Syslinux - Feb 2005 - How to boot a compressed CD-ROM image from disk

I'd like to take advantage of the small, compressed Linux systems
such as Knoppix or BeatrIX, but I can't have a CD rom on my system.
(A project's marketing requirement.).  So I figure I could use something
like SYSLINUX or ISOLINUX to do it for me, but there is some magic
in the process (the sequence of booting) that eludes me.

1/ mbr (from SYSLINUX) installed on hard drive... and boots
2/ it loads SYSLINUX (that exists where, on what filesystem), which does
what?

... a gap in understanding exists here ...

n/ something mounts the ISO image residing on an ext2 filesystem via the
   'loop' option enabling looking at the compressed filesystem in that
file.

n+1/ you now have a running system


If my understanding (above) is correct, there is something, somewhere
in SYSLINUX, or its config file that I can use/edit to tell it to mount
that ISO image as a file system for SYSLINUX to use as its root filesystem.

If this assumption is correct, what I don't know (from SYSLINUX docs) is
where do I put SYSLINUX?

...

Now that I've read the docs a few more times, it seems as though
I should be using EXTLINUX instead...

a) take the MBR from SYSLINUX and install it on the drive.
b) also place in the /boot directory, an extlinux.cfg file
   that contains some stuff.  (what stuff still eludes me)
c) create a minirt24.gz file that contains stuff to mount that
   ISO image file.  (I don't know how to build/view this file.)


Any help would be appreciated.

TIA
Fulko

1) MBR
2) Syslinux bootsector
3) Syslinux (syslinux, isolinux, pxelinux, extlinux) + configuration file
4) Linux (kernel) + initrd
5) Initrd loads compressed ISO (zisofs filesystem)
6) You're done!

Classic way:
A) Create 1GB..2GB FAT16 partition
B) Format C:
C) Syslinux C:
D) Copy Knoppix files to C: (I guess files KNOPPIX, KERNEL26, MINIRT26.GZ)
E) Create syslinux.cfg file

label knoppix
kernel kernel26
append ................

for '...........' see the isolinux.cfg on your Knoppix CD/DVD. It's
a very long commandline.

Syslinux 3.00 should allow not only FAT16, but also FAT32 and ext2fs.



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Please keep this on the mailinglist.

You CANNOT *boot* an ISO file (except when presenting it as a cdrom device in an
emulator like QEMU/Bochs/Vmware etc..).
You CAN mount it, probably by using an initrd.

What you do is:
-network boot
-obtain pxelinux.0
-obtain pxelinux.cfg
-make selection (Linux)
-boot Linux kernel and a proper initrd
-obtain network access
-mount the ISO file on the network as a local drive
-access the ISO and execute whichever program(s) you want that are on that ISO
file.

So yes, you can install from network. But that does not means 'obtain ISO
file from network and boot it like if it was a cdrom disk'.
That might only have worked for something like MSDOS perhaps.

and that's about how far my Linux knowledge goes..

Bernd


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