As the title says my purpose is to boot multiple Live Linux CDs from one multiboot DVD .
First I tried bcdw (Boot CD Wizard) amd more recently GRUB but with no success.
All info I have found is for older versions.
Have anyone managed to make a multiboot DVD with the new versions of Fedora (8) , Mandriva One (2008), Ubuntu (7.10) , Knoppix (5.1.1) (the ones I tried) or other similar ?


*EDIT :

Solution found see post #13

Grub won't do it. You'll have to use syslinux; using different compressed distros.

What about this.

I did it with Grub and am really surprised that someone say it can't be done but offering syslinux, which is a Dos-based boot loader for hard disk and floppy. It cannot be used in a DVD which has a iso9660 filing system. CD and DVD are booted by isolinux not syslinux.

Word of caution : When you multi boot several distros you do so in "one" root filing system. If more than one distro competes for the same directory name then you can select only one distro. I hope you understand this point.

Plz notice that I want to boot from DVD not from HDD.


Actually I had read your post and many other similar but they only work for some specific releases (Ubuntu works fine), but they don't work for example with newer Fedora and Mandriva.


(I use qemu under Window XP to test the DVD)

Here is what I get when I try to load Fedora


and here is what I get when I load Mandriva


Anyone had any luck ?

Actually isolinux derives from syslinux. What I meant to say was isolinux. Yes, syslinux is for hard disks and isolinux is for CD's. For reference on isolinux go to syslinux.org.

By the way, everybody, you can master any distro to CD or DVD. Just because it's not automated doesn't mean that you can't do it... The trick is using syslinux/isolinux and plenty of memory, especially if using graphics.

There are two books that I know of which are very good about LiveCD's - I recommend that you read them before you plunge into this since it can get very complicated and the level of skill is very high. This is the kind of stuff that embedded developers get into.

I also recommend the book Hacking Knoppix.

Could you be more specific please?

What are the books names?


Any suggestions anyone?

Come on guys . I came here with a lot of hope.
Noone has tried?

jadas,

I suggest you re-read my post #3, especially the last para. on word of caution.

you could be complaining something that you don't understand or appreciate the limitations.

I don't think GRUB can help you.

Because, I mean, I would know everything in the universe with my small little *****, right?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-on-cd-311747/

P.S.

Then figure out the load differences of those OSs if they exist.

btw, tell the ppl at justlinux that the mod is a stupid noob, because someone already did the process about two years before the mod did.

Yo, I'm out.
Word to your mother.

You know, you could have just easily linked to the post that you did without the other comments. Try to keep it clean and to the point without having the urge to go off calling other people stupid noobs, talking about your small little *****.

Yo, keep it clean and let's keep mothers out as well, that's so 15 years ago and reminds me too much of the Vanilla Ice days..

iso9660_stage1_5 didn't work for me so I used stage2_eltorito which comes with the new RIP -grub distro instead, but still can't boot fedora and mandriva.


I don't use distros that use same directories (except maybe isolinux of course).

I 'm not sure if I should have made a new thread for this but I finally figure it out.
After MANY attempts I came to the conclusion that Mandriva 2008 couldn't complete the loading process because the cd label should be set as "MandrivaOne" or else it fails.I could set the dvd label as "MandrivaOne" ,but if someone would want to make a multiboot dvd with many distros like Mandriva it is obvious that this is not possible.

So is there any way to change the cd label each time I load a specific distro by appending some options for the kernel to isolinux.cfg (or menu.lst) ?

And here is the solution (for making a multiboot dvd with Live CDs that need to know the dvd label):

For distros like Mandriva 2008:
You must extract the file initrd from initrd.gz and open it with a hex editor . Then you must make a search for the original cd label ,change it to whatever is your new multiboot dvd label and save it. Then gzip it and replace the old one.
I haven't tested this method with other cds but it should work if you edit the appropriate ramdisk file (in this case initrd.gz) for the wanted distro.
Using this method bootsplash won't work unless of course you want to reapply it, which is rather useless because if you plan to install form LiveCD that is done automatically.

For distros like Fedora 8:
This distros are easier and don't require to change any file. Just open the appropriate isolinux.cfg , find a line like "root=CDLABEL=YourDistro" and change "YourDistro" with the label of your multiboot DVD.