[syslinux] Multiboot flash from 2 iso's

[Gene Cumm]

On Nov 27, 2011 11:47 PM, "Emilio Lazo Zaia" <emiliolazozaia at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I'll write a HOWTO about this topic.
>
> My method is: GPT disklabel, extlinux/syslinux on first partition, make
it bootable and make a nice menu to chainload all distros you want in your
stick. Later you need to make hybrid all your iso files (with isohybrid.pl)
and assign one partition in your GPT schema for each iso file (with the
corresponding size depending on the .iso you will dump), and dump each iso
onto these newly created partitions. That's it!

Certain, predominantly older, systems won't recognize your UFD as bootable
if you do this.  Some have restrictions such as any of the following: FAT
only, first partition, last partition, ZIP-like geometry, one partition,
and specific geometry (you can't always force specific geometry).  I
recently recreated a UFD with CHS geometry that was 2MiB aligned (32s 64h)
only to find that all of the newer systems I have access to refused it.

> As you have all your images dumped like original iso files, you will not
lose the original menu and splash screen for each distro!

For booting the kernel/initrd, there shouldn't be issues after initial
loading to a bootloader.

> Also because all filesystems are iso9660, each distro will mount its
partition read-only, so all these distros inside your pendrive will never
be modified with its use.
>
> You may need to modify something, i.e. change isolinux-debug.bin to
isolinux.bin if the distro comes with the "debug" version of isolinux (this
debug version doesn't supports hybrid booting). Also sometimes you may need
to modify the initrd file, for example in the case of two Ubuntu-based
distros because all them will search for the same /casper folder (or /live
or whatever) and the first occurrence of this directory will match for all
Ubuntu-based distros on your stick. The solution is make a symlink:
>
> /live -> /live-gparted
>
> ...and modify initrd's init script to search for /live-gparted. As far as
I can remember:
>
> LIVE_MEDIA_PATH=live-gpartrd
>
> in scripts/live inside the initrd image.

As I said, distro-specific.

> I did select GPT disklabel because its advantages over MBR. I did test it
with 12 distros on an 8GB stick.
>
>
> On 11/27/2011 12:02 PM, Alexander Pletnev wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Im trying to learn syslinux and want to create a multiboot flashdrive,
which will have more than one liveCD available for booting.
>>
>> I've installed a simple live cd (secure linux live cd disk#1) to my
Fat32 partition. It boots well. Now i want to add another live CD (geexbox
disk#2) to boot from the same Fat32 partition.
>>
>> I need to copy some files from live cd (geexbox) and add them to my
current live cd installation on Fat32 partition.
>>
>> This is a part of default config from disk#2 wich is used for default
burning.
>>
>> label ubnentry0
>> menu label Start GeeXboX ...
>> kernel /vmlinuz
>> append initrd=/initrd vga=789 persistent quiet splash loglevel=3
>>
>> I tried to copy vmlinux and initrd files to a sub folder on disk#1 add
config options to disk#1 syslinux.cfg with subfolders in path's to kernel
and initrd script. But it won't work. Error was (can't find a correct root
filesystem) . On disk#2 there is a file with name "rootfs" and size 64Mb, i
think it's what i need. But i don't know how to add an option to syslinux
config, about rootfs in a file.
>>
>> Can anybody understand and maybe help me?
>>
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>
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