29-Apr-07: See the bottom of this post for updated links to jump directly to milestones and novel customizations.

I've been collecting ISOs for a while and want to see what all of the diff
parts look like w/o giving up a bunch of CDs for a one-shot tryout. In
doing this, you can see how one person assembles a multi-boot disc (CD/DVD)
using ISOLINUX. If you want to follow along, you'll need a bunch of sware
to do this project:



The Virtual CD Driver is needed only for the initial phase of the project.
I'm using UltraISO, bec I have it and bec it permits dismantling the indiv
ISOs, but it isn't free, while the Virtual CD driver from Microsoft, *is*
free. If you already have something else, like Daemon Tools, MagicISO, ISO
Buster, whatever, free free to use that instead. If it isn't obvious, the
VCD Driver permits an ISO be mounted as a CD drive w/ its own drive letter,
so folders and files can be extracted to disc for the bild. Since it took a
while for me to find it (and *I* already know that it exists) here's the URL
for that:



You'd also do well to get VMWare or Virtual PC (free from Microsoft), QEMU
(free, OSS code) or some other virtual machine software, to test ISO images
before burning them to disc. You won't need it right now, bec *if* you follow
my instructions CAREFULLY, your finished ISO *will* be work. However, it
wouldn't hurt to get it now, just in case....

This is a HOWTO, not a TUTORIAL. It's assumed that the reader knows how to
use the different tools or can figure them out on his/her own. To make this
a full-blown tutorial (with step-by-step explanations of everything) would
require many hours of work that I don't have to give. I've never read a
single tutorial or HOWTO on using ZIP/WINZIP/whatever. I've never read a
HOWTO or tutorial on making sub-directories. Everything I've learned on
these subjects has come through trial-and-error. This HOWTO offers a
structure for a single project that works, which you'll be able to apply
onwards and outwards for your own efforts. But it's your responsibility to
grasp the concepts behind this structure and experiment, experiment,
experiment. In fact, there were other parts that I'd hoped to include like
the Ultimate Boot CD and Trinity Rescue Kit. Unfortunately, for several
reasons, I had to abandon these elements as they would make things too
complicated (UBCD) or simply didn't lend themselves a different disc
structure (TRK.) These discoveries were the result of hours of experiments
which you didn't see.

1) Alright, let's get this party started. Make a sub-dir called
\Super-Disc. Next, extract the SYSLINUX kit into \syslinux (be sure to keep
the original directory structure.) The idea here is to put Super-Disc in
the root of your hdrive. Actually, you can put it anywhere you like, but
if you really need this HOWTO, do it my way the 1st time through.

2) Underneath \Super-Disc\, create boot\isolinux\, boot\dsl\, boot\zenlive\,
boot\sysresccd\, dsl\, and sysresccd\.

3) From \syslinux, *COPY* (don't *MOVE*) vesamenu.c32, chain.c32,
isolinux.bin, memdisk to boot\isolinux\.

4) Open the System Rescue ISO and copy vmlinuz1 and vmlinuz.igz to
boot\sysdresccd\. Copy sysrescd.dat to sysresccd\. Copy memtest86 to
boot\isolinux\.

Making the System Rescue CD "cooperate" was accomplished by changing the
KERNEL and APPEND stmts, to point to the new location of the kernel
(boot/sysresccd) and initial ramdisk or initrd (also in boot/sysresccd).
Better designed live CD distros permit the compressed file system archive
(where the bulk of the system files are contained) to be relocated. In this
case using the loop= and subdir= clauses in the APPEND stmt. Some distros
also call these "cheat codes."

5) Open the DSL ISO and copy the KNOPPIX *file* (*NOT* the entire KNOPPIX
sub-dir) to dsl\, linux24, and minirt24.gz to boot\dsl\.

The key cheat code for relocating DSL is knoppix_dir=dsl, since DSL is
derived from Knoppix.

6) Open the ZenWalk ISO and copy vmlinuz and initrd.gz to boot\zenlive\ and
the entire zenlive\ directory tree to \Super-Disc.

