Boot from ISO file on HDD?
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Boot from ISO file on HDD?
started by: RustB
Posted by RustB on Feb. 27 2005,04:25
Is there a way to boot from an ISO file stored on my Harddisk? I tried the boot switch "dsl bootfrom=/home/dsl/iso.iso", but it didn't work.
I'm guessing there must be some LILO setting to make it work, but I am unable to find it.
Thanks in advance.
Edit: The ISO image is bootable. I can boot off it if I burn it to a CD.
Posted by melontree on Feb. 27 2005,09:42
thats exactly i am missing on dsl.the reason i downloaded dsl
was i inteded to run an old p75
and an old laptop without
installing linux or dsl,
evrytime just boot from hdd
either the iso or the busted iso
BUT NO INSTALLATION !!!
if it boots from USB
if it boots from cdrom
HOW TO old fashioned booting from hdd???
Posted by ypx on Feb. 27 2005,10:02
well, you should look the < documentation > perhaps...
Posted by melontree on Feb. 27 2005,12:33
| Quote (ypx @ Feb. 27 2005,05:02) |
| well, you should look the < documentation > perhaps... |
no - i want to boot from HD toram
without lilo, without "installation"
again,
if it works from cdrom
if it boots from usb
damn, why doesnt it boot from hdd?
again no depackaging,
no trees,
just the 50 meg file copied
to hdd and a boot record on hdd
(NOT ON FLOPPY, NO FLOPPY THERE)
just like booting from cdrom.
AGAIN: NO "installation"
Posted by ke4nt1 on Feb. 27 2005,13:36
Your description or terminology is a little confusing... let me explain.If , by " no installation" , you mean you wish to run from the compressed image,
rather than a HDinstalled filesystem, that is no problem.
Like you stated, cdrom does it, usb does it, and hdd can do it too.
But , you also say that you do not want lilo.
SO , how do you wish to boot your compressed filesystem?
Normally, you can use either a cdrom , usbkey, or floppy to boot your box.
at the prompt: , type " dsl toram fromhd=/dev/hda1 "
or whatever HD partition you copied your cd contents to..
Without lilo or grub, these are your only options for booting the compressed
filesystem that you copied over to your HD.
Search the documentation and the forums for "frugal" or "poormans"
Also, the 'bootfrom' option needs the partition, not the path.
i.e. - not " dsl bootfrom=/home/dsl/iso.iso " , but
" dsl bootfrom=/dev/hda1/iso.iso "
73
ke4nt
Posted by melontree on Feb. 27 2005,14:59
thanks sounds betteri dont know this lilo or grub exactly,
again, there is no floppy!
i dont bother using lilo or any other bootmanager,
i just want to boot the image from hd
like the imgage boots from cdrom.
all i want is a non confusing step by step
information how to install and point any (lilo?)
bootmanager to the dsl-image
bootrecord on HD, dsl image on HD
NO FLOPPY.
Would be very great if this option
would be a button from the dsl-live-menu
i hope if i search "frugal" i ll find help
without mentioning the word floppy.
everything boots from HD, so i dont want a floppy
the term "install" is confusing,
but boot from HD *should* be a Forumthread
like boot from USB
like boot from CDROM
Posted by RustB on Feb. 28 2005,16:50
| Quote (ke4nt1 @ Feb. 27 2005,08:36) |
| Also, the 'bootfrom' option needs the partition, not the path. i.e. - not " dsl bootfrom=/home/dsl/iso.iso " , but " dsl bootfrom=/dev/hda1/iso.iso " 73 ke4nt |
I tried this but it doesn't work. It gives me a message along the lines of
"Could not find image /dev/hda6/home/dsl/iso.iso"
Any other suggestions?
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 28 2005,17:38
Is your image located in:C:\home\dsl\iso.iso
if it is a Windows partition, or:
/mnt/hda1/home/dsl/iso.iso
if it is a Linux partition?
and you need to make sure that your uppercase/lowercase letters are correct.
For example,
C:\Temp\Knoppix3.4\knoppix.iso
is different from
c:\temp\knoppix3.4\knoppix.iso
Posted by melontree on Feb. 28 2005,20:44
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -T table=/dev/hdc
*270 meg hd*
Type Boot Start End Sector #sectors
1 FAT32 * 0:1:1 185:11:48 48 107088
2 Linux Native 186:0:1 371:11:48 107136 107136
3 Linux Native 372:0:1 557:11:48 214272 107136
4 Linux Swap 558:0:1 916:11:48 321408 206784
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -A /dev/hdc
/dev/hdc1
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -M /dev/hdc
Fatal: creat /boot/boot.1600: Read-only file system
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -M /dev/hdc1
Fatal: /dev/hdc1 is not a master device with a primary parition table
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -M /dev/hdc2
Fatal: /dev/hdc2 is not a master device with a primary parition table
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -M /dev/hdc3
Fatal: /dev/hdc3 is not a master device with a primary parition table
root@ttyp0[dsl]# lilo -M /dev/hdc4
Fatal: /dev/hdc4 is not a master device with a primary parition table
i will reformat this drive in whatever style you want,
please advice me a TYPE number from cfdisk TYPE table
somebody suggested vfat no vfat entry from 100 entries
if i run hd install from the menu with multiple users
a one time lilo screen appears after reboot.
