[syslinux] isolinux + windows installation CD

[Nazo]

On 5/25/06, Andrey Vul <andrey.vul at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Use IsoBuster. Extracts bootsectors (floppy, hd, eltorito) without
> registration.
>
> Nazo wrote:
> > On 5/25/06, Luke Burton <luke at burton.echidna.id.au> wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I am at the end of my wits, after a day and a half of mucking around
> >> with this :)
> >>
> >> My intention was to take a multi-boot DVD - of the style you get with
> >> an MSDN subscription - and burn an individual installer to disc.
> >>
> >> How to do this? My theory was to take the files for the installation
> >> CD, add isolinux, add a bootsector, and away I go. Unfortunately it
> >> doesn't seem this easy.
> >>
> >> So I took a step back and said: let's take a standard Win XP ISO image
> >> that we know works. Let's re-image that to use isolinux to bootstrap
> >> the standard boot sector. So it's just sandwiching isolinux between
> >> the BIOS and the regular El Torito boot sector from the CD.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately I can't even do that.
> >>
> >> My process is as follows:
> >>
> >> 1. copy the contents of the ISO to a temporary folder.
> >> 2. make the isolinux folder.
> >> 3. copy the isolinux-debug.bin file in.
> >> 4a. use the geteltorito (google finds it) perl script to strip the
> >> boot image from the original ISO. Place that in the isolinux folder as
> >> eltorito.bin.
> >> 4b. take the magical w2ksect.bin file, also found on google, and put
> >> that in the isolinux folder.
> >> 5. create an isolinux.cfg file that looks something like:
> >>
> >> label winxp
> >>         kernel eltorito.bin
> >>
> >> label winkernel
> >>         kernel w2ksect.bin
> >>
> >> 6. make the iso using this command:
> >>
> >> mkisofs -o ../isotest.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -J -r -N -c
> >> isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table  .
> >>
> >> 7. boot the CD and try both winxp and winkernel - and get nowhere.
> >>
> >> I tried many variations on this theme, including using memdisk and the
> >> bin files as the initial RAM disk.
> >>
> >> The exact symptom I get is isolinux loading, a prompt where I type my
> >> boot option, then a single "." symbol, then isolinux tries to run
> >> again and complains about a bad checksum - I assume the bin file
> >> booted part way and left the memory in a bad state.
> >>
> >> My assumption was that the boot sector I load would do something
> >> sensible like go looking for setupldr.bin or ntldr or something.
> >> Instead it just hangs there.
> >>
> >> Also, why can't I make my own boot sector using "dd"? Is it in a
> >> different place in each ISO image? Or is the El Torito boot sector
> >> from a Win XP ISO not really something I should be using to do this?
> >>
> >> Help! I'm drowning!
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Luke.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Luke Burton.
> >>
> >> Yes, questions. Morphology, longevity, incept dates.
> >> www.hagus.net
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SYSLINUX mailing list
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> >> Unsubscribe or set options at:
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> >> Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Ok, bootable Windows installation discs are a pain.  Once I finally
> > got it right, I have been afraid to change ANYTHING on my "Ultimate
> > Boot DVD" which includes a XP SP2 installation.  First, you must have
> > the i386 folder in the root of the disc unless you plan to do some
> > hacking.  Second, I think you have to have the bootsector from the
> > correct windows installation.  Strangely, I haven't had any luck
> > ripping my own from my disc, but, I have had plenty of luck getting
> > them online.
> >
> > First of all, I'm not sure if the filesystem matters, but, it may.
> > Back when I was running the installer from a DOS bootdisk (you can
> > just run winnt.exe from DOS to start the installation, but, that
> > obviously requires a FATxx filesystem and a bootdisk with a CD-ROM
> > driver) I found that it was REALLY picky about the CD filesystem.  In
> > particular, it uses Microsoft's system of using a tilde character to
> > tell the OS that a filename is the short version of a long one, but,
> > the ISO filesystem seems to not like that tilde character.  As such,
> > you have to break a few standards to get it working in DOS.  Now, I
> > don't know if this applies to the bootable installer or not, but, I've
> > been afraid to change it since I got it working in DOS.  Anyway, here
> > is my mkisofs command line I use to generate the ISO:
> >
> > mkisofs -o ultboot.iso -b isolinux/isolinux-debug.bin -c
> > isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table
> > -pad -relaxed-filenames -iso-level 1 -N -disable-deep-relocation
> > -exclude exclude -exclude EXCLUDE -exclude ultboot.iso -J -preparer
> > Nazo -sort ./sort.lst ./
> >
> > Also, here are the lines I use to start the windows installer via the
> > isolinux.cfg file:
> >
> > LABEL winxp
> >     MENU LABEL ^Windows XP Pro Installation/Recovery (SP2)
> >     KERNEL /xpboot.bin
> >     APPEND -
> >
> > I'm not sure if I can give you more details as I got all this working
> > more than a year ago and have since forgotten some of the absolute
> > pains I've had to go through to get it rully working, but, if you need
> > more let me know and I can try to remember more.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > SYSLINUX mailing list
> > Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com
> > Unsubscribe or set options at:
> > http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
> > Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
> >
> >
>
> - --
> #andreyvul 2006
> andrey.vul at gmail.com
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That's the curious thing.  I DID use ISOBuster.  In fact, I have the
registered version of ISOBuster because I've found it so useful over
the years.  I never really figured out what I did wrong.  At any rate,
I had to use one I got off the internet instead of the one on my disc
when I wanted to create a slipstreamed installation disc.  I just
reused the old stuff I came up with for that when I later on made the
"Ultimate Boot DVD" with isolinux, so, in fact, all the stuff I did I
did probably more like two years ago.