At the end of this process, one should have a directory tree structure that
looks something like this:



&) Almost forgot, you'll need an ISOLINUX.CFG to make this work. Copy
the bracketed text block below and put isolinux.cfg into boot/isolinux/.



Any 640x480 PNG will sufice for the initial splash screen, but try this
one, making sure to rename it to splash.png and place it in boot/isolinux/.



8) To create an ISO for the project using MKISOFS, try the following:



Of course, you can use any util you have available, like CDIMAGE, ULTRAISO,
etc. The only significant issue is that the util *MUST* support the
"boot-info-table" option. This eliminates from consideration my own
favorite CD burning app, NERO and probably another popular burning app, Easy
CD Creator. If you have a working Linux disc, you can use K3B, which does
support boot-info-table patching and is an excellent CD/DVD burning app, so
you could burn the project directly to disc.

Well that's it. If you've run the batch scriptlet above, you should have a
multi-boot ISO you can burn to CD. Hope this helps. Good luck....Jet

28-Apr-07:
This thing has grown beyond my initial expectations, which is good. So, I've changed the name of the topic to 'Super-Disc: Multi-Boot Project CD/DVD Using ISOLINUX', which is what it has become. Onwards and outwards, I (and others) will continue adding new elements to the project and talking about it. Periodically, I'll add links to the different milestones/additions.

1) Adding BartPE
2) Adding a XP Installer
3) More BartPE/XP Customization Links from Kof94

Fleshing out these 1st few milestones will take the rest of the weekend, since this idea is a middle-of-the-nite inspiration. So use your imaginations in the meantime....

30-Apr-07:

4) A Q-n-D Mini-HOWTO on WiFi under Linux Using NDISWrapper

Greate work!!

Thanks

I don't know about the rest of you, but my own Super-Disc is moving along quite nicely and will be finished in another couple of days. Here's what mine looks like:



1) I added a sub-menu for my Slax server, which even has its own splash graphic:



2) The new sub-menu has some additional descriptive info (in the lower third of the screen), avail w/ SYSLINUX-3.40-pre12

Later....

Hey this is an awesome topic and I'm sure it's exactly what I'll need to make a perfectly good super disc, however, I'd like to know, if I have a boot.bin file I ripped using BBIE (bart's boot image extractor), what's the command instead of KERNEL /boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1 that I can type in to get my boot.bin file to load (for example to install OS unattended). Say the file is /boot/OS/boot.bin.

I'm figuring it wouldn't be KERNEL, would it be BOOT?

Or is there more that is required? I read over a syslinux mailing list post on the topic and I'm lost, unfortunately.

THIEF!!! The hdd pic was my idea.

Only one problem though, yours looks better than mine . Nice work Jet.

The text in red at the bottom, is that a static comment... how did you do that?

Full disclosures and all that: I got that image from your source: Deviant Art. Consider that your fifteen-minutes of fame.

The help text is illustrated in the Code box. New thing w/ 3.40-pre12. Thanx. What I've tried to do is illustrate how one can do a lot w/ ISOLINUX. Here's the submenu & splash:



I'm going to even try to deal w/ my nemisis, Doc Mem, this weekend. Later....Jet

Nope. It's always KERNEl. Your best bet is always to experiment, experiment, experiment. Some loaders, like the Windows loader, cooperate quite nicely. Some cases you mite have to mix and match w/ something from CDSHELL/BCDW. The most important aspect of ISOLINUX/SYSLINUX is the simplicity of its structure. For each item of a given menu pick, it's only two or three easy-to-understand lines. Transalation: you can try several possibilites in less than an hour....Jet

PS: Rather simply rely on ripping the bootstrap by brute-force, w/ BBIE, why not try my suugestion and open the ISO w/ either MS' VCD Control Panel, UltraISO, ISO Buster, whatever ? There's only one loader I can't crack at this point: the FreeBSD loader (more on that soon.) You may discover the solution is simpler than you think....

If you need to know how to integrate XP/2K3/BartPE:



It's that simple....Jet

Very funny .



