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Old 03-20-2006, 08:10 PM   #1
timrs
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Partitioning on Non-Hard Drive Things


I've been wondering whether I could partition several things. Could I partition a CD to boot to 2 different things, such as slax and systemrescuecd? Would I be able to partition a standard USB drive?
 
Old 03-20-2006, 08:17 PM   #2
cs-cam
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USB drive yes, CD I don't know because it uses a different kind of filesystem. Run fdisk on a data CD and it'll tell you the device has no partitions which is what makes me unsure. A USB disk on the other hand, just treat it like a normal HD. I installed FreeBSD on my iPod not long ago for kicks
 
Old 03-20-2006, 08:19 PM   #3
ninjabob7
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CD: No. USB: Yes.
A USB drive looks like a normal hard drive to your computer. You could divide it into partitions. A CD, however, can't. It uses (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the ISO9660 filesystem, which is read-only, and it has no partition table. It would be possible to run 2 live cds, however. Maybe you could use a DVD instead and have room for several.
I think the process would look something like this:
  1. Get the first CD you want (say Knoppix)
  2. Make a directory called newcd or whatever
  3. Inside it, make a subdirectory called Knoppix
  4. Copy everything from the Knoppix CD except ISOLinux (someone can help you find the files)
  5. Get the next CD and repeat
  6. Install ISOlinux to the main directory of the CD and create an isolinux.cfg file to boot different CD's.
You can look at the isolinux.cfg file from each original CD to figure out the options. If one uses GRUB, it shouldn't matter. You could also use GRUB on the CD if you can figure out how to install it.
 
Old 03-21-2006, 06:59 PM   #4
timrs
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Thanks, good info. Would it be possible to use a different filesystem on a cd to use partitions?
 
Old 03-21-2006, 07:30 PM   #5
michaelk
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Quote:
Could I partition a CD to boot to 2 different things, such as slax and systemrescuecd?
Yes, but I have never attempted to create one. I do not know how difficult it would be to get slax to run in this case. An example: http://linuxgazette.net/issue85/sipos.html

Quote:
Would it be possible to use a different filesystem on a cd to use partitions?
No.
 
  


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