Using ISO Images

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JamesC
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:25 pm

Using ISO Images

#1 Post by JamesC » Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:31 pm

Hi there all,

I have done a little Googling and haven't had much luck... I want to be able to boot ISO images (such as Acronis true image, disk director, partedmagic etc..) straight from Ultimate Boot CD.. I know they can be done if you do some modifications and not use actual ISO images, but i would like to be able to just simply boot the ISO image.

Is this possible? if so.. how? :)

Or even using something other than ultimate boot cd would be fine

Thank you

Icecube
Posts: 1278
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:52 pm
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#2 Post by Icecube » Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:37 pm

Most of the time this is not possible.

You can boot only iso images when it needs only the kernel and the initrd, which get loaded by the bootloader before the kernel takes over the command. So you can boot all iso's that only have a kernel and an initrd.

See: http://partedmagic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=151 for more information why Parted Magic can be booted from an iso image directly. (It mounts the iso once the kernel and initrd is loaded.)
Kernel and initrd are loaded simultaneously, no matter form direct loading or from IMG/ISO mounting.

Now you are in protected mode. Linux kernel does NOT know about your mounted via grub4dos image, there are no drivers for it.
Next kernel has to access file(s) to be loaded or mounted- pmagic, filesystem.squashfs or whatever.
How would kernel find those files, since mapping no longer exist, where are they? When you answer yourself this question you will get the picture clear.
Emulation of iso images goes via bios calls (real mode). All bootable iso images which use a real mode operating system (dos) can be runned and will work. All protected mode operating systems (linux/windows) will only boot to an early stage because once the operating system is working in protected mode, it can't see the emulated iso image anymore and can't access the other files which it needs to boot completely. If the linux distro is able to mount the iso image itself (e.g. Parted Magic), it can find the necessary files but most distros don't have that option (yet?).

So most of the time an iso image can't be booted directly.

Take a look at grub4dos if you want to boot iso images, but be aware of the limitations given above.

JamesC
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:25 pm

#3 Post by JamesC » Sat Aug 09, 2008 12:29 am

Thank you mate, that helps me out ;)

as702
Posts: 276
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:14 am

Re: Using ISO Images

#4 Post by as702 » Sat Aug 09, 2008 11:32 am

JamesC wrote:Hi there all,

I have done a little Googling and haven't had much luck... I want to be able to boot ISO images (such as Acronis true image, disk director, partedmagic etc..) straight from Ultimate Boot CD.
Acronis products are fully compatible with isolinux and pretty straight-forward to integrate. Typically, the ISO in question should contain 2 files (the kernel and dat file). Extract these 2, then append a new entry in the isolinux menu:

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LABEL -
	MENU LABEL <ACRONIS PRODUCT>
        KERNEL /ACRONIS/kernel.dat
        APPEND rw initrd=/ACRONIS/ramdisk.dat /S mbrcrcs=on vga=788 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=20480 acpi=off quiet
Change the path(s) relative to the root of UBCD. Done!

coin
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:27 pm
Location: CA, US

#5 Post by coin » Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:49 am

I want to be able to boot ISO images (such as Acronis true image, disk director, partedmagic etc..) straight from Ultimate Boot CD.. I know they can be done if you do some modifications and not use actual ISO images, but i would like to be able to just simply boot the ISO image.
In Linux, one can actually extract the ISO image containing the filesystem and files for ultimate booting within the Ultimate Boot CD.
This is a native feature and not one requiring special third-party tools.

Here are a selection of the steps for doing this:
1. Boot into a Linux Command Line Interface (=CLI) environment.
You can probably even do this from the Linux distros on the Ultimate Boot CD such as tomsrtbt and BasicLinux.
2. Once in the CLI, make a temporary "loop" directory a.k.a. a mount point.
I called mine "loopd" within the /mnt directory and performed this as follows

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mkdir /mnt/loopd
3. The next step depends upon whether the needed ISO image is a) already on the hard drive or b) can be copied from a CD.
a) You'd mount the hard drive in Linux as something like /mnt/hda1 (drive C:\ in Windows parlance)

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mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
The device name and mount point will vary depending upon which hard drive and partition the ISO is located in.
b) You'd mount the CD in the CD-ROM drive in Linux as something like /mnt/cdrom (drive E:\, F:\... in Windows parlance)

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mount -rt iso9660 /dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom
The device name and mount point will vary depending upon the exact CD-ROM device name.
4. Locate the exact ISO image you need on the hard drive or CD, and change to the very directory that the ISO is located in.
At that point you would access the ISO's contents as follows:

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mount -t iso9660 <exact name of ISO> -o loop /mnt/loopd
5. This /mnt/loopd directory will now contain the exact contents of your ISO in its entire directory structure for viewing and copying over to the hard drive directory you are making the Ultimate Boot CD remastering.
I'd make a ubcd-tmp directory somewhere easily accessible on /mnt/hda1 (or wherever your hard drive partition is), and then copy everything over from the /mnt/loopd directory. When the ISO is successfully loop-copied from a CD to the loopd directory and then to the hard drive partition, you'd umount (=close down) the CD by issuing a

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umount /mnt/cdrom
6 After all copying is finished from the /mnt/loopd directory, then I'd umount this by doing a

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umount /mnt/loopd
The ISO contents now in the ubcd-temp directory on the hard drive can now be copied and edited in and out for using to boot the very ISO image you need within the Ultimate Boot CD.
When finished with all copying and editing tasks, you'd umount the hard drive partition used for all this

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umount /mnt/hda1
Although I've omitted way too many necessary details about navigating, browsing, and manipulating files in Linux, I hope that this will be a good starting help stage for opening and manipulating ISO images in Linux.

Duderino316
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:52 am

#6 Post by Duderino316 » Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:31 am


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