initrd (hd0,10)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386

Here make the necessary changes for kernel (hd0,10) for the correct partition number and also root=/dev/sda11

4) Reboot, u will get a menu "Ubuntu Linux 6.06" anext to Windows XP Professional, choose it, then see it
will boot into linux

5) Finished!!

will be posting how to add Norton Ghost, BartPE Live CD RAM Version...

No, this is for a multiboot installation DVD, so that I can have windows and linux on one installation disk, choosing which I want installed through a menu.

It seems like diskemu Kubuntu.iso could also do the trick here. I'm going to test another version of Kubuntu, though, just to be sure this isn't a problem with this version. I get the same problem.

ya i got it, will be posting a easy method for it...

I understand what you are saying. I'm not trying to be rude, because I do appreciate your help. What you described is not what I am trying to accomplish.

ya i got it, u wanna have a single boot menu, so that u can choose either to install windows xp or kubuntu linux, ok will be posting a easy method for it... soon

Thanks ^_^

Well, the only solution I could find was to put everything from the CD into the root directory of my AIO DVD. Then I had to use bcdw boot /isolinux/isolinux.bin in order to start Linux. The problem with this, though, is that I can only have one distro on the CD through this method.

I'd be very interested in adding ubuntu to my disc if I could find a way to edit the setup to look in a folder instead of the root of the disc. Similar to editing txtsetup.sif for NT OS's.

I have a very modular disc and I hate having various folders for each component across the disc, one at the root is enough.

Knoppix was easy enough because of this reason and I managed to get that working using BCDW on the boot sector (I use CDShell by-the-way).

If you find an answer please post it here as I know there are people in this forum (besides me) that would be interested as well.

Knoppix should be the same as Ubuntu. They both use ISO linux. What are the steps to get Knoppix to work in its own folder?

It's already in it's own folder, KNOPPIX!

Just add the contents of the "boot" folder to your own and add a line in CDShell to BCDW your boot sector.



as you can see my boot sector is KNPXBOOT.DAT in the KNOPPIX folder.

I know this doesn't help much though if you end up with two isolinux folders in that location.

I'm presently looking into how isolinux actually works, something I've taken for granted up until now.

Apparently one way to have more than one Linux distro on one disc is to rewrite the isolinux.cfg file and have one isolinux folder on your disc to boot all of them.

I'm looking for a tutorial at the mo.

More than one Linux distro using ISOLINUX is cake.



Typically, ISOLINUX is found in /boot/isolinux. Put the kernel+ramdisk files for each distro in a sub-dir
under /boot, as in /boot/mepis for SimplyMEPIS, /boot/slax for Slax KillBill Ed, and /boot/server for
Slax Server Ed. The statements shown above work that way.

The files in the root of each distro go into the root of the ISO, exc for Slax Server+KillBill Eds, bec each of those distros have a cmd-line param (from=/) which permit their support files to be placed in their own sub-dirs. Distros based on Knoppix (Knoppix, DSL, et al) are problematic bec they each rely on a /KNOPPIX sub-dir which can't be relocated, otherwise ISOLINUX makes a multi-distro CD/DVD easy. BTW, I would point out that I also integrated BartPE and the CHNTPW P/2K password cracker gizmo into the same ISOLINUX menu with a nice splash screen.

HTH....

Thanks for your reply.

Do you have any ideas of how to get all the source files from ubuntu in one folder (instead of disc root) and successfully boot it (for live and install)?

Is this method compatible with cdshell with isolinux?

As far as I know, yes.

The commands just need to be adapted a bit!

I havn't got time right now to explain, I'll post a proper answer later.

I tried this with Kubuntu, and apparently it has a problem mounting the filesystem on the ram drive. It also has a preseed step that your distributions did not have.

I read somewhere in this forum about creating an .img file using the contents of the isolinux dir to boot with.

Problem is I didn't bookmark it and I can't bloody find it again .

The benifits of this are obvious but I'd still like to know how to mod the distro's so you don't have loads of folders/files at the root of the disc (a pet hate of mine).

http://www.sadyc.net/anyCDintoUBCD.html This looks promising.