I figured out how to do that whilst fixing up UBCD.

I don't know if this will help you but here's what I did:

*Took the docmem.exe from the floppy image and placed it in a folder called docmem in the dosapps folder.
*Wrote a startup.bat that looked like this:



... and placed that in the docmem folder.

*Executed it by changing the the entry in mboard2.cfg to read:



... as you'll notice the main reason why this works is because I used "Boot no UMB (ultra-defensive)" when the freeDOS image boots.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, I modded things abit so all the dosapps use the FreeDOS image instead if the LZDOS image which doesn't boot.

*Rename dosubcd.igz to lzdos.igz and fdubcd.igz to dosubcd.igz and then edit locations in bootdsk1.cfg to reflect changes.

IMO it's easier to just use the binaries for memtest86 and memtest86+ and a lot less messing about. But hey, here's to determination!!!

I figured the solution had something to w/ FREEDOS, so this is very helpful. Thank you. I'm sticking w/ DocMem, bec it's several times faster than Memtest. I'd used it forever, til moving to ISOLINUX then it temporarily went into the crapper...

Simple answer: I'm on Win2k, so VCD CPL is out.

Long answer: Well, a lot of applications won't run on my system, it's become rather crippled due to some f***ed up actions on my part -- I got a virus, then after cleaning up what I could I tried a repair install, now half my apps don't run. And won't run. Because of missing hooks and routines. lol. Thus I'm trying to build the W2k disc, and needing to move to DVD, and while I"m at it figuring I might as well just make a dualboot of that, XP, and a dozen other things while I'm at it.

EDIT: Also, I'm not quite sure I understand what opening the ISO like that is going to achieve? I used to be able to with WinISO and IB, but I could never see any achievement other than to extract the boot image, just as with BBIE. Just that BBIE is cmdline and will actually run right now.

You [already know you] have bigger problems than VCD CP, BIFs, whatever. I wouldn't even attempt what you're tryinas g to do (ie. a Super0Disc-like project) at this stage. You need a stable system 1st, by whatever means nec !

If you're of dec tech skills, this may be your moment to take the Linux plunge. I think Knoppix 5.11 has enuf functionality that you could do pretty well: stable NTFS R/W support, most important. It has K3B, a Nero-like CD/DVD burner app, good driver support, KDE (a very Windows-like GUI), and overall it's very mature overall distro. They even threw in ISOMaster, an ISO editing util (!) You could continue your project and incrementally fix your W2K installation. Altho, while I normally never say die, this one sounds like a do-over.

Going back to your orig question: why breakdown an ISO ? Bec it works. It's not the only way to go or even necessarily the best way to go, but bef hitting something w/ a hammer, try a screwdriver. The hammer is always avail At the end of the day, experiment, experiment. Whatever works, works....Jet

I know the machine's hosed, but since it's somewhat stable (it's not constantly crashing) I can put together using hfslip and bts driverpacks and other tools 2k and XP and 98, and not have a problem. Well, 98 may not be fully slipstreamed... or at all. LOL. Kinda just have it in there as a toy OS, and to run older stuff. Won't touch ME.

Well, regarding the Linux "plunge" I've already made a few jumps in. I've got several K live CDs around and I dabble in DSL, problem is the tools I've got to run daily require windows and Wine just isn't enough. Otherwise, believe me I'd be on a mac over this hardware any day

As far as my question, I'm trying to find out what you're saying I will accomplish by breaking down the ISO? What am I trying to achieve by doing so? I mean if there's some really great trick that lets me find out a way to do stuff, awesome, but I have no idea what I want to accomplish by going in and breaking down said ISO. If I'm just looking to get the boot image, I've had one working for some time, and I don't see why I need to change it. Though, I may have to change it to get it to load the folder in the right location.

Tnx for the time.

I too am determined, but determination don't count when sware won't cooperate !

