Bootloader for liveCD: Is this possible?
 

I was thinking...Since some liveCD & other distro's are so tiny, it might be possible to put 4, 5 or more on a single disc. If so, is there some way to install a bootloader like lilo onto the CD to choose which 'track' of the CD to load?

I think this it'd be pretty handy to have slax, damn small, peanut linux, bonzai & others on a single 900 meg CD. And with the new DVD technology, why not have 4 major distro's, plus all of these tiny ones. LinuxCD.org could sell them much more cheaply for example if they just did that instead of having a 22cd pack.

I have used the GRUB which is already on the RIP linux cdrom to make a multi-boot cdrom. I noticed the Knoppix V3.4 also has this grub directory but I haven't tried it with knoppix yet.

Below is my /boot/grub/menu.lst

color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
title *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* R.I.P. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
root (hd0)
title RIP V7.8
kernel /boot/kernel3
initrd=/boot/initrd3.gz vga=normal devfs=nomount load_ramdisk=1 init=/linuxrc prompt_ramdisk=0 root=/dev/ram0 rw
title Rescue CD V0.2.10
kernel /boot/vmlinuz1 video=i810fb:xres=800 acpi=off root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc nokeymap
initrd=/boot/initrd1
title Feather Linux V0.3.7
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/knoppix.img
Puppy Linux V0.8.4
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=55296 initrd_archive=ext2 PFILE=pup080-none-262144
initrd=/boot/image.gz
title Slax Linux V4.0.1
kernel /boot/vmlinuz2 max_loop=255 init=linuxrc livecd_subdir=/ load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=7777 root=/dev/ram0 rw
initrd=/boot/initrd2.gz
title Mulinux V14r0
kernel /boot/mulinuz root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=4600 vga=normal max_scsi_luns=1
initrd=/boot/root.gz
title Freedos V9
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/freedos.img
title Tomsrtbt Linux
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/tomsrtbt.img
title Ranish Tool V2.44
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/ranish.img
title Memtest
kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/boo/memtest.bin

Once you have the systems loaded into the working directory ( cdbase ) and have the menu.lst setup, you can proceed as follows....

CD into the cdbase and type:
cdrecord dev=0,0,0 blank=fast

mkisofs -J -R -b boot/grub/iso9660_stage1_5 -c boot/boot.cat \
-o /home/bootcd.iso -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 32 -boot-info-table .

cdrecord -v speed=4 dev=0,0,0 -data /home/bootcd.iso

Thanks!! That's just the info I was looking for :study:

Your Welcome!

I went a step further and borrowed an idea from the Ultimate Boot CD. They have an images directory which is full of extra programs. I made the images directory and filled it up with various tools using the .img file extension.
Then I use one of the grub menu items to access any of those programs. I use the grub edit feature at boot up....

Go to a menu item and press e

kernel /boot/memdisk
initrd=/images/ranish.img

Go down to the initrd line and press e

Change the line to reflect which program you want to boot.

For example....

initrd=/images/hdclone.img

Then arrow up the the kernel line and press b to boot that selection.

Thanks again :cool: This should make a great project