[Edit] Nevermind... it requires putting the entire Linux disk in the root of the DVD

Putting all the files onto the root of the DVD works, but it's not ideal if you want more than one Linux distro. I wonder if you can burn the CD in such a way that a folder will act like root...

Basically we need to know if there's a file like txtsetup.sif for linux, that tells the installer where the the source files are.

I have seen this question asked on the ubuntu forums but nobody replied to it.

I might register on it just to bump the topic... .

I'll ask in the freenode ubuntu and kubuntu channels.

You'd have to look at/find the cheatcodes for Ubuntu or their instructions for remastering. Essentially, I burned their CD, checked out the system for an hour, then put it away. I know it has to do w/ the "preseed/file" clause in isolinux/isolinux.cfg, but that's as far as I got. Having taken another look @ it, I can't wait til my new DVD burner arrives, as I'd like to update my disc to replace Mepis w/ Kubuntu ! I definitely didn't give it enuf attention when I was doing my distro eval during the summer....

If you make any progress w/ this PLEASE post your results. I won't be able to get back to this bef Wed the 22nd Nov. Good luck....

I was able to use the alternate install disk and get into an installer, but it fails at some point. I can't remember the error exactly, but it has to do with the incorrect CD being in the drive. Either it doesn't like the md5sum or it can't find the files.

I've been trying to script the isolinux commands in CDShell to boot Knoppix and (eventually) ubuntu.

This should get around the tight restrictions on isolinux folders and allow multiple Linux distros controlled by CDShell.

As of yet though I haven't managed to get anything to boot.

So, does anyone have any good experience with the isolinux module in CDShell that could help me solve this problem?

-kof94

I've been trying to do the same thing (multiple Linux/Unix distros on one DVD) with no real success so far. I've managed to get SLAX in there, but that only needs a tiny amount of mangling so that it all lives under \SLAX on the DVD.

I can take a Debian ISO (business-card or net-install) and invoke that via CDshell's diskemu and it boots and runs quite happily but attempts to verify the integrity of the CD and obviously verifies the wrong thing (since it's not happy). There seems to be no easy way around this (but that's probably just because I don't know how the installer works).

I've also started to look at one of the install-Debian-from-USB pages as that seems to perform some jiggery-pokery that then loads up an ISO (from the USB) and installs. Sounds like exactly what I need, but I've not had time to play with it much yet.

Antonio

I have Knoppix already on my disc, booting via BCDW on the boot sector. Obviously this just calls isolinux inside the boot folder.

I want to rename/move the isolinux folder and then call any commands from CDShell through it.

This way your still using the original boot info but you get around the restrictions of calling isolinux.bin (I tried to hex edit it without much luck), which in turn allows multiple distro's on one disc (an isolinux folder for each distro in any location under any name).

That's the plan anyway. I might have this all wrong as well but I'm determined to get Knoppix and ubuntu on one disc booting through CDShell.

The next task is to get ubuntu (or any other distro) in one folder instead of the root of the disc. There has to be a simple way to do this as well, without rebuilding the whole OS .

No wonder people use Windows over Linux when you have to p*** about like this!!!

Your issue is with the tools you want to use to get the job done. The CDSHELL menus I've seen aren't especially impressive or unique, so what's the diff ? Maybe yours is really unique, but KUBUNTU's boot menu is as good as (if not better than) any CDSHELL menu I've seen. KUBUNTU uses ISOLINUX which does virtually everything CDSHELL does, exc when it comes to launching certain boot loaders. Similar to the KUBUNTU boot splash, I have a dithered photo as my ISOLINUX boot splash and an integrated text menu, for selecting menu items. ISOLINUX' config file syntax is very easy-to-understand. So, the bottom line is what's the diff bet CDSHELL or ISOLINUX ? Both work well for the menu task.