Per your suggestion, I got hold of the DOCMEM/FreeDOS image and gave it the stuf from the other images to make NOUMBs work:



I now have three (!) diff HIMEM drivers (Win98's HIMEM.SYS, QHIMEM.SYS, and HIMEM.EXE) as a result of my trials but none of them work for me ! All of my testing has been under VMWARE, but after adding and testing my XP Unattended Installer to Super-Disc, I'll try it w/ a real CPU. However, I don't hold out much hope.

Fortunately, I have another CD project that I'm never w/o and that gives me DOC MEM, so regardless of the outcome, this will be our absolute final exchange on this subj. Thanx again for your patience and input....Jet

Test this for me would ya.

Downoad the UBCD 4.0 .iso, extract it's contents and add a folder in the dosapps folder called docmem.

Place docmem.exe from the floppy image in this folder and put a batch file in there called startup.bat.

Write this in the batch file:



Then edit mboard2.cfg in the menus folder to read:



Burn and test. This also works fine in VMware.

I've created my own NwDsk, very similar to the fdubcd image without the networking gumf and stuff. I did this primarily for the drivers support (ASPI/SCSI/SATA/CDROM/LFN/NTFS/HIMEM etc) so I could boot dos tools that didn't want to play ball.

When/If you've got the time take a look at the NwDsk site. I thought it would be really difficult to create my own disc but it was surprisingly easy and very modular. You just need to learn what cabs you want/don't want and where to put things so they execute the way you want them to. The rest is just a simple batch to find your cd/dvd and execute your app.

Anyway I've waffled on too long, just test this out... kof.

Why not, just not today. Unattended XP is almost there. Just have to figure out where to put $OEM$ and test. Thanx. Later....Jet

$OEM$ folders, those were the days. Everything I do now is integrated into the Windows setup but thats a whole new topic for discussion.

Catch ya later.

Our latest and probably final update:






As pointed out earlier, this project isn't optimized. Future (personal) editions will certainly be re-org'd, probably to move the different Linux distros onto their own sub-menu. But it works as it is and illustrates how to integrate just about everything one would want to carry around on a disc w/ a nice menu.

I used the utils from the Multi-Boot DVD Guide to create two boot folders (UXPP for Unattended XP Pro and PRO1 for a std XP Pro install) from a single XP dir, then add it all to the ISO image and menu. The 'Boot from C:' menu pick came into being so that the disc will reboot autmagically to continue an install started from one of the XP menu picks.

BTW, I even got FreeNAS to work, but at a price. FreeNAS (or the FreeBSD loader that it uses) requires the RockRidge ISO attribute, which apparently isn't compatible w/ Windows sware as the XP setup immed stopped working. But, the Linuxen seem to work okay (not much experimental time), so eventually there will be a Unix-alike only Super-Disc.

However, the work on FreeNAS (and Doc Mem to a degree) illustrates the ans to an earlier question about the reason for disassembling ISOs. It would be great if it were possible to make a Super-Disc out of disk images and ISOs alone. Unfortunately, the way that PCs (particluarly PC BIOSes) have evolved over the years, this simply isn't feasible in most cases. Period. If PC BIOSes followed a stricter standard, programmers like the author of SYSLINUX could create loaders which would be able to bring anything into RAM and launch it. Consequently, if one wants a Super-Disc-like system, one must dismantle the constituent parts of the project (one ISO/image at a time) and re-assemble them in a new modified configuration.

Another potential stumbling block is the fact that the authors of some CD/DVD applications don't allow for their works to be relocated (often due to poor design/lack of foresight.) That is, they're hard-coded to work only from specific directory configurations.

Anyway, this has been fun and rewarding. I would also point out that SYSLINUX is a toolkit for making menuing/loader systems. There are at least two other ready-made menuing/loader systems included in the stock archive, similar to the VESAMENU module demonstrated here. The key to discovering if their potential is (as expressed above): experiment, experiment, experiment....Jet

Now you're p***ing me off ! What do you mean integrated into the Windows setup ? Don't drop a totally provocative hint and run away !!!

Double-post

I knew that would get you going .

I've used many, many different ways to run an unattened/Modded XP setup and now finally after nearly two years of p***ing around I've settled on the simplest setup going.

