Using mkcd to make DVD from CDRs, Can't get it to work
 

Hello,

First of I'd like to apologize if this seems to be a question asked before in the forums.
I have used the search function to find and read through other threads concerning making a DVD from the downloaded ISO files.
Basically I need someone to explain a couple of things to me about how to use the "MakeCD" and "mkcd" commands.

I tried to follow the guide on the following homepage:
members.shaw.ca/mandrake/drakx/HTML/section8.html
By following that guide I ended up with a DVD that can boot, and I can partition my harddrive. After that I get an error:

An error occurred
INTERNAL ERROR: No kernel available
MDK::Common::Various::internal_error() called from /usr/bin/perl-install/pkgs.pm:191

(There are more lines in the error message, to save space only the first three lines are presented here)


After some tries where none of the DVDs worked as they should, I tried a different approach.
I made a config file and tried to use "mkcd" instead. Here I didn't even get a DVD ISO to burn to a DVD!?
This is what my config file looks like:

#

10.0

list -k Mandrake/Mandrake/base/pubkey1 1
rpmlist -b Mandrake/Mandrake/RPMS

# download

disc 1 4700m 92DOWNLOAD1 "Installation CD 1 (x86)" "MandrakeLinux9.2-Download-1" -p Mandrakesoft
dir rpms Mandrake/RPMS
generic --synthesis rpms 1
advertising Mandrake/share/advertising/pwp-01.png
installation -o 50,3,0.1 --synthesis -l fr,it,en,de,es -t GuessWhat-download-i586 -i Mandrake/ -d 1/rpms
boot --isolinux isolinux -b isolinux/isolinux.bin --first Mandrake/isolinux -f Mandrake/images/

I have made a folder /cd/Mandrake on my system where I have copied all files from the CDs. All rpm files have been copied to /cd/Mandrake/Mandrake/RPMS.
Do I need to remove some files to get "mkcd" to work?
Is my config file OK?
Am I a total moron? (well, yes I think I am!;) It can't be impossible to make a DVD?!)

Can anyone help me out?
Thanks for taking the time to read this thread.

I can't answer your question directly because I don't use that script but I can show you the steps I use to create an install dvd that works with no problems. (On my system at least).

First, same as on the web page you pointed to, make sure you do the 'urpmi mkcd'. MakeCD is just a way of calling mkcd without having the perl scripts it needs installed on your system. MakeCD uses the scripts on your cd. For some reason MakeCD stopped working (for me) with Mandrake 10 although it worked well in Mandrake 9.2.

Second, mirror the appropriate tree. You can get all 7 cds in the power pack if you do this, not just the three download ones. I'm going to show how I do this for cooker but you can change the tree to official or community if you like. Here is how I do it:

mirrordir -v --no-mtimes --follow-symlinks --exclude-glob RPMS3 ftp://ftp.proxad.net/pub/Distributio...l/cooker/i586/ /mnt/windows/cooker/

I did it this way because I wanted contrib but not the java stuff. You usually need to do this twice or more because the tree often will get updated while you mirror it. (This is for cooker, if you want official once should be enough). You could use wget or another utility if you wanted to.

Ok, next do ls -a in your tmp/ directory and delete the files from previous builds as they might cause errors. (Unless you haven't done a previous build.)

Then, create the iso. Here is my command:

mkcd --discsize 4200m -t /mnt/windows -a -c 1 /mnt/windows/cooker

You don't need to create the iso directory, the script will do it for you. Note that getting alot of error messages from this is normal, especially for cooker. The iso produced will work.

Then just burn the iso using something like k3b.

Also, for additional info, check out the Mandrake developers site .

Hi doug_s,

Thanks for the guide. I now have a working DVD I can use to install Mandrake on my other computers. :-)

When you make a DVD, is it bootable afterwards? I couldn't get mine to boot, I had to use a bootdisk.
I then tried making a DVD (again;)) according to the web page I mentioned in the beginning of this post. And this time I got a DVD image that worked. Must have done something wrong the other day.

Again thanks for the help. I just hope I can help someone too some day. :)