Finally, about putting KNOPPIX, KUBUNTU, whatever in their own sub-dirs on your CD: the answers are already in your hands. You're annnoyed not w/ the fact that this can't be done, but rather that you haven't been able to find a ready-made answer on a particular web page. It's not that the ans isn't out there, you can't find it. But, you've forgotten that these live CD are fully scripted (unlike Windows), so that you can (w/ some work on your own) uncover the variables that need to be changed, that will permit the core directories on a given live CD to be relocated. I'm sure it's only a matter of a couple of shell variables that need to be changed. Is it worth the effort ? I can't speak for you, but while I'd like to know (if you ever find out), but other than a few more GOOGLE queries, I'm prepared to let distro sub-dir relocation go by the wayside. Simply isn't worth much more effort on my part.

BTW, here's an article about a multi-distro live CD I found. Enjoy....

Got it in one!

Seriously though, I'm not bothered about the work involved I just want more information. For me my boot disc is a continuing personal project!

I'm loathed to leave CDShell behind because it's so easy to use and because I enjoy using it!

However, if you could provide me with some more info about using isolinux may be I'll stop being a grumbling old git and embrace change .

Do you know of a syntax guide to isolinux?

How do you go about booting windows/PE and floppy images?

How would you go about adding CDShell to isolinux? (e.g. UBCD)

As you can see I have a lot of questions that need answers before I convert.

Help...

You're not a grumbling old git. Quik confession: I have my own "obsession" w/ GRUB. I decided I wanted a better boot splash than ISOLINUX and GRUB will deliver that, *underneath* a nice menu. Last month, I spent over twenty hours, trying at least forty diff ISOs, but no joy. It hasn't beaten me, but I gave it a break so I could do some paying work. I will get it !

I haven't figured out booting CDSHELL, however I would like to add either UBCD or Hiren's Boot CD to my SuperDVD. My guess was to use its bootsector. This looks like a job for GOOGLE, altho I'd start by GOOGLEing MSFN.

Feed

to GOOGLE and something serendipitous may happen.... One of the links is the home page of ISOLINUX. Inside the SYSLINUX-311.ZIP (where all three boot loaders live), is a file called SYSLINUX.DOC, w/ the specs on the ISOLINUX/SYSLINUX/PXELINUX.CFG menu format.

Finally, here's something live that boots BartPE, multiple Linux distros, *and* a couple of odd floppy images:



The broken APPEND stmts shown above are supposed to be one single line when reconstituted.

Here are a couple of undoc'd things about ISOLINUX:

1) To use the ISOLINUX.BIN boot loader, you *must* use an ISO program like MKISOFS, which has -boot-info-table capability. No NERO or EZ CD Creator to create the bootable ISO image. You can burn the ISO image w/ anything, but the ISO must be created w/ a -boot-info-table. For MKISOFS, just use that cmd-line opt and you're done.

2) ISOLINUX.CFG (the boot loader's menu spec) can be in the root, in /isolinux, or in /boot/isolinux. Consistent w/ your need for "order", I put the all of the ISOLINUX files (help files, memdisk, boot splashes) into /boot/isolinux, the kernel/ramdisk images for ea distro in a sub-dir under /boot (/boot/slax, /boot/knoppix, /boot/mepis, etc), and the floppy images in /FLPYS.

3) An ISOLINUX boot splash is pretty straight-fwd (now that I know how !) Get GIMPSHOP for Windows (freebie) to convert JPEGs/BMPs into PPMs. There's a webpage out there [CHALLENGE !] that explains the precise proc for using the PPM2LSS script (under Linux) that comes in the SYSLINUX kit. That is, once you have some PPMs that you want to finalize, boot your fav Linux live CD to convert them using PPM2LSS. I made my boot splashes 640x420, allowing up to three lines of text for the menu and a sgl line for the 'boot:' prompt from ISOLINUX.

I've already done virtually everything you're trying to do. Relocating core files for certain distros is where I drew the line, mainly bec this effort isn't commercial. If it were, I'd have done that too.

Chew on this for a while. Good luck....

I'm gonna finalise my current uber disc tonight using CDShell (everythings done bar afew tweaks) then I'm gonna start on this.

