jetman

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

Double-post

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 !!!

Our latest and probably final update: LABEL bootc MENU LABEL B^oot from C: MENU DEFAULT KERNEL /boot/isolinux/chain.c32 APPEND hd0 LABEL bartpe MENU LABEL ^BartPE/WinPE KERNEL /BOOTSECT.BIN LABEL unattxp MENU LABEL ^Unattended XP Pro Installation KERNEL /UXPP.bin LABEL xpsetup MENU LABEL Standard ^XP Pro Installation KERNEL /PRO1.bin 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

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

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: switches=/f set os=fd break=off files=99 buffers=32 stacks=0,0 shell=\command.com /f /e:2048 /p lastdrive=z device=\himem.exe /max=64000 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

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 B) At the end of the day, experiment, experiment. Whatever works, works....Jet

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...

If you need to know how to integrate XP/2K3/BartPE: LABEL bartpe MENU LABEL ^BartPE/WinPE MENU DEFAULT KERNEL /BOOTSECT.BIN It's that simple....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....

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

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: MENU COLOR help 1;37;44 #ffff0000 #00000000 std #### MENU ROWS 12 #### LABEL slaxmenu TEXT HELP Mustang Router/Server system using Slax 5.1.8.2, enhanced with NTFS-3g 1.0+FUSE-2.63+K3B-1.0RC7.... ENDTEXT MENU LABEL Mustang ^Server/Router Sub-Menu KERNEL /boot/isolinux/vesamenu.c32 APPEND /boot/slax/isolinux.cfg 2) The new sub-menu has some additional descriptive info (in the lower third of the screen), avail w/ SYSLINUX-3.40-pre12 Later....

C'est la vie....Jet

What precisely doesn't work the way it's supposed to ? UBCD has always had things that didn't work. What is it that you want (specifically) that doesn't work ? For the record, my interest was in Doc Mem, which still doesn't work properly, in spite of the fact that it's an updated version....Jet

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: ISOLINUX syslinux.zytor.com DSL 3.2 damnsmalllinux.org System Rescue CD sysresccd.org ZenWalk Live 4.2 zenwalk.org cdrtools freshmeat.net Virtual CD Driver microsoft.com 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: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe 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: C:\Super-Disc\ boot\ isolinux\ dsl\ sysresccd\ zenlive\ sysresccd\ dsl\ zenlive\ &) 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/. DEFAULT /boot/isolinux/vesamenu.c32 PROMPT 0 TIMEOUT 300 TOTALTIMEOUT 450 #### MENU BACKGROUND /boot/isolinux/splash.png MENU TITLE Super-Disc ** 09Mar07 Edition #### #### The 1st byte of the fgnd color is brightness. #### blue MENU COLOR title 1;36;44 #ff0000ff #00000000 std #### blue MENU COLOR unsel 37;44 #ff0000ff #00000000 std #### white MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #c0ffffff #ff000000 std #### red MENU COLOR hotkey 1;37;44 #ffff0000 #00000000 std #### green MENU COLOR hotsel 1;7;37;40 #ff00ff00 #ff000000 all #### LABEL sysresccd1 MENU label ^1 System Rescue CD VESA Display MENU DEFAULT KERNEL /boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1 APPEND initrd=/boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc vga=788 looptype=squashfs loop=/sysresccd/sysrcd.dat setkmap=us subdir=sysresccd cdroot forcevesa splash=silent LABEL sysresccd2 MENU LABEL ^2 System Rescue CD fb1024x768 Display KERNEL /boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1 APPEND initrd=/boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc vga=791 looptype=squashfs loop=/sysresccd/sysrcd.dat setkmap=us subdir=sysresccd cdroot splash=silent LABEL sysresccd3 MENU LABEL ^3 System Rescue CD fb800x600 Display KERNEL /boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1 APPEND initrd=/boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc vga=788 looptype=squashfs loop=/sysresccd/sysrcd.dat setkmap=us subdir=sysresccd cdroot splash=silent LABEL sysresccd4 MENU LABEL ^4 System Rescue CD fb640x480 Display KERNEL /boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1 APPEND initrd=/boot/sysresccd/vmlinuz1.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc vga=785 looptype=squashfs loop=/sysresccd/sysrcd.dat setkmap=us subdir=sysresccd cdroot splash=silent LABEL dsl MENU LABEL ^5 **** Small Linux 3.2 KERNEL /boot/dsl/linux24 APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=/boot/dsl/minirt24.gz dma acpi nomce noapic quiet tz="America/New York" knoppix_dir=dsl BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix LABEL zenlive MENU LABEL ^7 ZenLive Linux kernel /boot/zenlive/vmlinuz append max_loop=255 initrd=/boot/zenlive/initrd.gz init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=4444 root=/dev/ram0 rw vga=791 splash=silent changes=zensave.xfs LABEL memtest86 MENU LABEL ^Memtest86 (RAM Diagnostic) KERNEL /boot/isolinux/memtest86 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/. http://rapidshare.com/files/20603633/super-disc-splash.png 8) To create an ISO for the project using MKISOFS, try the following: @ECHO OFF ECHO Starting @ (%TIME%) .... SET _VNBR_=01 SET _ROOT_=C:\ SET CDTITLE="SUPERDISC-%_VNBR_%" SET CDFILENAME="%_ROOT_%%CDTITLE%.ISO" mkisofs -N -V %CDTITLE% -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -d -iso-level 4 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o %CDFILENAME% Super-Disc 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

