Burning a DVD for Linux and repacking an iso
 

Hi all,

A total newbie here, I'm am attempting to burn a DVD-ROM that has the ability to bootup from the disc drive but while also includes other files to be accessed from the desktop (Currently have Ubuntu installed)

I have successfully burned a bootable disc for Ubuntu (I Used a Mac and Toast)an this boots up on restarting a Linux system so all is well there.

Do I need to unpack the distros .iso file and drop this into a new folder with the additional content and create a new .iso file of the new root folder?

I have access to Windows and Mac so I can use which ever is better suited to the job.

If anyone has any idea on how I can achieve this I would be grateful of your help.

Right I'm off to find out some more info :)

Thank you

I don't know whether I understood your question and I expect many of the people who would know the answer would not understand the way you asked the question.

I think you want to start with a .iso of some Linux liveDVD system and add some extra contents to a copy of the .iso and burn that to a DVD, so that when booted the original and extra contents are all available.

That is the usual method described for the process. I never understood why people don't use the faster method that needs less (though still a lot of) work space:

Mount the .iso (or the DVD itself) as a filesystem. Mount a small tmpfs. Mount an aufs filesystem that merges the two (so the tmpfs holds only changes and additions to the .iso). Then create a new .iso (needing that lot of work space) using the aufs as a source. Dismount the aufs, tmpfs and DVD since everything is now in the new .iso. Then burn that to DVD.

Obviously Linux is better suited to the job and there are more experts reading this thread who could tell you how to use Linux. I assume you don't have a Linux system to use other than the liveDVD. Ubuntu is probably not a good choice for using a liveDVD to remaster itself, without ever installing, in a system with just one DVD drive (other Linux distributions with appropriate contortions actually manage it).

Give more thought to whether you have partition space somewhere in which to temporarily install Linux to use as a platform for remastering the DVD.

Another method would be to create a very large file (the size of the ISO file and the sum of of your own files plus some extra space) with dd, putting a filesystem on that file (devices act as files on UNIXes) with mkfs or something similar, and then mounting it as a loopback file system (mount -t ext3 -o loopback your-file). Then copy all the ISO contents while keeping all ownership and permissions (cp -dpR /mnt/iso/*) and add you own files. From that loopback device create an ISO file. On a recent Mac you should have the tools available, on Windows you might need CygWin.

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