Syslinux - Nov 2002 - multi OS bootable CD, ISOLinux, ERD Commander problem

Hello all, I plan to make an (emergency) multi OS bootable CD which
contain:
- Win98 boot floppy (create from Win 98 control panel, add remove
program)
- WinME boot floppy (create from Win 98 control panel, add remove
program)
- Linux boot disk
- Win NT boot disk
- Win 2000 recovery console
- Win XP recovery console
- Winternal Administrative Pak (ERD Commander etc)

I am new to Linux and feel painful in doing these, someone point me to
Bart's web (http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/)
and I guess Multiple boot images (isolinux/memdisk)  could
solve my problem, I start off with the following

              0) Boot from first harddisk (0x80)

              1) Boot Dos with CD-Rom support
              2) Boot Dos with Network support
              3) Boot Linux (tomsrtbt)
              4) Boot Windows 98 floppy
              5) Boot Windows ME floppy
              6) Boot FD Linux
              7) Boot Pocket Linux
              8) Boot RedHat Linux 8
              9) Boot RedHat Linux 8 text
              e) Boot RedHat Linux 8 expert
              k) Boot RedHat Linux 8 ks
              n) Boot RedHat Linux 8 nofb
              l) Boot RedHat Linux 8 lowres
              c) Boot RedHat Linux 8 CrashRecovery

              a) Boot from first floppy drive (0x00)
              q) Skip CD-Rom boot (try next boot device)

1,2,3 are from Bart's web, I create the img file (win98.img and
winme.img) with dd.exe
I got FD Linux at http://www.fdlinux.com/download.html and
Pocket Linux
at http://www.pocket-lnx.org/download.html
option 8,9,e,k,n,l are from
http://redhat.pacific.net.au/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/isolinux/
and c) is from http://crashrecovery.org/
(ftp://ftp.crashrecovery.org/pub/linux/CrashRecoveryKit/iso/2.4.19/)
my isolinux.cfg look like this

default 0
display bootmsg.txt
prompt 1
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
F7 snake.msg
label 0
 localboot 0x80
label a
 localboot 0x00
label q
 localboot -1
label 1
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=cdrom.img
label 2
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=msnet.img
label 3
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=tomsrtbt.img
label 4
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=win98.img
label 5
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=winme.img
label 6
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=fdlinux.img
label 7
    kernel memdisk
    append initrd=pklinux.img
label 8
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216
label 9
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img lang= text devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216
label e
  kernel vmlinuz
  append expert initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216
label k
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216
label n
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img lang= devfs=nomount nofb ramdisk_size=9216
label l
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img lang= lowres devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=9216
label c
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd= crash2419.img
timeout 200

I have no problem from Option 0 - 4, but can't load the remain,
5) hang up after winme.img load, 6) and 7) ask for floppy, 8 - l report
vmlinuz corrupt, c) hang after image load.

* for c), I try:
label c
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd= crash2419.img

and also not work

should I use Bootable Dos CD-Rom (multiple boot images) instead of
Multiple boot images (isolinux/memdisk) for the above ?
any problem in my setting from option 5 to c ? (seems that 5 to 7
require floppy emulation to work)

after solving the above, i would like to add Win 2000/XP recovery
console into the menu (still searching for the recovery console image
file) and ERD Commander. Anyone know how to include the ERD Commander
in isolinux.cfg ?
label erd
  kernel w2ksect.bin
  append initrd=erd.img
??

Also, anyone try put the NTFSDOS Pro onto a bootable CD ? I use it with
Win XP Pro and the total file size is over 5MB!!! (it said will use 2
floppies......)

For he above (Win Recivery Console and ERD stuff) should I use
Multiple boot images (isolinux/memdisk) and add the option
kernel w2ksect.bin ?

Also, can multiple disk image cascade ? eg
some floppy distributed Linux are in 3 floppies (disk1.img, disk2.img,
disk3.img) can the config:

label m
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd= disk1.img, disk2.img, disk3.img

??

Thanks a lot.

