[syslinux] Using CD to boot memdisk images?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Egan Ford wrote:
>>
>>Substitute isolinux.bin for pxelinux.0, and you have the idea.
> 
> That was incredibly simple, it worked the first time.  Sir, you are a
> gentleman.  Thank you.
> 
> Questions/Issues.
> 
> 1.  For some reason mkiso 1.14 is corrupting isolinux.bin when my initrd
> image is compressed.  I do not think it has anything to do with the
> compressed image, but perhaps that the CD image is too small?  I have not
> had time to properly troubleshoot this.  Decompressing the memdisk 33MB HD
> image is not a problem.  But I thought I'd ask if this is a known issue.
> 
> 2.  Is it possible to eject the CD ROM from withing the memdisk image
> without loading drivers?  If isolinux.bin can find the rest of the CD for
> booting, then can something in DOS?

Actually, yes, at least on *MOST* systems.  Read the EDD and El Torito 
specification (both are available on www.phoenix.com) and you will 
notice there is an eject call.  Since isolinux doesn't terminate the 
access to the CD-ROM device, you can search it and call the appropriate 
handler.  Note also that the CD-ROM isn't locked, so you can also eject 
it manually.

> 3.  Has any done this with a USB key?

See README.usbkey for some notes on booting with a USB key.

	-hpa