Baslinux mailing list

[Matrix Mole <matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> If you cannot partition a CD, could you set up the CD as ext2 and boot
> using a DOS boot floppy disk in combination with it somehow?
> A:\autoexec.bat  for the boot command.  How would you write the .bat file
> to boot linux from the CD?

I haven't even tried to build something like this, but for what you've got
suggested here, how about the following .bat setup:

loadlin zimage root=/dev/hdc ro

Obviously, change /dev/hdc to point to the CD-Rom drive.

Now from what I've read, it sounds almost as if the original poster was
wanting a CD that can be taken to any machine (that's bootable) and boot
and install BL onto that machine. If this is the case, you won't have to
partition the CD in any way. Just use a DOS formatted disk. Include the
entire ramdrive version, along with making the slakware directory onto the
CD. The only problem I can forsee with this format is that DOS files on CD
sometimes ge read as uppercase under linux, thereby making the install
very difficult.

Something I just remember as well. CD's can be partitioned. It isn't the
same method as used on harddrives though. It's a multi-format CD is what
you might be thinking of. I have a progarm (CDRWIN from Golden Hawk
Technology, although I prefer the command line format). With this progarm,
you can have two seperate cd images (.iso or .bin). Then you build a .cue
sheet that is a pure text file. The cuesheet then tells the burning
software what images to burn onto the CD. Of course, the combined total of
the images used can't exceed the total space on the CD. Using this
program, I don't think there's a limit to the number of filesystems that
can be placed on a single CD other than the CD size itself. CDRWin does
have a command line version (wich is what I use) that I believe would work
in pure DOS if you could setup DOS drivers to get the burner working
properly as a burner not just a reader.

matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org