Hi there,

Is it possible to create an ISO via Bart PE (or any other means) without including Windows setup files? Here is why, I want to have Boot CD Wizard on my CD (I already have achieved this but I don't want any of Bart's files or Windows setup files on it). In other words, I just want a bootable CD with boot CD wizard on it and all other files that I will Include. I don't want to have I386 or any other of Bart's plugins.

I am familiar with the mkisofs command, but obviously not familiar enough.

When I want to use isolinux as a bootloader I use



and when I want to use BCDW I use Bart PE but the down side is, I have to get all the extras to come as part of Bart's package.

I prefer to use BCDW instead of isolinux as a boot loader. If using BCDW stand alone is not possible, perhaps I can integrate it with ISO Linux? But how will this work? As far as I am aware, the isolinux cfg files have: "kernel" and "append" keys and in "kernel", isolinux expects a linux kernel so putting bcdw.bin as in "kernel bcdw.bin" will not work.

Any ideas?

P.S. In relation to my previous thread, thank you cdob, I figured it all out and I was doing things incorrectly I had to RTFM in relation with how linux boots, all is clear . You need two files, the kernel file and the ram disk file initrd="ramdisk_file such as inird.igz" etc where initrd stands for init ram disk and then each distro has its own parameters...BCDW works the same, /kernel_file initrd="...." "more parameters from isolinux.cfg's 'append' key"

If you have an open question in another thread, you need to provide your answer there so the next person reading that topic can also find the solution.

BCDW was designed as a stand-alone boot menu and it took a lot of work at first to design the multiboot portion of UBCD4WIN.
Please note that BCDW is a dead project that has not seen any updates in many years and there will most likely never be a newer version released so make sure this is your best choice before you invest a lot of time working with an end-of-life program. So far it has worked very well for us but it does have trouble with certain bios versions and the numbers keep growing so I imagine that sooner or latter we will be forced to switching over to another solution.

There are web pages out there with the information you need, but it will take a little searching with google and you may want to narrow your search to "911cd.net" in the advanced options because that is where the best information and loinks can be found. I know bcdw and grub4dos are compatable with each other, and in both directions, but have not played with isolinux so you will need to play around with it and let us know what you figure out.

@skyliner
As hilander999 mentioned already, BCDW is not developed since 2004.
Don't use BCDW for new projects.

Isolinux is developed still.

BCDW 1.5:
http://bootcd.narod.ru/index_e.htm
http://bootcd.narod.ru/nemkisofs_e.htm
mkisofs -b bcdwboot.bin -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4

BCDW 2.01a:
http://bcdw.wolfgang-brinkmann.de/bcdw_e.html
mkisofs -b loader.bin -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4

Hey guys,

Thank you for all that and over night I alreay made my mind to go with isolinux as I know how to use it. I do apolgize for not posting answers (I hate when people find a solution but they do not post it). I can assure you I am not one of those people.

Here is how it works:

The isolinix.cfg is a fairly complex file. The main bits that you need to supply are the kernel and it's parameters. In my example:



Basically when you boot a floppy img like image, you need to specify "memdisk" as the booting kernel. However when you have an extracted ISO, for kernel you need to specify its kernel and you can figure this out by looking at its isolinuc.cfg file.

I will reply soon again with more explaination I promise, I am running out of time...

Correction, that should be



The "append" parameters are not general to "linux" except may be for "initrd"and each disto has different parameters.

I will reply properly soon, an explaination for people that don't know how it works.

Basically, the problem described in my previous thread was that I was passing incorrect parameters to the isolinux loader as well as using an invalid img file. After cdob pointed out to that link, using "memdisk" for a "kernel" made things work properly. Whenever you boot a floppy image, you should always use "memdisk" for kernel. When you boot Linux distributions, the best thing to do is just copy their settings from their isolinux.cfg to yours and setup the directory structure the same way as theirs. However the problem with this is that you will end up with multiple isoconf.cfg files and multiple boot dirs etc. The easiest way to overcome this to rename the "conflicting" directories and your isolinux.cfg files accordingly so you it can tell isolinix.bin where are the kernel files, ram files such as initrd etc.

By the way, I am saying all this because I already made things work. I have multiple linux distributions as well as UBCD for DOS starting from one disk - yes, I can start System Rescue, GParted and I can also start UBCD for DOS. I might release an ISO so other people can download it but I am still experimenting and adding stuff.

That is not a good idea!

Joshua

Hi skyliner.

BCDW is a very good tool and even thought it isn't developed anymore I still find a lot of features hidden inside that are nowehere available on other boot loaders.

You can modify it simply by editing BCDW.ini

There is a lot of comprehensive documentation found on version 1.5 (most of it still valid for 2.x): http://bootcd.narod.ru/index_e.htm where you find practical examples teaching how to boot linux images and windows boot disks with bcdw.

I like it because it handles several XP PE boot disks without need to hex edit anything and I've included it as default boot loader on a project called uxp: http://www.msfn.org/board/project-uxp-t113249.html

As mentioned previously, use the latest BCDW binaries from here: http://bcdw.wolfgang-brinkmann.de/index_e.html


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It also has a small executable that will let you preview your boot screen so that it is easier to test things.

One other good option is Grub4Dos: http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index...ub4dos_tutorial and the newish AeroStudio is also looking very promissing: http://www.znpc.net/aerostudio

Joshua, don't worry, I don't mean to compete or something and it was only an idea. All of the tools I am using are pure open source. Everyone with technical knowledge can do this and my intent with my statement above was to help. I showed my friends my compiled CD and they were quite impressed. I can even write a program or a simple script to let other people include UBCD4WIN - the ISO of course.

My original intent was to write a config utilty for BCDW but after I realised it's not developed anymore I called it off. Now I am sticking with isolinux.

By the way Nuno, that AeroStudio looks mighty good!

It's very advanced even thought a bit hard to understand how it works at first.

It can produce good "eye-candy" boot menus, glad you like it as the author sure needs some positive feedback to keep on working on this loader.

cdob, thanks for the tip. Here is the full command I am using:



Looks like mkisofs is cool with "any" boot loader. I originally thought it was restricted to iso linux only!

This is so cool. This means I can use any boot loader I want.

Now it's time to decide which one to use. ISOLINUX would be a better choice I think as it would be easier to integrate because the settings are almost identical with the rest of the isolinux config files except for an extra line (if chain.c32 is in use) -- "MENU LABEL".