Mailing List Archive

On Sat, 2007-04-28 at 12:57 +0200, Geert Stappers wrote:
> Op 23-04-2007 om 17:59 schreef Christopher R. Parr:
> > Hi!
> >
> > I'm trying to build a Installation usb stick (4GB) with several Linux
> > System iso's on the stick.
> >
> > Now my question:
> >
> > Can I tell Syslinux to mount the required iso inti / and then to boot
> > that system?
> >

Not really - you have the problem the syslinux (or memdisk) doesn't
internally know or want to know how to deal with CD iso's (the reasons
for that are in the archives)

There are some exceptions to this rule - Redhat/Fedora based installers
internal to their installation mechanism know how to deal with loop back
mounting an iso, so it's possible to use their kernel+initrd to boot
from pxelinux and than it will deal with the iso after that (basically
just loop back mount it). I haven't seen many others that do this but
the rule more or less boils down to syslinux + cd iso's don't mix.

- John 'Warthog9' Hawley

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J.H. schreef:
> There are some exceptions to this rule - Redhat/Fedora based installers
> internal to their installation mechanism know how to deal with loop back
> mounting an iso, so it's possible to use their kernel+initrd to boot
> from pxelinux and than it will deal with the iso after that (basically
> just loop back mount it). I haven't seen many others that do this but
> the rule more or less boils down to syslinux + cd iso's don't mix.
>
FreeDOS is also able to do so but that's because the CD redirector
(SHSUCDX) allows stacking,
thus first mounting the CD, then the ISO that's on the CD. The init
scripts of the various (linux-)distributions need to contain code to
mount (not: boot) the ISO, then find the rest of the scripts or programs
inside the ISO and run them.

To boot a random ISO that's an image of a bootable operating system,
only GRUB and Smart Boot Manager come to mind with respect to
implementing a software built 'boot iso9660' bios stack.

Not even projects like LinuxBIOS have a CD booting stack, instead they
support reading the isolinux.cfg and from there find the (Linux)kernel
that needs to be run. Can't backup this claim with proof though, it's
just something I recall having read some years ago.

Bernd

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Bernd Blaauw wrote:
> FreeDOS is also able to do so but that's because the CD redirector
> (SHSUCDX) allows stacking,
> thus first mounting the CD, then the ISO that's on the CD. The init
> scripts of the various (linux-)distributions need to contain code to
> mount (not: boot) the ISO, then find the rest of the scripts or programs
> inside the ISO and run them.
>
> To boot a random ISO that's an image of a bootable operating system,
> only GRUB and Smart Boot Manager come to mind with respect to
> implementing a software built 'boot iso9660' bios stack.
>
> Not even projects like LinuxBIOS have a CD booting stack, instead they
> support reading the isolinux.cfg and from there find the (Linux)kernel
> that needs to be run. Can't backup this claim with proof though, it's
> just something I recall having read some years ago.

The real problem, once again, is that virtually no operating systems
continue to talk to the CD through the El Torito stack, so no matter
what the bootloader does, without support from the operating system it's
all for naught. Otherwise it would be reasonably easy to extend MEMDISK
to support isos, but as it is, it's pretty pointless. There is, of
course, also the issue of size.

-hpa

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