[Leaplist] DVD/CD Emulator

Fri Sep 4 22:10:00 EDT 2009

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That still isn't going to work with just any iso file though.

Unfortunately I think you are going the wrong direction here.  When you
boot from a CD you are actually using a CD to emulate a floppy or a hard
drive.  A USB stick is already a hard drive and therefore doesn't need any
emulation though you can still load one on top of it as an additional
layer.

Since bootable CDs emulate floppies there isn't really any reason to make
a file>CD emulator.  All of the boot emulation tricks I know either
emulate a floppy or a hard drive from an image of either.  The easiest
emulator to use is probably syslinux/isolinux/pxelinux/memdisk these will
emulate a bootable floppy or hard drive from an image stored on any kind
of media they can see.

The only reason my grub trick worked with Knoppix and *buntu live DVDs is
that I am booting them from a hard drive (really a USB stick) and letting
them find their iso image via the volume label which is on a block device
that happens to be /dev/sd?? instead of /dev/cdrom.  They just happen to
be dumb enough to check every single block device instead of only looking
where they expect to find the image.

On Fri, 4 Sep 2009 21:59:22 -0400
Kevin Korb <kmk at sanitarium.net> wrote:
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> It is also possible to put grub on a USB stick.  I have one with Ubuntu,
> Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Knoppix on it.  You dd the iso to a partition on
> the stick, setup a small ext2 partition on the stick that is like
> the /boot directory on a regular Linux system.  You copy the kernel,
> initrd, and isolinux config from the iso onto the /boot and install grub
> into the bootsector of the stick.
> 
> Here is the grub config from my stick if it helps you:
> 
> default 0
> timeout 10
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> 
> title=Knoppix 5.3.1
>   root (hd0,4)
>   kernel (hd0,0)/boot/Knoppix-5.3.1/linux ramdisk_size=100000
> init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce highres=off loglevel=0
> libata.atapi_enabled=1 quiet SELINUX_INIT=NO nmi_watchdog=0
> BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix initrd (hd0,0)/boot/Knoppix-5.3.1/minirt.gz
> 
> title=Ubuntu 8.10
>   root (hd0,5)
>   kernel (hd0,0)/boot/Ubuntu-8.10/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed
> boot=casper quiet splash -- initrd (hd0,0)/boot/Ubuntu-8.10/initrd.gz
> 
> title=Kubuntu 8.10
>   root (hd0,6)
>   kernel (hd0,0)/boot/Kubuntu-8.10/vmlinuz
> file=/cdrom/preseed/kubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- initrd
> (hd0,0)/boot/Kubuntu-8.10/initrd.gz
> 
> title=Xubuntu 8.10
>   root (hd0,7)
>   kernel (hd0,0)/boot/Xubuntu-8.10/vmlinuz
> file=/cdrom/preseed/xubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- initrd
> (hd0,0)/boot/Xubuntu-8.10/initrd.gz
> 
> title=gPXE 0.9.6 Network Boot
>   kernel (hd0,0)/boot/gpxe-0.9.6-gpxe.lkrn
> 
> title=Boot from first hard drive
>   map (hd0) (hd1)
>   map (hd1) (hd0)
>   rootnoverify (hd0)
>   chainloader +1
> 
> title=Boot from second hard drive
>   map (hd0) (hd2)
>   map (hd2) (hd0)
>   rootnoverify (hd0)
>   chainloader +1
> 
> 
> On Fri, 4 Sep 2009 21:52:59 -0400
> Tom Parker <tom at fnords.net> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Kevin Korb <kmk at sanitarium.net> wrote:
> > 
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> > > If you are talking about simply mounting a CD/DVD image you can
> > > simply mount the file with -o loop.
> > >
> > 
> > Nope, it needs to be a device that emulates a USB CD-ROM from an ISO
> > file, not the other way around.
> > 
> > 
> > >
> > > Of course you are probably talking about something more complex like
> > > a boot disc for an OS install or utility.  That can be done with
> > > something like unetbootin which is most commonly used to put
> > > downloadable iso images onto a bootable USB stick for OS installs on
> > > netbooks that don't have optical drives.
> > >
> > 
> > Unetbootin only works with specific Linux distros.  I need something
> > that will work with any ISO.
> > 
> > 
> > >
> > > If you don't need to take the bootable media away from your LAN you
> > > can also setup a network boot server and boot the image right off of
> > > a file server with a nice menu for which one you want.
> > >
> > >
> > I'm sometimes on networks where I cannot setup a boot server.  I can't
> > rely on having a network available.
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> - -- 
> ~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
> 	Kevin Korb			Phone:    (407) 252-6853
> 	Systems Administrator		Internet:
> 	FutureQuest, Inc.		Kevin at FutureQuest.net  (work)
> 	Orlando, Florida		kmk at sanitarium.net (personal)
> 	Web page:			http://www.sanitarium.net/
> 	PGP public key available on web site.
> ~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
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- -- 
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
	Kevin Korb			Phone:    (407) 252-6853
	Systems Administrator		Internet:
	FutureQuest, Inc.		Kevin at FutureQuest.net  (work)
	Orlando, Florida		kmk at sanitarium.net (personal)
	Web page:			http://www.sanitarium.net/
	PGP public key available on web site.
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
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