I am going to try an convert an iso image of backtrax to a usable format, I don't have any experience with doing do, have tried many times in the past without any sucsess, my question today is if I have an iso that is ~600MB in size, how large is it going to be once converted to usable and bootable software on CD? Am I going to need more than one cd for this installation? (hopenot)

thanks for help here, not having good computer days, as usual.

Um, either you don't understand what an ISO is or I don't understand your question.

An ISO is a disk image - that is, it is like a snapshot of an entire disk. Most all CD-R's hold 700MB, so a 600MB ISO should fit on that CD. You don't convert an ISO at all, you burn that image directly to a CD. Every CD burning software has a tool for this called something like "write CD image". Then, once you're done burning, you can look at the CD and all the files for the CD will be on it.

If I've misunderstood your question and/or insulted your intelligence, I apologize.

Iso is pretty usable if you ask me.

An iso image is an exact copy of a cd: it is not compressed or anything. Use a burning program that can burn image files.

You can also mount an image to see what's on it (if your kernel was built with support for it):

^^ no worries about insults here, I am truely ignorant in many regards when talking about computer related things- being completly self taught and having to fluster my way through many/most concepts.

I did know that the .iso was an image, what I haven't understood is how to implement the image so as to be able to run what has been downloaded-ie my backtrax image or the many others I have kicking around. I have tried a few progs under linux and wingdows to make these iso's into something I can use but never worked for me--obviously I am doing something wrong and my understanding of the process is flawed. I've tried Nero and KB3 both with zero luck.

Great news that the iso isn't going to become inflated, for some reason I thought it might-- I just didn't/don't understand why one would opt for distributing via iso rather than a format which can be used without third party software to burn/interpret/convert/whatever it does...like a binary or something?

In the past I have burned iso's directly to disk using software above, tried to read disk thereafter with no luck...why would this be,--and this is why I think of iso's as I do. I have tried checking google briefly about more infos--guess I should be loosing the 'briefly' part and just get down to it...

Again thanks for the replies--can someone recomend a freely available prog which will do my bidding under wingdows so I can try again with this distro, wanna get it going rather than the suse and mandriva buggy distros I have been using thus far (with issues most everday.)

regards, jd

An ISO file is an exact copy of an entire CD. If the CD is bootable the ISO file will also include the special boot code. Creating a bootable CD is not quite as easy as adding grub or lilo to a hard drive MBR. So the ISO image file is a way to distribute files and the boot code. AFAIK all linux utilities can burn CDs from ISO images.

isorecorder is a free windows utility.

FYI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9660
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Torito_(CD-ROM_standard)

I guess the best way to explain it is this - when you put files on your computer, say a text file, that file has content. You've got stuff in that file, but that's not all you'd like to know about the file. It would be helpful to store that file's name, for instance, and exactly where it is on the CD/Hard drive, etc. So we lump data into things called file systems. These are big chunks of space on your CD/Hard disk/Floppy etc, with some space reserved to store things like file names and sizes so your computer knows what to do with the other stuff.

Now, ".iso" refers to ISO9660, the name of one type of filesystem - the one used (for the most part) on CD's. Basically, an iso is that entire chunk of space on that CD, including the hidden piece with filenames and stuff. Why transfer it like that? Well, because motherboards are picky about where specifically they will look for certain files that make a CD bootable or not. It doesn't ask the filesystem where to find these files, it just looks in a specific place - if the right bits are there you boot from CD, if not you don't. So using ISO's is a good way to make sure that you and I don't have to worry about making sure our CD's have the right bits in the right places, it's taken care of.

Now, if you want to burn an image to a CD in K3B, you'll want to go to Tools -> Burn CD Image. This will bring up a file select dialog. Pick your .iso file and hit open. It will ask you to select a drive, so tell it which drive to use and hit ok. That's all.

thanks man!--for taking the time to explain it right. I still haven't tried the burn yet but am currently re-downloading backtrack linux and wanna give-it-a-go.

I notice that this is a 'live' distro, does this mean that I won't be able to install to HD? I have damn small here at home and have tried it a few times--it is also a live distro but also claims to be able to be loaded to hd--I tied many times on many machines with no luck at all, plus it is sooo buggy it is just a waste of time. graphics never worked right, all muddled up, couldn't use my wifi under it at all (likely lack of proper knowledge to do so..) and all sorts of other things like bad mouse properties, the list keeps goin.

I really hope that this is going to be the one distro that I can be comfy leanring with and stick with for a while,,but truth be told I haven't tried it before and am not even sure if it is a 'full' linux or not---DSL isn't, but guess thats why it is DSL, right?

thansk again to all who have helpd' out. jd

Live Distro means that it can be run right off the CD. The authors may or may not choose to include a feature to install to HD. You are aware that Backtrax is kinda Linux-for-(people who call themselves hackers, but who hackers call crackers) and security auditors. It's kinda a special-purpose distro, not a general learning distro. For that I'd recommend slax, one of the distros Backtrax is based on - it's really nice. As for your hardware incompatabilities, you may experience an improvement with a more full-featured distro, but you may not - sometimes hardware just isn't supported.

yeah I think you're right bout that- I need to have a complete distro and want to have it installed not live. Do you know if slack has wifi tools included? I run a dwl-g520, usually atheros driver works for me but I really like having a network selection app as I haven't alot of understanding how to connect otherwise. Also,. is it going to be an easy thing to incldue the auditing packages which are in the backtrack distro? I usually use rpm's as I haven't alot of experience with 'making' under linux- I've done it a few times but is usually a bit of a stretch for me as to whether they werk right once done.

I guess that any tips you may have regarding the best distro to use would be appreciated, I still haven't downloaded any one dist yet so can go either way...

thansk again..jd

If you want the auditing tools, backtrax is the easiest way to get them as they all come bundled. I only commented because I thought you didn't realize that you were getting a live distro that was so specialized. If you want a live-cd with good auditing tools, use backtrax. If you want a general purpose livecd, I'd recommend Slax. If you want an installed traditional distro, I'd recommend Ubuntu. These are just recommendations, though.