Regds
LAM Chi-fung
cflam at hk.super.net

PS I am using Chinese Win 98 to build the CD, mkisofs.exe not work with
Chinese file name, and I find a NLS version of it
http://www.arekore.org/cdrecord/mkisofs-NLS-CJK.html
with some modification in the build.mak
boot:=-b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
       -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
       -hide isolinux.bin -hide-joliet isolinux.bin \
       -hide boot.catalog -hide-joliet boot.catalog
       -hide trans.tbl -hide-joliet trans.tbl

mkisofsargs:=-J -N -U -T -icode=big5

hope this help ^_^

I am creating something very similar, and have managed to get all my OSes
to boot using ISOLinux. You can visit the project page, for more
information. The page is still under construction, so all information
is not available, and ofcourse, the ISO is not available (not yet
complete).

I did not know about crashrecovery.org. It looks like I have duplicated
lot of that stuff.

URL=http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~gmurali/gui/index.html

- Murali

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Hello Murali, seems that we have different objective but work on same things.
Did you try the Win ME boot floppy ?
(forWin ME and other boot floppy, can try http://www.bootdisk.com, even has
driver for boot from SCSI CD-ROM)
for the crashrecovery.org, even the ISO image is provided, still not able to
include it in isolinux.cfg.....

and there are other floppy base Linux as well (FD Linux and Pocket Linux) but
they ask floppy in A drive after boot....
http://www.trash.net/~jgs/floppy_linux.html

since my objective is a multi-OS rescue CD, so I think NTFSDOS Pro, Disk
Commander and ERD Commander are more suitable, hey hey, any one has idea on
how to incorporate them in ISOLinux ?

Regds
LAM Chi-fung

"G. Murali Krishnan" wrote:
> I am creating something very similar, and have managed to get all my OSes
> to boot using ISOLinux. You can visit the project page, for more
> information. The page is still under construction, so all information
> is not available, and ofcourse, the ISO is not available (not yet
> complete).
>
> I did not know about crashrecovery.org. It looks like I have duplicated
> lot of that stuff.
>
> URL=http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~gmurali/gui/index.html
>
> - Murali
>
> ################################################################
> #  Ry 254, Ryerson Hall,   #    Ph : +1 773 702-1031 (Off)     #
> #  1100 E 58th Street      #         +1 773 575-4836 (Cell)    #
> #  Chicago, IL - 60637,    #   URL : http://www.g-murali.com   #
> #  USA.                    #  email: gmkrishn at cs.uchicago.edu  #
> ################################################################

On Thu, 28 Nov 2002, LAM Chi-fung wrote:
> Hello Murali, seems that we have different objective but work on same
> things. Did you try the Win ME boot floppy ? (forWin ME and other boot
> floppy, can try http://www.bootdisk.com, even has driver for boot from
> SCSI CD-ROM) for the crashrecovery.org, even the ISO image is provided,
> still not able to include it in isolinux.cfg.....
Since our systems use only Win2K/XP, I dont need WinME. But I use Win98
DOS mode, to start the WinXP installation, and I have had no problems with
that.

My Win98 based DOS bootdisk used to hang. The problem was with IFSHLP.SYS.
Try removing the "DEVICE=IFSHLP.SYS" in the config.sys in WinME image,
to
see if it works. If it does and if you need network support, then you have
to get another copy of IFSHLP.SYS.

In case of 6 and 7, they are the only linux images you are trying to boot
using memdisk. I presume that the images themselves are using syslinux,
to boot into linux. If that is the case, you can remove the extra syslinux
layer. Just get the kernel and initial ramdisk out of your .img file
and change the config lines to be similar to the other linux kernels.
> since my objective is a multi-OS rescue CD, so I think NTFSDOS Pro, Disk
> Commander and ERD Commander are more suitable, hey hey, any one has idea on
> how to incorporate them in ISOLinux ?
I dont have copies of them to test. However, I use Windows XP recovery
console image to recover windows stuff. It may not be as powerful as the
other utilities. But if things are done right, you would never need to use
them. If the recovery systems become very complicated, they might need
recovering themselves.