Only one time and i need the frugal version
not the hdinstall version.
SO AN SCRIPTING AND OR LILO EXPERT IS NEEDED
i think for a geek it takes 5 min,
for me it took already hours. if it works ONE TIME
on the hdinstall script, how to script it different and permanent?
thousands of users will find
this helpful,
anyone with an old laptop or old pc
or malicious or newbie users who reconfigure and destroy or change
system data bz accident everytime they boot their computer
so an iso boot from hd without disk or cd or usb would be great.
maybe later someone writes a script for a
onetime boot from windows
which restores the windows mbr
on the next boot.
but at the moment i would be glad to
see a working lilo script right here
permanent for the frugal boot from hd.
someone hinted me to use grub.dsl
but even this is cumbersome,
find the download,
where to install, how to bind it on boot bla ...
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 28 2005,23:26
Before you start using LILO or GRUB on this thing, please check the syntax of your "bootfrom" parameter.Leave a copy of the *.iso file on your hard drive.
Then boot from a CD with the appropriate "bootfrom" command to test it out.
If it works, you may be able to get something going with LILO or GRUB.
Unfortunately, the "bootfrom" command usually requires access to a /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file in order to start using the *.iso, so unless you edit your minirt24.gz file and copy over some drivers it will be hard to accomplish this without also copying the /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file over to your hard drive.
An easier approach would be to create a poorman's install with a slight tweak, IE: First copy the files on the livecd over to your hard drive.
Then create a boot floppy and copy over the linux24 and minirt24.gz files to your hard drive and then boot using LILO or GRUB and reference these files for your bootloader along with your desired "append" commands.
Finally, another option would be to first boot into MSDOS or FREEDOS and then use the loadlin program to continute with the boot process.
You could even add a "Boot:" prompt to your autoexec.bat file and then add it to the loadlin append line.
Search the forums for keyword:
loadlin*
and search ALL FORUMS and search FROM THE BEGINNING or NEWER
Hopefully one of these options will give you the solution that you are looking for.
Posted by samael99 on Mar. 15 2005,12:38
I don't see the point in booting of an .iso file ?Well, maybe if you want to boot several different OS's would it be worth to bother working a way out to do such a thing.
Why not just copy the contents of the image to a partition and boot that ?
Maybe have a look at this thread
< Booting from HD using grub >
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 15 2005,17:49
There is a reason why the boot from iso command exists.You cannot mount a C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX cloop filesystem if your C:\ drive is formatted with NTFS.
So it is impossible to do a poormans or fromhd install from an NTFS partition.
HOWEVER, it is possible to mount a /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX filesystem that is contained inside an ISO file that is sitting inside a C:\knoppix.iso NTFS partition.
So this gives the Win NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 user the ability to run KNOPPIX or DSL from the hard drive without reformatting or repartitioning. The performance is much faster than with a straight livecd from a CDROM drive arrangement.
The only requirement is that your initial bootup process requires the presense of the livecd.
Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 15 2005,23:25
| Quote |
| Also, the 'bootfrom' option needs the partition, not the path. i.e. - not " dsl bootfrom=/home/dsl/iso.iso " , but " dsl bootfrom=/dev/hda1/iso.iso " |
I have to do that all the time with Knoppix, so I can use the one cdrom drive to burn a copy of the .iso.
I just use a knoppix cd to get booted, and "knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hdb1/thatknoppix.iso
and I am up and running. It is a little slower than running off of the cdrom, but I have no choice. Then I remove the boot cd, and put my blank cd in the drive, and burn the .iso to it. So, I can run off the .iso, and burn a copy of that same .iso, too. Can't do "toram" since the .iso is 670MB, but can do that with DSL, since it is so small. When I boot from the .iso on the hard drive, then all of the memory is available for the CD burning. I have had crashes when trying to burn a cd using 1GB ram if I "toram" with the Knoppix .iso. Only about 150 MB left over, so that is not enough for K3B, for instance.
I would suppose that if a CDROM drive, such as a backpack were temporarily installed, then a DSL .iso could be copied to a Windows hard drive partition.
(Windows 98), then a boot floppy could be used to get going, running off of the .iso on the hard drive. Could leave it up all day...
After the Backpack CDROM drive is disconnected, you have a DSL computer
that has no cdrom drive, and only perhaps a minimal Windows 98 installation. It is possible to use MSDOS only, and use the msdos interlnk/intersvr to copy the .iso to the machines hard drive. I have done it, takes a while, hours in fact.
Another way to get the .iso on the drive is to physically install the drive as a slave on a working DSL machine, with an .iso on the master drive, and use a commercial drive copy program (PowerQuest's Drive Copy) to clone the drive onto the slave, then remove the slave and install it in your machine. I have had to do that with difficult installs such as Debian and SuSE. One can resize the partition to fit the new drive, and you are good to go.
Posted by abo on Mar. 26 2005,15:40
I did the following: 1.booted knoppix made a partition /dev/hdb1 with fdisk and created a filesystem mke2fs -cj /dev/hdb1
2. coppyed the dsl.iso there
3. rebooted typed in boot: knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hdb1/dsl.iso
and it didn't work
So I asked google and this seems to be a problem:
| Quote |
| NOTE: bootfrom needs access to a running Knoppix-System with the same Kernel as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image. |
I haven't read the whole post so this might be allready mentioned.