Burning non iso9660 filesystem to cd?

hda7 · 02-10-2010, 01:03 PM

I would like to be able to burn a filesystem other than iso9660 to a cd (probably something like squashfs or cramfs), but I have encountered failure so far.
I have used standard CD-R's, and am using cdrecord (actually a symlink to wodim) while trying to burn an xfs filesystem. I have successfully burned iso9660 discs. I tried burning with and without the -pad option, but after burning, reading the resulting cd results in read errors. Do I need to use a specific mode? I think I just used -data. Any help would be appreciated!

unSpawn · 02-11-2010, 06:49 AM

Like looking at a country map and noticing that roads link up cities and villages (OK most of the time) a file system provides the structures the OS needs to find stuff. A squashfs isn't something you'd read like you would a regular read-write file system but rather expand in RAM to access the contents of say a Live CD file system: How to create and use a Live CD if you don't mind reading (the Fedora Wiki).

hda7 · 02-11-2010, 11:36 AM

I'm not really trying to make a live cd (I could do that if I could get isolinux compiled), I'm just trying to cram as much stuff as possible on a cd. Instead of making a cd of compressed files, or of one compressed filesystem, I am trying to directly write the one compressed filesystem to a cd. It makes sense that if you normally write a file containing an iso9660 filesystem to a cd, you should theoretically be able to write ANY file to a cd (as long as you pad it to the right length), but I have not had much success.

unSpawn · 02-11-2010, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hda7

It makes sense (..) theoretically (..) not had much success.

Exactly my point.

hda7 · 02-11-2010, 03:58 PM

Guess I'll just have to experiment with different modes, padding, etc. If I can get it to work, I'll post a reply!

JZL240I-U · 02-26-2010, 05:55 AM

Can't you feed wodim with dd?

jefro · 02-26-2010, 06:04 PM

Your solution would be to use some form or compression I would think as in your cram or squash. Most of the live cd guides tell how to make the compressed file but that can be later used live or to be mounted on a running system.
Something using mkcramfs piped in to the cd tools.

I would not try to use the disk in a new format or raw.

You are almost stuck with the iso standard if you want any support hardware. Some drives are pretty hard coded to only work in one manner.

hda7 · 02-27-2010, 08:25 PM

I suppose the iso9660 overhead is probably rather small for one file. I could probably deal with making a compressed filesystem of my files, and putting that file on a normal cd. Then at least the cd would be portable (though each system would still have to have a driver for the compressed filesystem). I just want to minimize the overhead of putting a bunch of compressed files on a cd.