Thanks.

I have a question: you've seen the Knoppix boot splash. Does CDSHELL do anything like that ? I got so confused at first, I never really gave it a full shake down. I got confusing info from diff web pages about the syntax for BCDW 1.50 vs 2.0, where the .INI files were placed, and the CDSHELL website started out by explaining the syntax of scripting lang, instead of a simple starter menu template, that I gave up on it and switched to ISOLINUX. Never looked back after that....Jet

CDShell has a BCDW module for it.

The boot syntax for it is:



The module doesn't come with CDShell but you can get it from the website.

Yes, you can have images in CDShell just look here for an example.

Personally I like the retro feel of a scripted menu.

If you want help with CDShell I'll be happy to post my setup. You could also check out Flyakites guide, although you've probably done that already.

I've theoretically worked out how to boot CDShell with isolinux but I need some more experience first.

Now some questions about isolinux.

Can you use diskemu to boot floppy images with isolinux? Memdisk can cause problems some times.

How do you debug your menu, do you need to create a .iso each time you want to test it?

How do I go about getting a basic isolinux folder together, what files do I need?

I think thats it... for now .

-kof94

Had I seen those CDSHELL samples I mite have made a different choice.

About DISKEMU, I have no cloo. But I'd imagine it would work, as long as it's a simple binary, that is, not an .EXE. Remember ISOLINUX isn't an OS, but then CDSHELL/BCDW aren't either. What's wrong w/ MEMDISK ?

About testing an ISOLINUX menu, yes you'll have to make an ISO and boot it under VMWARE or VPC to test it.

A basic ISOLINUX boot setup, again you have one in your hands. KNOPPIX is what I used for my core files, even though I d/l'd the basic SYSLINUX kit (mainly for the docs.) They illustrate how a boot splash is setup (a text file which includes some funky control codes to clear the screen then the name of the splash file.) For a simple text menu, you have pad each line in the the text file w/ spaces out to the full screen size, but otherwise it's a no-brainer.

Later....

If this works well with just isolinux, why doesn't it work with the isolinux in cdshell?

@fevoldj2

Basically, you just need to script it calling the isolinux module.

The problem is I can't get it to work and no-one else has offered a solution.

If isolinux can be as versatile as CDShell then I'm willing to give it ago.

@jetman

It might just be CDShell but some images don't like memdisk. Obviously you then have the choice of using diskemu or bcdw instead. I use diskemu mainly.

I know I said I like a retro menu in CDShell but looking at the ubuntu isolinux menu I feel an image is definitely in order for my menu .

You can call the isolinux module. You just use: isolinux <isolinux commands>

Have you got it working ?

If so could you post your commands for Knoppix and ubuntu please.

Edit:

How are you doing with the remastering, is there any simple way of doing it?

No, I haven't got it working

I finally managed to get Knoppix 5.0.1 and ubuntu 6.10 to boot through CDShell using the default boot options.

For Knoppix put the isolinux folder inside the KNOPPIX folder on your disc the use this command to boot it:



And use this command for ubuntu (no isolinux folder required and source files at root of disc):



Obviously change the keys to fit your menu.

The only draw back with this approach is you would need to script each isolinux command in CDShell if you wanted the extra boot options.

I found an interesting thread here that could be adapted to provide the full isolinux boot menu for each distro. However, I do not yet poses enough knowledge about mkisofs to decipher exactly what is being done here... jetman?

On the topic of relocating source files.

I've also read somewhere that you can append source file locations to the isolinux command. Although I havn't tried this yet, I worry this could cause problems during installation (ubuntu) even if it manages boot live. I'll try to find the topic again to give to guys an example.

-kof94

so kof94, using this: "if $lastKey == key[f8]; then isolinux /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=1048576 root=/dev/ram rw quiet splash --"

in my cdshell.ini it would boot the setup for ubuntu?

if yes, where must i put the ubuntu folder? AOIDVD\Ubuntu ?

This is something no-one has figured out yet.

You can use this...



...only if you copy the ubuntu .iso contents to the root of you disc.

