UBCD and Novell ZENworks Imaging CD

[PebbleMatt]

Hi, firstly good job with UBCD, liking it alot.

Hopefully there will be a solution for my problem.

I've been trying to customise the CD for work, and am trying to add theN ovell ZENworks Imaging CD as a bootable option (ZEN uses isolinux). There was a post on the UBCD4Win website (http://www.ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=710) which had some information regarding integrating Novell Zen CD with UBCD and UBCD4win (which I've left out as I don't really need it) but I've not had any luck.

Basically UBCD boots without any problems, but when I try booting Zen I get various problems, but it seems to be with the new PCs we have, I've been able to get it to boot on older PCs.

I have tried the following types of commands

- booting the actual image for the zen cd
command: then diskemu /images/bootcd.iso
result: screen breiefly flashes but stays at menu and can choose another option (this method boots on older PCs).

- copying contents of zen cd to root of UBCD
command: then isolinux /kernel.zen 5 initrd=/initrd.gz rw reboot=w
result: starts saying loading kernel.zen and then it goes to a blank screen.

- copying contents of zen cd to root of UBCD
command: then bcdw boot /ISOLINUX.BIN
result: takes me to the INSERT boot menu.
If I type "/ISOLINUX.BIN" at the INSERT boot menu it says "invalid or corrupt kernel image"

- extracting boot information from ZEN cd using UltraISO and copying contents of cd to root of UBCD
command: bcdw boot /zenboot.bif
result: takes me to the INSERT boot menu.
If I type "/zenboot.bif" at the INSERT boot menu it says "invalid or corrupt kernel image"

None of them seem to work on the new PCs. By new i mean between 3-12months.

The closest I've managed to come so far is, I followed some instructions to make a 2.88 floppy disk image, and I that way I got it to boot to the ZEN menu, but it could not go any further after that as I was not able to fit INITRD.GZ into the floppy image (6MB file) which is needed after that point.

The structure of the zen CD is as follows:
/ADDFILES/BIN/ contains a few scripts but usually its empty in the default zen cd
/ADDFILES/ETC/ Empty folder
/DRIVERS/ Empty folder
BOOT.MSG 1KB
BOOT~1.CAT 2KB
INITRD.GZ 5,963KB
ISOLINUX.BIN 8KB
ISOLINUX.CFG 1KB
KERNEL.ZEN 763KB
KERNELS.ZEN 1,293KB
SETTINGS.TXT 2KB
TOOLS.TGZ 231KB

Has anyone got any ideas of what I can do, anything that I haven't tried yet?

Thanks in advance for any help and keep up the good work.

[bldrdash]

Please post the contents of isolinux.cfg from ZenWorks;
we'll see if we can't come up with a combo that works.

-- Charles

[PebbleMatt]

Thanks for the response.

I'm not sure if it is even processing the isolinux.cfg file because it does not display the boot.msg page which asks for a user to select an option.

Here is the conents of the isolinux.cfg from zenworks

default manual
prompt 1
timeout 0
display boot.msg
label manual
kernel kernel.zen
append 5 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label m
kernel kernel.zen
append 5 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label i
kernel kernel.zen
append 4 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label install
kernel kernel.zen
append 4 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label lilo
kernel kernel.zen
append 3 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label l
kernel kernel.zen
append 3 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label a
kernel kernel.zen
append 2 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label auto
kernel kernel.zen
append 2 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w
label automatic
kernel kernel.zen
append 2 initrd=initrd.gz rw reboot=w

[bldrdash]

>
> I'm not sure if it is even processing the isolinux.cfg file
> because it does not display the boot.msg page which asks for
> a user to select an option.

It isn't. Isolinux checks /isolinux for the cfg file and if
found, uses it. If you were to delete /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
then it would process the /isolinux.cfg file.

It will only use one isolinux.cfg, and therefore only one
isolinux splash screen "display ??.msg".

You have two options:
1) Replace /isolinux/isolinux.cfg with the one from zenworks,
then manually add Insert boot information in cdshell. In
this case you won't get the insert splash screen. If you do
this, some other files from zenworks will need to be moved
to /isolinux directory.


2) Move /isolinux.cfg (zenworks) boot commands to cdshell.
In this case you won't get the zenworks splash screen.

