Syslinux - May 2016 - Trying to build bootable iso but very confused by syslinux documentation

I was trying to follow this tutorial
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch. i got
confused with the part about Create an isolinux.cfg file.

The show stopper for me was the mkisofs because the closest command I
had available was xorrisofs and I think a switch was different.

On Mon, May 02, 2016 at 11:21:13PM -0400, John Lewis via Syslinux
wrote:
> I was trying to follow this tutorial
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch. i got
> confused with the part about Create an isolinux.cfg file.
> 
> The show stopper for me was the mkisofs because the closest command I
> had available was xorrisofs and I think a switch was different.
At https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch is

| Create the Cd Image Directory and Populate it
| 
| There are 4 packages that need to be installed on the Host System
| which provide the tools to make the Cd image. Syslinux contains
| isolinux which makes the Cd bootable. Squashfs-tools will compress
| the image. Genisoimage provides mkisofs tool to turn a directory into
| a CD image. So install syslinux, squashfs-tools, mkisofs and sbm.
| 
|   sudo apt-get install syslinux squashfs-tools genisoimage

I did install genisoimage on a Debian system and is misses indeed `mkisofs`,
so must likely also no `mkisofs` in the Ubuntu package.

I don't know if `xorrisofs` superseeds `mkisofs`.


Subject: Re: [syslinux] Trying to build bootable iso but very confused by
syslinux documentation

It is the syslinux documentation that we, this mailinglist, can update.

Where is the part that got you confused?



Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Leven en laten leven

On 05/03/2016 12:27 AM, Geert Stappers via Syslinux
wrote:
> On Mon, May 02, 2016 at 11:21:13PM -0400, John Lewis via Syslinux wrote:
>> I was trying to follow this tutorial
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch. i got
>> confused with the part about Create an isolinux.cfg file.
>>
>> The show stopper for me was the mkisofs because the closest command I
>> had available was xorrisofs and I think a switch was different.
> At https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch is
>
> | Create the Cd Image Directory and Populate it
> | 
> | There are 4 packages that need to be installed on the Host System
> | which provide the tools to make the Cd image. Syslinux contains
> | isolinux which makes the Cd bootable. Squashfs-tools will compress
> | the image. Genisoimage provides mkisofs tool to turn a directory into
> | a CD image. So install syslinux, squashfs-tools, mkisofs and sbm.
> | 
> |   sudo apt-get install syslinux squashfs-tools genisoimage
>
> I did install genisoimage on a Debian system and is misses indeed
`mkisofs`,
> so must likely also no `mkisofs` in the Ubuntu package.
>
> I don't know if `xorrisofs` superseeds `mkisofs`.
>
>
> Subject: Re: [syslinux] Trying to build bootable iso but very confused by
syslinux documentation
>
> It is the syslinux documentation that we, this mailinglist, can update.
>
> Where is the part that got you confused?
>
>
>
> Groeten
> Geert Stappers
I tried to cross reference with the syslinux wik, for isolinux
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=ISOLINUX, but it was just
as unclear. It was using mkisofs as well.

There are two parts that are unclear. Where and what isolinux files to
put on the directory tree I want to turn into a bootable iso and what
command to run to convert the directory tree into a bootable iso image.

There are some miscellaneous things such as syslinux configs and using a
squashfs root operating system volume, but I can solve that myself via
trial and error after these show stoppers are out of the way.

Hi,

John Lewis wrote:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch
> 
> The show stopper for me was the mkisofs because the closest command I
> had available was xorrisofs and I think a switch was different.
If you have questions about xorrisofs, then just ask me. :))

The web page advises to install genisoimage, a mkisofs clone, but
shows its examples with mkisofs. Replace "mkisofs" by
"geisoimage"
and you should be on the track which the author of the page intends.

As for xorrisofs options, all three programs mkisofs, genisoimage, and
xorrisofs are supposed to perform the shown ISO production run:

  sudo mkisofs -r -V "$IMAGE_NAME" -cache-inodes -J -l -b
isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4
-boot-info-table -o ../ubuntu-remix.iso .

(But i really wonder why one needs to be superuser to create an
 ISO 9660 filesystem.)

So what are your actual symptoms of failure with ISO production ?


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

On 05/03/2016 02:31 AM, Thomas Schmitt via Syslinux
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> John Lewis wrote:
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomizationFromScratch
>>
>> The show stopper for me was the mkisofs because the closest command I
>> had available was xorrisofs and I think a switch was different.
> If you have questions about xorrisofs, then just ask me. :))
>
> The web page advises to install genisoimage, a mkisofs clone, but
> shows its examples with mkisofs. Replace "mkisofs" by
"geisoimage"
> and you should be on the track which the author of the page intends.
>
> As for xorrisofs options, all three programs mkisofs, genisoimage, and
> xorrisofs are supposed to perform the shown ISO production run:
>
>   sudo mkisofs -r -V "$IMAGE_NAME" -cache-inodes -J -l -b
isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4
-boot-info-table -o ../ubuntu-remix.iso .
>
> (But i really wonder why one needs to be superuser to create an
>  ISO 9660 filesystem.)
>
> So what are your actual symptoms of failure with ISO production ?
>
>
> Have a nice day :)
>
> Thomas
>
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I got the command working.

I feel like I am missing a college level course (which doesn't seem to
exist) on iso creation and boot loading. I only have the vaguest
understand of what the flags in the man page of xorrisofs and xorriso are.

That normally wouldn't be an issue at all, but there doesn't seem to
exist a hello word like exercise that is simple and predictable. If I
can get a memtest86+
booting and running from an iso I generated I wouldn't feel like I would
need to get an Electrical Engineer to translate the parts I don't
understand.