At present my setup consists of:

RyanVM's Update Pack, WMP10 addon and DirectX 9c addon.
Bâshrat's DriverPacks (all of them except MassStorage).
Windows Post-Install Wizard to install all my apps.

To bind all this together I have my own custom addon to use with the RyanVM Integrator. It consists of files to add/update unattened setup and integrate the MediaCentre Royale theme. Included in this package is an inf I made to update reg settings at specific stages of install and to finally run RunOnceEx to finish the DriverPacks setup and execute WPI. It's clean and (even if I do say it myself) professional.

Most of this is easy to do i.e adding Ryan's updates/addons and the DriverPacks. The fun really starts when your learning how to build your own addons, write inf's and configure WPI. They're a bit more time consuming.

All-in-all the $OEM$ folders, and a batch file could do the small things I've done with my little addon, I'm just being a know-it-all (let the flaming commence).

The only real benefit with integration is you don't have to use oemprecopy, or what ever it's called, that messes up F6 driver installation during txtmode. You can also run an upgrade install with the /makelocalsource switch and everything works as it should ($OEM$ folders only work on a full OEM install!). Not that I ever do but you can.

If you want some help I'll be more than heppy to barrage you with links .

Later.

Fascinating. They (MSOFT) make this stuf amazingly complicated. To date, I've avoided the add-on utils, partly for pride's sake and also to get the job done w/o the overhead of XML config files, hokey script langs, etc. However, it sounds that some of the external stuf could be worth looking at. One thing that definitely piques is the driver pack. Now, if that could be somehow coaxed into BartPE as well, it would be well worth the effort.

If you don't do a full OEM install, what's a partial OEM install ?

One other thing that's still outstanding (for a looong time) is scripting an unattended (or std) install from the hdrive via BartPE.

You've given yet more homework :sigh: But it's all good stuf. Later....Jet

I only use Ryan's updates/addons (M$ updates/addons) and of course my little config addon.



I'm lost?



What I meant was, a full install booting from disc!



UBCD4Win already does this and I believe there is a pack based on Bâshrat's DriverPacks that you can add to your own BartPE on that site. The DriverPacks Base at some point will support this as well. One word of advice if your considering using said DriverPacks, don't bother with MassStorage. It's still not compatible enough to rely on!



You can do this simply with the little util that comes with UBCD4Win (I'm starting to become an advert here )

Later.

Actually there's a pretty simple reason for that: Very few manufacturers make their drivers so they can be read easily or compatible, often times building their driver trees (all the files and infs) in such a nonstandard way that sometimes they NEED their own installer apps to get them to work. What fun, eh?



Which tool is that?

I forget the names, but there were a couple of utils for unattended Windows configuring and scripting I looked at and dismissed a long time ago, prob here on MSFN. But they went the XML route for simple config files (as opposed to INI files) or cooked their own wimpy scripting lang.



No thanx. I've already got Python in BartPE. I just need to spend a weekend and write the code !

Will look into the UBCD4WIN forum for that driver pack. BTW, have you looked into WinBuilder at all ? Jet

Back in the light .



Txtmode to GUI mode is the main issue. Windows recognise the correct Silicon Image drivers for formating and copying files in txtmode but it all goes tits up after the first reboot. Windows decides it doesn't actually like the drivers anymore and tries to install some other random driver instead then BSOD. It's a known issue with the MassStorage DP. I'm happy to live without them so-long-as a have a floppy drive.



No, I've only ever used ERD and UBCD4Win. What's Python about?



I'll try to find a link for you.

Edit: search for "XPSetupLauncher" on this page There isn't a download or link so it must be a member contribution.

I'm surprised you haven't already heard of it. It's one of the Ps in the LAMP (ie. Perl, PHP, or Python) stack. Totally free, avail on all major platforms, used for big and small programming. GOOGLE and Yahoo even use it as part of the internal infrastructure of their web app systems. Named for the UK comedy tropue....

Hi, jetman how can I change position of the menus ? I want to use a custom position, it is possible ? Thank you.