I'll assume 2 for now:

- In your own .scn or custom.scn, add menu options then
try some of the following boot commands:

if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen init=/etc/init 5 reboot=w rw
or
if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen initrd=initrd.gz init=/etc/init 5
reboot=w rw
or
if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen init=/etc/init 5 initrd=initrd.gz
reboot=w rw

- Do the above for each boot option from zenworks isolinux.cfg
you'll want to use.
- Copy the following files to /isolinux directory:
- initrd.gz
- kernel.zen
- kernels.zen
- tools.tgz (maybe, if something fails, try putting in /)
- settings.txt (maybe, if something fails, try putting in /)
- Obviously, /Addfiles and /drivers should be in / as well

Might want to use /boot/menus/insert.scn as a reference. What
I've done is duplicated some of the entries in isolinux.cfg to
allow the user to simply hit a key in cdshell. For example:
in isolinux.cfg, insert-txt is equivalent to the F2 key boot
command in insert.scn. Note that it's not a strait copy; I had
to tweak some startup options, parms and ordering.

Please let us know how you make out.

-- Charles

[PebbleMatt]

Hi Charles,

thanks for the help.

I followed your advice using option 2

if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen initrd=initrd.gz init=/etc/init 5 reboot=w rw

and it works fine.

Is there any way of getting it to actually read the isolinux.cfg file so that I can get the boot.msg to load? If not its okay, not the end of the world. I'll just have to do it through the main UBCD screen as you said.

[bldrdash]

> I followed your advice using option 2
>
> if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen initrd=initrd.gz
> init=/etc/init 5 reboot=w rw
>
> and it works fine.
>
> Is there any way of getting it to actually read the
> isolinux.cfg file so that I can get the boot.msg to load? If
> not its okay, not the end of the world. I'll just have to do
> it through the main UBCD screen as you said.
> --

Actually, I made typo, I meant to say init=/etc/linuxrc 5 since that
was what your isolinux.cfg (which may or may not have worked)... but
how can I argue with success?

Yes, since you are not using insert, you should be able to put
Zenworks isolinux.cfg (overwriting the one that came with UBCD),
change the lastkey line to read:
"if ($lastkey).. then isolinux"

and that's it. I seem to recall you mentioning problems booting
memdisk related images when you did this so I'm not sure why this
would be (if that is indeed correct). If you still have problems
with memdisk images, you can try the following:

- make sure isolinux.bin from ZenWorks is in /isolinux
- make sure the unmodified isolinux.cfg from ZenWorks is in /isolinux
- use the following command:
"if ($lastkey).. then bcdw Boot /isolinux/isolinux.bin"

I will be out of pocket the next several days; I'll check to see how
you made out when I get back.

Regards,
Charles

[bldrdash]

I might have been mixed up between your thread and another one
regarding Astrumu linux. To get what you ask working using ZenWorks
splash screen, you'll have to use option 1 I listed earlier in the
thread. By doing this you loose the splash screen for Insert (if you're
using Full). You can't have two splash screens in one isolinux.cfg. One
thing I have not tried is to have two isolinux directories:

/isolinux1
/isolinux2

with different isolinux.cfg files in them. Don't know if it will work.
If I tried this method, I'd probably boot using "bcdw Boot
/isolinux1/isolinux.bin"
as opposed to the internal "isolinux" boot command. The internal one is
hardcoded to look in only a couple of places; not sure about the
isolinux.bin.

I might have posted something worthwhile on this thread:
viewtopic.php?p=622#622

-- Charles


> -----Original Message-----
> From: PebbleMatt [mailto:support@ultimatebootcd.com]
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 9:39 AM
> To: support@ultimatebootcd.com
> Subject: UBCD and Novell ZENworks Imaging CD
>
> Hi Charles,
>
> thanks for the help.
>
> I followed your advice using option 2
>
> if ($lastkey).. then isolinux kernel.zen initrd=initrd.gz
> init=/etc/init 5 reboot=w rw
>
> and it works fine.
>
> Is there any way of getting it to actually read the
> isolinux.cfg file so that I can get the boot.msg to load? If
> not its okay, not the end of the world. I'll just have to do
> it through the main UBCD screen as you said.
> --
> Matthew
> _________________________________________________________
> Topic link:
> viewtopic.php?p=633#633
>
>

[kojimoto]

Hi, firstly good job with UBCD, liking it alot.

Hopefully there will be a solution for my problem.

I've been trying to customise the CD for work, and am trying to add theN ovell ZENworks Imaging CD as a bootable option (ZEN uses isolinux). There was a post on the UBCD4Win website (http://www.ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=710) which had some information regarding integrating Novell Zen CD with UBCD and UBCD4win (which I've left out as I don't really need it) but I've not had any luck.

I have tried the following types of commands

- booting the actual image for the zen cd
command: then diskemu /images/bootcd.iso
result: screen breiefly flashes but stays at menu and can choose another option (this method boots on older PCs).....

Try this

- Copy the contents of zen cd to root of UBCD
"AND" copy the actual image for the zen cd

command: then diskemu /images/bootcd.iso

Works with Zen 7.0