[syslinux] USB stick meets ISO system

[Bernd Blaauw]

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