You need to mess about with the margins and the size of the display area. It's a bit of a pain really because each setting effects the other.

I did manage to align everything to the left so that I could have a pic running down the right hand side but that's about as creative as you can get. It isn't exactly inspiring but is the "simple menu system" after all.

Can you give me a short example ? Thank you.

To be honest your better off reading the README.menu file. It's a text file from the syslinux package and it explains it all quite well!

You can download it here (you want syslinux-3.36.zip) and you can read some of it here.

The main values you are interested in are MENU width and MENU margin and possibly MENU rows .

If you get stuck post back.

Sir Kof: I gave up after a while. Change one thing, then it moves in an unexpected direction or amount. Bah ! Let it be a little off-center ! Real men don't need centered menus anyway !

@google44: Seriously, I think the positioning code is a bit buggy. I'd get a later version of SYSLINUX than the one my buddy Kof94 mentioned. I'm using 3.50-pre4. He's (ie. SYSLINUX' author) is a wee slow in releasing code. The Freshmeat page for the proj hasn't been updated in months, but the latest-greatest module is available at the Kernel.org link found on the SYSLINUX Downloads page....Jet

I can set height and margin of the menu from the left or right but what about top margin ?

Edit: I just found out why is so difficult to center the menu. I don't think menu positioning code is buggy, the problem is with the MENU MARGIN setting which is working a bit ankward, at least.
MENU MARGIN and MENU WIDTH depends on each other for menu's to be in center of the screen. That is because when you set margin , the entire menu is not moved from left to right preserving menu width, only the left margin of the menu is moved to the right. So when you set MENU MARGIN 10, the right margin of the menu remains at the same position, only the left margin moves 10 points from left margin of the screen. So, of course, this affects width of the menu and because of that is very confusing.

This is driving me crazy I just couldn't boot anything. All my files and images are in ISOLINUX folder. I try it to boot like that:

LABEL sysresccd2
MENU LABEL ^2 Docmem
KERNEL /isolinux/memdisk
APPEND initrd=/isolinux/docmem.img


If i don't use graphical user interface, just text, is working fine but when I add vesamenu.c32 and chain.c32 to have a graphical interface it's just not working anymore, nothing happen when I want to run it.
What i'm doing wrong here because it's clear that all the files are in the right place ?

Hate to tell you "I told you so" but...



And as always the right honorable gentleman jetman continues to be a bastion for common sense.



Next topic:



First up you don't need to add the isolinux folder location because you're already in it and you don't move from it. So if all your boot files are in the isolinux folder including all modules i.e. memdisk then your command should look like this:



Incidentally, Docmem plainly won't work via memdisk and I haven't found a viable solution that works properly yet. IMO memtest86+ does a good enough job, even if it is slow.

As for vesamenu not working, could you post your complete config files.

-kof94

Below is the complete isolinux folder used as a pebuilder plugin. From the archive is missing setup98.img and splash.png image. With mkisofs4isolinux.cmd I make the iso image after i build it with pebuilder. Everything is working fine, isolinux graphical interface is booting, but when i select "Test" and press "enter" nothing happen
Click to view attachment
Here is what's inside pebuilder.iso after iso creation:


So I don't understand why setup98.img is not launching because everything seems to be ok.

Sorry buddy I'm lost. When I boot my AIO DVD I boot straight to isolinux, I'm not quite sure what your trying to do here!

Are you trying to boot isolinux from a PE environment or am I missing something?

Could you also provide a link the full size image of your folder setup as well.

There is nothing really special here, I just create an isolinux plugin for pebuilder. I boot also straight to isolinux there is absolutely no difference, except the two other folders which don't mater.

Ok, fair enough.

I take it "Test" is a label for an app you want to boot, are you completely sure your commands are correct.

For example:

- You don't have two identical labels in your config file
- All your files conform to 8.3 standard
- You have the correct locations set e.g. /menus/main.cfg looks for a folder in the root or the disc called menus menus/main.cfg looks for the menus folder in the isolinux dir.