You only need these folders (for Edgy Eft anyway).



-kof94

So you can only really have knoppix and one other Linux distro? The person who created knoppix was able to put the distro in its own folder. We should be able to do the same.

You could have more but only if the folders don't clash. You couldn't have ubuntu, kubuntu and edubuntu on one disc this way, for example.

You also don't get the full boot menu. I suppose you could add each boot option to your CDShell menu though.

The one beauty of doing it this way is you can rename the isolinux folder to whatever you want because your bypassing isolinux.bin .




The difference is they built it, we're trying to mod it. I have to agree though their must be a simple way.

This may, however, become a question for the dev's of each Linux distro you want on your disc. Since each one seams to be built so differently .

-kof94

The only distro I have that hasn't been easily added to a multi-boot DVD is FreeSpire, bec they have some unusual ISO properties, so you can't simply copy the files from the CD under Windows. Otherwise, it's easy. Now, as I've said before, if you want to relocate, it'll take some extra work on your part. The process is called remastering, in fact the simplest kind of remastering. However, what's needed is to have a working Linux system, so that you can extract the entire contents of the distro (typically, they're contained in a compressed file system only readable under Linux), then you modify (in order to relocate) one of the boot scripts to look for the core OS files in a diff CD sub-dir. Repackage (recompress) and recreate the ISO and you're done. Most distros have forums/fora which explain in detail the remastering process. That's how new distros come to be: via remastering.

The distros I've tried: DSL (based on Knoppix) + Knoppix (not at the same time as DSL !) + Slax + Mepis + TRK. I don't think Kubuntu would be problematic and will try it when I get a break. (Other than monitoring the forums, I haven't touched that stuf in weeks.) DSL and Knoppix can't co-exist w/o remastering bec they rely on the same KNOPPIX sub-dir.

Follow my instuctions to get a working multi-boot DVD, regardless of using ISOLINUX or CDSHELL, *then* see if remastering/relocating is worth addl effort....

I want to choose between the x86-32 version of Debian and the x86-64 version. They'll stomp all over each other if they're both in the root. Plus the root will be terribly untidy :-)

You sound like you want both Knoppix and DSL available as options.

So there's two good reasons to figure out how to achieve this.

BTW: Slax is easy to move out of the root: it must be easy if a dufus like me can manage it! I've left the details either in this forum or in the slax ones.

You're not a dufus, the crew at Slax made easy for everybody !

'Young padawon, misunderstand me, you do. Relocation that you seek, REMASTER you must !', he said in impeccable Yoda-speak

Seriously, the forum for every distro I've visited has at least one Remastering topic and there's decent (general) activity on the LiveCDNews forum too. Who knows if you're really clever you mite just GOOGLE this out. Other people want to relocate, prob for diff reasons, so the ans are out there.

I hope to return to this next week and perhaps help out....

Guys: While I was setting up a new browser on my system, I got an acct on the kubuntu forum and found the following: UbuntuRemaster. It's consistent w/ what I've been suggesting and although it isn't the Holy Grail to relocation, section 1.4 refers to preseed.cfg, which mite be the ans. Check it out....

Here are two more links, going deeper into the subj of remastering live CDs. Actually, the link to PCQuest looks to be pretty promising:



For my part, I haven't tried these yet, bec I got sidetraked into building an Ethernet->Fixed WiFi router and I actually added Kubuntu 6.10 to the same disc, which now has BartPE, Slax KillBill (Desktop), Slax Server (my new router), Knoppix, and CHNTPW. Interesting, but in the final analysis, not as productive as I'd hoped. But, c'est la vie....

Just thought I'd better reply to this topic since I've left it alone for while.

I'm still interested in developing a universal strategy, if thats possible.

Since multi-booting Windows and many tools has been covered over and over I feel this topic could become quite invaluable over time!

I've been very busy lately but rest assured I be back on the mission soon.

-kof94

I found yet another pointer to a multi-boot DVD script called mkcustomdvdmultiboot.sh. D/l'd it, but haven't tried it. Later....