WRT the sample isolinux.cfg: Yes, that (PQPMA8.IMA) is my own image. I used WinImage to make it, altho I don't think there's anything special there. I took PM8 from Hiren's CD and rebuilt it to remove the overly-complex cruft in the script. Otherwise, nothing special.... Shouldn't need the raw option, I don't use it for PM8. Only for unruly XMS apps. I need to learn where it fits, but then that's why VMWare/QEMU/Virtual PC exist....Jet B)

Call me, Yoda, you may. My real name, it is.... Seriously, it ain't me. SYSLINUX is a product of the Linux world/culture and many of the inhabitants of MSFN are simply biased in favor of that which is more familiar, CDSHELL. As I understand it, BCDW development stopped a long time ago, yet others still use it successfully and continue to recommend it. No biggie. B) Finally, CDSHELL is still a fine program, it simply didn't suit me....Jet

I've been thinking about switching over from CDshell to SYSLINUX, mostly because SYSLINUX looks like it has a powerful extensible menu system. If you've already converted from CDshell to SYSLINUX, could you post a quick guide? I cannot see too much in the way of documentation for SYSLINUX. I expect it's not too hard to figure out, but some pointers could save a lot of time. I have the usual Multiboot DVD that can install various XP variants, invoke the UBCD, boot floppy images, boot SLAX. Thanks It's ISOLINUX, not SYSLINUX. SYSLINUX is the name of the entire kit, a series of loaders for floppy/hdrives (SYSLINUX), CD/DVDs (ISOLINUX), Linux storage (EXTLINUX), and PXE/Network bootstrapping (PXELINUX). The documentation is pretty good, at least w/ latest (3.35+) kits. SYSLINUX.DOC is documentation for the entire config file structure (that was always okay), along w/ README.menu which explains the cooler menu capabilities, specifically VESAMENU, which does 640x480 PNG splash screens ! This is a sample, working ISOLINUX menu I used to use for my multi-boot DVD. Does Slax, BartPE, and Knoppix, among other things. Was created prior to discovering the ease w/ which one could use the VESAMENU option. Where the SYSLINUX loaders differ from CDSHELL, is that CDSHELL revolves around a scripting language. Very flexible, but a longer learning curve, given the mission (setting up a menu w/ a handful of options.) SYSLINUX config files are a series of stanzas, each stanza describes a single boot config corresponding to a menu option, so you can get something usable going more quickly. I think the only thing that's unclear about my ISOLINUX sample is the DISPLAY stmt. The file displayed w/ that stmt is a combination of a cmd to display a .LSS splash screen and the actual text of menu cmds to be used by the user. So it would look something like: ^Ysplash.lss Commands: bartpe, slax, server, knoppix Press [F2] or [F3] for help w/ options That's from memory, but pretty accurate. If you have either DSL, Knoppix, or Slax 5, the config files from any of these (particularly DSL or Knoppix, which are the examples I used) will fill-in any remaining blanks....Jet