I know I might be asking silly questions here but simple things can really mess things up.

If your really not sure post your isolinux.cfg and any other config files your having troubles with and I'll take a look.

This is isolinux.cfg file:


This is iso file:


This is the isolinux folder:


and this is the cmd file for building the iso:


I don't understand why it's not working, everything is booting fine but when I try to run "test" item , nothing.


There are no other configuration files that could interfere so..

Visual communication saves the day, I think.

Create a folder at the root of your disc called isolinux, put everything in it then boot this config, then tell me if it works.



I know... I've only made two changes and I know... you can have everything at the root of the disc but please just indulge me.

EDIT: Sorry I made a few more changes!
EDIT: And again. Avoid using tab!

it's the same thing but if I change it to something like that it works (instead of default vesamenu.c32 i change it to default test):


setup98.img is booted directly so the menu is ok I guess. I think I am missing something here.

I just built a test build using just isolinux.cfg.

isolinux.cfg:



Contents of isolinux folder:



All works A-OK.

I'm not quite sure where your going wrong to be honest.

I don't know what's the problem, it just don't work in graphical mode. It works ok only in text mode.

NO ! Incorrect. ISOLINUX is just a loader, a facilitator to get your CD-based systems started. It's just like GURB, BCDW, or CDSHELL. I've been using BartPE for years and no way would I ever do an ISOLINUX plugin.

ISOLINUX+GRUB+CDSHELL+whatever start bef any CD-based app/system and exist solely for that purpose. Do as you will with your computer, but you've missed the point of the exercise....Jet

What's the problem with using the explicit full path of the files ? As in:



Costs nothing and eliminates ambiguity. The fact that VESAMENU works and the text menu system doesn't suggests that they mite have been written by different people and therefore behave ever so differently. That one would use a different directory layout is clearly discretionary, but using partial pathnames is not....Jet

My SuperDisc conitnues to evolve, but when demonstrating the current incarnation, something jumped and bit me in the arse, so I thought I'd share:



Never ever forget the boot-info-table option when building your CD/DVD. The image above is a DVD I made a week ago and works fine under VMWare and my two home PCs. When I tried to demo it at my old job, no image, no boot, just a message I hadn't seen in months:



I use exactly the same layout as illustrated at the top of the thread. But I don't use MKISOFS, I prefer ULTRAISO, so that the files can be stored all over my hdrive. Unfortunately, this is a flaw of the GUI approach. Using a cmd-line ISO maker, it's hard to overlook something like that, esp if you're making ISOs via a script w/ everything spelled out. But with a GUI program, you mite miss a single menu option. So in overlooking something, it's possible that the disc will pass okay thru a couple of test PCs, and fail when you need it.

Don't assume, verify....Jet

I thought there was something a miss.



Fair enough, can't hurt but when you boot isolinux you are rooted in that location and effectively call files from other locations. So if all your files are located with isolinux.bin you don't really need the full paths.

The only thing that puzzles me is google44 has decided to put all the files at the root of the disc instead of one of the folder locations. I wondered if this could cause a problem because a path like this KERNEL /memdisk is then identical to this KERNEL memdisk.



I have to say CDImage as never failed me and I've been using the same commands of eighteen months now. I would like to use mkisofs but there are just far too many switches for me to work out whats best for all concerned.

And I nearly forgot... THE SUPER-MEGA-GLOBAL-GALACTIC-DESTROYER-OF-WORLDS . Now your scaring me

I don't know why but now is working. The folder structure is something like this:
superdisk
---boot
----isolinux
The isolinux.cfg:

In isolinux folder there are all the files and some image file for testing. I use cdimage gui for iso creation and now is working fine. I have to use some special parameters with cdimage for iso creation or not ? I just choose root as "superdisk" folder and isolinux.bin as the boot image then start image creation without any other settings.

Thank you jetman and kof94 for your help, without you I think I couldn't have done it. When I get stuck somewhere I will ask for help.

I have one question, it is possible to display help information when I select a menu item ?

Edit: Solved, I was using an older version.