to make an oversized bootable floppy image out of a .iso image here are some tips:
make an image with the msdos/vfat filesystem on it (in this case it would be 1.44 MB)
user@host# mkfs.msdos /tmp/file.img -C 1440
mount the image file as a loopback device:
user@host# mkdir /tmp/img/
user@host# sudo mount -t vfat -o loop /tmp/file.img /tmp/img
install a MBR (master boot record):
user@host# sudo syslinux -m /dev/loop0
install syslinux to the image file:
user@host# sudo syslinux -i /dev/loop0
copy the contents of the iso image to the image file:
user@host# mkdir /tmp/iso/
user@host# sudo mount -t iso9660 /path/to/iso/file.iso /tmp/iso/
user@host# sudo cp -vr /tmp/iso/* /tmp/img/
make sure all of the "isolinux" names have been changed to "syslinux"
you can now use syslinux to boot this .img file using memdisk .. your syslinux.cfg entry will look something similar to this:
LABEL distro
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND initrd=/path/to/img/file.img
this should get your kernel & initial ramdisk to load up but it doesn't quite get you to the finish line. i'm not even sure if this is the best way to do this but it would be nice to have a very neat usb stick full of bootable images so files don't get rearranged or deleted or whatever. also if i get this working i won't have to fck around with paths in syslinux.cfg files. for example, getting DSL (Damn Small Linux) to find that KNOPPIX filesystem can be frustrating if you implement it with a custom file tree. maybe you could append an option to mount the .img file while booting up so that your kernel can find the filesystem and other files it needs?
any help would be appreciated on finishing the last leg of this ..
MAKE SURE SYSLINUX IS UP TO DATE AND THAT YOU DON'T OVERWRITE YOUR MBR OR BOOTLOADER WHILE YOU ARE DOING THIS. GO AHEAD AND BACK THEM UP BEFORE DOING THIS!
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EDIT: if you take the filesystem out of the iso and put it on the usb drive where it usually goes (i.e. for geexbox 2.0 put the rootfs file at the root of your usb stick & for DSL put the KNOPPIX file in a folder named KNOPPIX at the root of your usb stick) then this method will work. however, considering all that is in some of these iso files is a kernel, initrd & a filesystem it is somewhat pointless to even do it using this workaround.
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EDIT: LOL DO NOT IMPLEMENT THIS!!! DO IT THIS WAY... YOU'LL HAVE TO MAKE CUSTOM INITIAL RAMDISKS FOR EACH DISTRO IN THE END.. & GO MAD!
INSTEAD FOLLOW THIS TUTORIAL I MADE:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...30#post4542230
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Edit: it is prob. possible to point to the filesystem within the .img file using by appending something like BOOT_IMAGE=/dev/initrd/path/to/filesystem
That might conclude this thread once and for all.