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

This post has been edited by jetman: Apr 30 2007, 09:04 PM

Hehe ist works too

in isolinux.cfg:

kernel /BOOT/grub/grub.exe --config-file="kernel (cd)/platform/i86pc/kernel/unix;module=(cd)/BOOT/x86.microroot;boot"

and solaris boots like a charm.


Jack

@Phylum

Just in case it's your mkisofs commands this is my simple mkisofs script.

This script is located in boot/isolinux along with mkisofs. If your using Windows just grab the commands lower down the script.



One more thing...

You can use the file util in Linux to query a file type, I'm not sure but you might find a Windows port as part of cygwin.
First decompress the image (gzip -d initrd.gz) then test the file.



This post has been edited by kof94: Nov 16 2009, 04:27 PM

i use

g:\cd

as my root folder

& my file structure is

for boot files

g:\cd\boot\isolinux
g:\cd\boot\bartpe
g:\cd\boot\xpsp3

for respective cd content

g:\cd\bartpe
g:\cd\xpsp3

i use isolinux.cfg as



& edited SETUPLDR.BIN using hexedit & replace i386 to bartpe/i386 in case of bartpe
& replace i386 to xpsp3/i386 in case of xpsp3

& rename as bSETUPLDR.BIN &xSETUPLDR.BIN
& place in
g:\cd\boot\bartpe
g:\cd\boot\xpsp3
resp

now to make cd i have used mkisofs.exe of pebuilder
& created bat to automate process



but all this creat bootable iso of 1.44mb

then i use magiciso to add other files from the cd folder & save it
the image is bootable

but when i try to chk it with vmware it just do nothing no error no message & no progress just processing

** please help me figureout where i have done mistake

thanks in adv

if u can tell me simply what to do instead of redirecting then i will really appriciate

I have some problem i'm using programs ultra ISO for Add my multi-boot size 5 GB and chose Optimize

look pic



now size 2,80

test on VM working not problem and burn to DVD speed burn 12X test one my computer not problem

test on another computer PC not working why where mistake

Can't help as I've made virtually all of my discs using UltraISO and have occasionally used the Optimization feature successfully. If it [Optimization] doesn't work, sometimes you have to re-organize the contents of a disc, to move some content from one disc to another or use a bigger (DL) disc and turn off Optimzation....Jet

This post has been edited by jetman: Apr 16 2009, 06:35 AM

As an aside, syslinux now includes the Hardware Detection Tool, a module created just for the job of retrieveing hardware information.

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/H...Detection_Tool)



Cheers

Well, hello, world!

I followed this howto and I did my isolinux multiboot with linux, xp and win2000... I thought I would have no problem in booting a winbuilder LiveXP, but I was wrong... I couldnt find any bootsect.bin and i think isolinux cannot boot SETUPLDR.BIN

I knew I had to create an image that boot setupldr.bin & bootfix.bin in the i386 dir, and I did with bbie: I have no problem in booting if i copy the LiveXP "\" in my multiboot "\"...
...but, as you can guess, it means I can integrate just one LiveXP for dvd... Yeah, one LiveXP per dvd is enough but I just would like not to have such a messy iso

I think the problem is redirecting the entire process from "\i386" folder to "\Livexp\i386"... I've tried modifying txtsetup, but i think i have to modify setupldr or doing something similar to the xp installer... and it's over my skills...

Anyway, I realize I'm trying like a blind in a open space
so, please: help! (like the beatles used to say)

Hello! I tried to follow the how-to and at step 3 it says "From \syslinux, *COPY* (don't *MOVE*) vesamenu.c32, chain.c32, isolinux.bin, memdisk to boot\isolinux\.". The problem is that I don't see memdisk in the huge source of syslinux. Here is a screenshot.

isn't it where it should be?
I.e. in this file:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot...slinux-3.82.zip
in the "memdisk" directory, as a file 19.584 bytes in size, called "memdisk" (with no extension)

jaclaz

Oh, yes thanks. I wasn't carefull when extracted the archive ... And I thought it was in the root folder ... sorry. But at "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\." in my sysrescuecd-x86-1.2.1.iso I have in NTPASSWD folder the files "initrd.cgz"; "vmlinuz." and scsi.cgz" not vmlinuz1 and vmlinuz.igz. The only *.igz file is INITRAM.IGZ .


This post has been edited by florin91: Jul 11 2009, 10:41 AM

Unless jetman's crystal ball (unlike mine ) works very, very well, I wonder how he could, in 2007, have foreseen that on May 12th, 2009 :
http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2009/05/12/s...d-120-released/
a new version would have been released, that it would have been a "major release" and that probably the booting files have been changed names....

From here:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manual-...your_own_kernel

it seems like the new files are vmlinuz and initram.gz


The files in NTPASSWD, I guess are related to NTPASSWD aka chntpw aka Offline NT Password Editor :
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

jaclaz

Oh, thanks again. I will try eventually to finish this multiboot dvd. And about jetman's crystall ball, , I thought he updated the tutorial since then. And the last question that I need answered to finish this dvd: How I insert other iso's that are not in tutorial , in example Windows XP, Acronis True Image, WinPE, Arch linux, how I make a menu and when I select an option (category) to appear another menu and when I select the "program" to start and boot that kernel.
At windows, it should work with ntdr, at linux it should be simple but how about the others like Acronis ?
Thanks again very much and goodbye!

Windows and PE 1.x WON'T work unless you use a RAMDISK approach (from .iso) PE 1.x will work with "usual" "\I386" structure, Windows install will work as well from "\I386", so i fyou have both you will need to rename one of the two and hexedit correspondingly files, there is no way if not "Hard disk emulation" to run "Full XP" from CD-ROM (not usable in a mult-boot, AFAIK):
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3890

For all the rest you may want to search around, and test the newish Syslinux ISO mapping features.

Start from grub4dos:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

and see if what works with it:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5041

also works with Syslinux:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8258

in any case in the forum there are grub4dos examples and "translations" from grub4dos to Syslinux syntax, so that you can use them the other way round.

jaclaz

Hi all
i want to create a multiboot dvd with UBUNTU, KUBUNTU, XUBUNTU and some other distro and so i read all the tutorials and tried to do it by myself.
I decided to start with only ubuntu and see if i can do it, and later add all the other distro.

I create these directories

LINUX
|
|-------boot
| |-----isolinux
| |-----ubuntu (inside initrd.gz e vmlinuz)
|
|--------ubuntu (with all the distro contents)


Here myisolinux.cfg

DEFAULT menu.c32
TIMEOUT 0
PROMPT 0
menu title Welcome to GNU/Linux!
label local
menu label Boot from ^hard drive
kernel chain.c32
append hd0
label ubuntu-live-install
menu label ^Install Ubuntu
kernel /boot/ubuntu/vmlinuz
append file=/cdrom/ubuntu/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/boot/ubuntu/initrd.gz quiet splash --

I also modified casper inside scripts di initrd (and copiet into boot/ubuntu e ubuntu/casper) changing $Path/casper, and $Directory/casper to $Path/ubuntu/casper and so on. can't find $mountpoint and change /.disk/casper to /ubuntu/.disk/casper

When i select ubuntu i got the logo of ubuntu and seems to load but then it says:

/init: /scripts/casper: line 1: #/bin/sh: not found ... itried to change it to #1/ubuntu/bin/sh

Anyone can help me? I really need to create this DVD.

Thank you

Heres a much easier and faster way to boot your Windows XP.


http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ost&p=72457



I had trouble following the instructions given in the few pages i read.