Remaking ReactOS live CD with mkisofs?

[Nuno Brito]

Hi everyone!

I've extracted all files from reactOS live CD ISO into a folder, added all my changes and then tried recreating an ISO using mkisofs with a similar command line as used on bartPE.

For boot image I've used BBIE wich produced an "image1.bin" and was used as an option on mkisofs, but I guess that something is still wrong here because the image starts the booting process and then simply reboots..


Anyone knows the command line options for re-creating this ISO file?

Thanks!!

references:
http://www.bootcd.us/Mkisofs_options.php

[frik85]

Please visit our ReactOS Wiki for informations or search through the forum. We have already covered that topic several times.


Start-points:

http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/HOWTO

http://www.reactos.org/forum/search.php

[Nuno Brito]

Thanks for the quick reply!

The wiki seems very detailed and regarding the ISO build, I've found these informations:

Building ReactOS

Run the make file from the root directory of ReactOS. In order to build a bootable ISO image, you must first build freeldr and then run "make install" ; next you must run "make bootcd" from the root ReactOS directory. The ISO image will be located in the root ReactOS directory when it is finished.

http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Building_ReactOS

Put telnet.exe and whatever other binaries you like on your reactos image either by using mkisofs to make an iso that you'll supply to qemu as the -cdrom parameter, or copying them to the image using mtools or so.

http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/H ... connection


But it isn't what I need..

Searching the forum for "mkisofs":

If you would happen you use mkisofs here are some nice parameters..: mkisofs -V title -l -J -R -o isoname.iso folder

http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=mkisofs

This doesn't solve the question regarding the boot image to use.



And there were other people asking the same:

It's not that I don't want to tell you and keep a big, mysterious secret to myself, it's that I've never used mkisofs to create bootable ReactOS cds and therefore simply don't know how to do it. I think that's the case for most of the people you find on this board.

http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=mkisofs


Looking inside the whole site I've found these links:
http://www.reactos.org/pipermail/ros-ke ... 04130.html
http://www.reactos.org/archives/public/ ... 04441.html


Without clear answers decided to try with winImage, extracted all files to a folder and also extracted the boot sector as bootsect.bin onto the root of the folder where the files were placed.

And went trying with mkisofs again:

Code: Select all

mkisofs -no-emul-boot -b bootsect.bin -o ros.iso ReactOS-LiveCD

I boot and quickly shows the message to press a key.. After this a message appears saying "Could not find the system hive!"



Can anyone please post the correct procedure for (re)-creating the ISO using mkisofs?


Thanks!!

[hto]

ReactOS itself uses cdmake utility.

Try this:

Code: Select all

cdmake.exe -m -j -b isoboot.o folder REACTOS ReactOS-LiveCD.iso

isoboot.o is boot sector, folder - where is extracted files placed, -j means generate Joliet filename records, -m -- accept punctuation marks other than underscores in names and extensions. REACTOS is volume label.

If it will not work, maybe something wrong with extraction.

I put cdmake.exe and also isoboot.o here: http://www.5748.nm.ru/iso/ for convenience.

[Nuno Brito]

Thanks for replying hto, the command line options and both files really helped a lot, but unfortunately my result is still a non bootable ISO.

Now it boots up to the blue screen "ReactOS Client/Server Run-Time (Build 20060827-r23747)" and then reboots - downloaded two days ago from reactos.org

The ISO that I've downloaded boots just fine, but the one created from the folder still refuses to work.


Initially I've used TugZIP to extract all contents of the ISO folder, on my following experiments I've used WinImage and result is still the same..


What is the application you'd recomend for extracting files from the reactos ISO?

Thanks!

[GreatLord]

Hi

I ofteb build my own CD and coustmize them before make the bootcd.
Only tool I use is what I get from reactos source when it compile.

1. I compile ReactOS with Make

2. after compile finsh I look at the output folder name output-i386/livecd for the livecd or cd for the boot cd, and there I put my files.

3. Now I doing the make of the cd with Make BootCD or Make LiveCD
to build my ISO

I can also create a DVD images and boot it.
it is bit more complex todo but it is posible.
but it is involve some 3d party program then

[Nuno Brito]

Thanks for the reply, but why is the reactOS ISO created by cdmake.exe diferent from the original ISO?

Perhaps the boot sector image is different?

[GreatLord]

ReactOS own boot block is on 2kbytes and must be writen right.

[Nuno Brito]

I've tried with the boot sector provided by hto and also tried extracting the boot sector from the original ISO - both booted but refused to start the system.

I don't think that it is a boot sector image related problem, there should be another reason for this to occur, do you have any more ideas where to look?

[hto]

I tried with LiveCD r24991 (patched, original is broken).
First mount .iso under Linux, copy content and then use cdmake. Should work.

[frik85]

You can also use an ISO read&write application like WinISO, UltraISO, etc. which will allow you to alter the ISO file and keep the boot sector part fine.

[Nuno Brito]

You can also use an ISO read&write application like WinISO, UltraISO, etc. which will allow you to alter the ISO file and keep the boot sector part fine.

Yes, but they aren't freeware solutions and would limit an automated way of creating these ISO's.

I tried with LiveCD r24991 (patched, original is broken).
First mount .iso under Linux, copy content and then use cdmake. Should work.

Linux does make it simple, but would this be possible under windows?

Perhaps using a VDK (Virtual Disk Driver) would work:
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk.html

Or even filedisk:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/

But at this moment I still don't understand the reason why it won't boot from either cdmake or mkisofs..

The boot sector seems fine and files are intact, so why won't ReactOS boot?

[hto]

Cdmake works well.

I tried one Linux utility for extracting files from .iso and "Profiles" directory was not extracted.

[Nuno Brito]

"Profiles" directory was not extracted.

Good idea!

Comparing the files and folders of the original ISO against the extracted results I've noticed that two empty folders were just ignored when extracting:

ISO file:
folders: 17
files: 472

Output folder:
folders: 17
files: 472


The missing folders were:

DESKTOP
MY DOCUM

Added these empty folders on the output folder and then rebuilt the ISO - still the same results..

WinImage should be reliable enough, but I would like to try out other ways to extract files any suggestions?

[Nuno Brito]

Found the solution!!

The problem was that WinImage and others were extracting the files and converting them to uppercase.

Here are my steps:

I've mounted the ISO as a virtual drive

Copied all contents into a folder

Added the boot sector image on the root of this folder

Created the ISO using cdmake.exe:

Code: Select all

cdmake.exe -p -m -j -b isoboot.o folder REACTOS ros.iso

With mkisofs:

Code: Select all

mkisofs -v -J -R -D -A "LiveCD" -V "LiveCD" -no-emul-boot -b isoboot.o -c isoboot.boot -o ros.iso ReactOS-LiveCD

And the created ISO boots exactly as expected..


hto was right - the extraction process was definitively faulty - thanks a lot!!