- Murali

################################################################
#  Ry 254, Ryerson Hall,   #    Ph : +1 773 702-1031 (Off)     #
#  1100 E 58th Street      #         +1 773 575-4836 (Cell)    #
#  Chicago, IL - 60637,    #   URL : http://www.g-murali.com   #
#  USA.                    #  email: gmkrishn at cs.uchicago.edu  #
################################################################

> Since our systems use only Win2K/XP, I dont need WinME. But I use Win98
> DOS mode, to start the WinXP installation, and I have had no problems with
> that.
thanks for your advice, my problem is more interesting....the Win ME boot floppy
work perfectly but not in image mode..... even I use dd to build the image file
again and again (on different PC)
> My Win98 based DOS bootdisk used to hang. The problem was with IFSHLP.SYS.
> Try removing the "DEVICE=IFSHLP.SYS" in the config.sys in WinME
image, to
> see if it works. If it does and if you need network support, then you have
> to get another copy of IFSHLP.SYS.
>
> In case of 6 and 7, they are the only linux images you are trying to boot
> using memdisk. I presume that the images themselves are using syslinux,
> to boot into linux. If that is the case, you can remove the extra syslinux
> layer. Just get the kernel and initial ramdisk out of your .img file
> and change the config lines to be similar to the other linux kernels.
woo... great.... this may consume 2 weekends for me ^_^
> > since my objective is a multi-OS rescue CD, so I think NTFSDOS Pro,
Disk
> > Commander and ERD Commander are more suitable, hey hey, any one has
idea on
> > how to incorporate them in ISOLinux ?
>
> I dont have copies of them to test. However, I use Windows XP recovery
> console image to recover windows stuff. It may not be as powerful as the
> other utilities. But if things are done right, you would never need to use
> them. If the recovery systems become very complicated, they might need
> recovering themselves.
do you have the Recovery Console image or the file list ?? I have difficult to
identify which files belong to Recovery Console.....
great.... recovery system for recovery system........ ^_^

Regds
LAM Chi-fung
>
> - Murali
>
> ################################################################
> #  Ry 254, Ryerson Hall,   #    Ph : +1 773 702-1031 (Off)     #
> #  1100 E 58th Street      #         +1 773 575-4836 (Cell)    #
> #  Chicago, IL - 60637,    #   URL : http://www.g-murali.com   #
> #  USA.                    #  email: gmkrishn at cs.uchicago.edu  #
> ################################################################

> thanks for your advice, my problem is more interesting....the Win ME
> boot floppy work perfectly but not in image mode..... even I use dd to
> build the image file again and again (on different PC)
I have never had a floppy work, but not its image.
> > My Win98 based DOS bootdisk used to hang. The problem was with
IFSHLP.SYS.
> > Try removing the "DEVICE=IFSHLP.SYS" in the config.sys in
WinME image, to
> > see if it works. If it does and if you need network support, then you
have
> > to get another copy of IFSHLP.SYS.
> >
> > In case of 6 and 7, they are the only linux images you are trying to
boot
> > using memdisk. I presume that the images themselves are using
syslinux,
> > to boot into linux. If that is the case, you can remove the extra
syslinux
> > layer. Just get the kernel and initial ramdisk out of your .img file
> > and change the config lines to be similar to the other linux kernels.
>
> woo... great.... this may consume 2 weekends for me ^_^
Doing this in Linux makes the job a lot easier. Just mount the file as a
filesystem, and you inspect the contents of the .img file, without having
to dd it into a floppy ...
> > > since my objective is a multi-OS rescue CD, so I think NTFSDOS
Pro, Disk
> > > Commander and ERD Commander are more suitable, hey hey, any one
has idea on
> > > how to incorporate them in ISOLinux ?
> >
> > I dont have copies of them to test. However, I use Windows XP recovery
> > console image to recover windows stuff. It may not be as powerful as
the
> > other utilities. But if things are done right, you would never need to
use
> > them. If the recovery systems become very complicated, they might need
> > recovering themselves.
>
> do you have the Recovery Console image or the file list ?? I have
> difficult to identify which files belong to Recovery Console.....
> great.... recovery system for recovery system........ ^_^
Check out http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~gmurali/gui/winreccons.html
It has detailed instructions about how to get the recovery console part of
your windows install CD out.

- Murali

################################################################
#  Ry 254, Ryerson Hall,   #    Ph : +1 773 702-1031 (Off)     #
#  1100 E 58th Street      #         +1 773 575-4836 (Cell)    #
#  Chicago, IL - 60637,    #   URL : http://www.g-murali.com   #
#  USA.                    #  email: gmkrishn at cs.uchicago.edu  #
################################################################