Tell the truth, I'm going to (eventually) try DSKEMU1 under ISOLINUX to try ONE MORE TIME to deal w/ DOC MEM DOC MEM notwithstanding, I've solved the CD loader thing to almost-complete satisfaction and spend my quality time building out Slax into something I can use full-time. I gave it fully-functional NTFS support and (tonite) am coding something to improve KDE's Konqueror. I don't know how much you use Linux, but if you haven't tried Slax, you mite consider giving it a look. The only other live CD that seems as close from a portability standpoint is PuppyLinux and that feels too trivial for my taste. Later....Jet

Thanx for the heds-up. I really need to update my tool disks and UBCD is going to be added to big DVD mashup at last. Actually, he's had DOC MEM in there for a long time. Two versions of it, in fact. One version worked, the other didn't. What issues does he work around that are so significant ? This is where you always lose me. I suspect you sweat details that (in the end) aren't important to your goal. I'd like DOC MEM to work in my setup, solely bec it's twice as fast as MEMTEST. But I have MEMTEST. It works, it always worked. DOC MEM isn't mine (I didn't write it) and it doesn't work from this menu bec of things that have nothing to do w/ my work. So who cares about the rest....Jet

You don't really need loads, just one like diskemu or BCDW that reads an image from the disc instead of loading it in memory! I'm not really sure how to get round this at the mo but I'm sure something can be done. Kof: Not to be dense or argumentative, exactly what do you mean by: 'BCDW that reads an image from the disc instead of loading it in memory' ? For ex, SYSLINUX deals w/ FAT-formatted media, ISOLINUX deals w/ cdfs/iso9660 media, EXTLINUX deals w/ ext2-formatted media, etc. When you select something from the menu, <xxx>LINUX loads your choice into RAM and boots it. What else is there ?

RSN, I will try DISKEMU, as I too am having trouble w/ MEMDISK. My preferred RAM diag (Doc Mem) crashes for no good reason. The other parts of the same floppy image work fine, but Doc Mem craps out. As far as loaders go, how many does one really need ? DeviantArt is a definite keeper ! Thanx. More dope for the wallpaper fiend ! I got those images of mine via Google Images. A search for +Linux +Wallpaper or +"Star Wars" +Wallpaper and I was high for days !

That comment isn't really germane to this discussion. I beleive your comment is directed at the fact that ther isn't an InstallShield-type builder for Linux. That seems like an accurate observation, but not approp here....Jet

Good work. I can't imagine why you wouldn't continue. Seriously.... I tried the BCDW/CDSHELL route initially, over a year ago. Part of the prob was that was trying to get something like this (a slick graphical menu) going very quickly. At that time, there weren't as many people involved w/ samples to offer, etc, so forth. Chief among my failures was that I didn't know about the boot-info-table deal, plus NERO was my main burning tool (which knows diddly about a boot-info-table !) Add to that, CDSHELL is a procedural/batch lang and I really didn't want to read several pages just to display a simple menu, so CDSHELL was doomed from the start. Then, starting in Sept, I banged my head against a wall for weeks, trying to coerce GRUB into booting BARTPE from CD ! That was when I revisited ISOLINUX. Bef long, I had a workable splash and a serviceable menu system for my projects. At last, I had consistent and reproducible success. Success is wonderful thing ! Part of me is tempted to revisit GRUB, bec it is a powerful tool, superior to SYSLINUX/ISOLINUX. However, that's unlikely, as I have many other things I want to do that are more likely to be successful....Jet PS: Did you do the graphic all by yourself ? Regardless, it's a good job. Some people smoke crack, others shoot heroin, I'm a wallpaper fiend ! So, this is based on stuf from my collection....

I know I did, at least for the next few months, til I can buy a whole new PC, to run it properly. I believe MSOFT has really hosed themselves this time. Unless one has purchased a loaded, modern PC in the last year or so, combined w/ the init cost of the OS itself, I think they shutout many potential early adopters (like myself.)