Here's my doubt, if I wanted to build up some freeware windows software on Linux, how would I do it? I wanted to build to myself a combination between parted magic (which now is paid) and hiren's boot software (now hiren's is build is old by internet standarts), hiren's managed to install some linux software on windows, here's the link: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd , I want to do the reverse build windows software on a ubuntu livecd, and its specially troubled with software that runs on dos, because I have no idea how to use wine to build dos software.

If you could help me I would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

You could try using VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/, which is available in the Ubuntu repositories.

But what's the point in doing this? If you want to develop Windows software, why not use Windows?

No, allow me to explain, I want to compile software in a cd, but some of that software, such as bios software only work in the lines of msdos, other software is superior to what we find on linux, example I find Recuva for windows much superior to photorec (at least with Recuva I can sort out my lost files by the original name), understand? There is some tools I just find superior, and those tools are not availabe on Linux.

Confusing. You want to port Windows software to Linux? You need sources for that.

These guys were able to do this list of software: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd on their bootcd, some of which is exclusive to Linux, so I guess its easier to port linux software to windows than the reverse? As far as I know, WINE does a pretty good job with reverse engineering some windows software, even in software much more complex than that. Would it be too "far stretched"? (Am I using this expression right?) Anyhow what you mean is: "no source, no game" in a live cd even with Wine?

1 members found this post helpful.

They even found a way to port/emulate parted magic on their cd.

Isn't Parted Magic a special-purpose Linux distribution? As such, it doesn't need porting to Windows. You can boot it on any compatible computer regardless of whether the computer normally ran Windows, Linux or something else.

I'm not saying I want to do it with parted magic, I'm just asking if it is possible to run simples msdos programs on Ubuntu live cd, and if so how.

My answer to that would be no. I'm not a programmer so maybe someone with a little more knowledge will have more details. I'm like the other members above and don't really understand what you want to accomplish. Are you first of all referring to an Ubuntu on a DVD or flash drive and just using the term "Live CD" in the generic sense since Ubuntu is too large to fit on a CD.

You could use a flash drive, simply copy the Ubuntu iso to a partition on the flash drive, install Grub to the MBR of the drive and create a grub.cfg file to boot it. You can use unetbootin to install the extracted HBCD iso to another partition on the flash drive and chainload the HBCD from Grub2. You could then boot either but from your posts, I'm not sure that is what you want?

Ok I understand what you say. But I will make myself clear, I will use capslock for emphasys its easier (I'm not shouting): What I want is TO PICK UP A UBUNTU LIVE CD (OR ANY LINUX LIVE CD, deb just makes this easier to me, because I WANT TO HAVE A COMPILATION OF BOTH LINUX AND FREE WINDOWS/DOS PROGRAMS ON THAT CD, so I can use them. And I WAS ASKING IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO USE WINE OR ANY OTHER WAY TO EMULATE THOSE FREE PROGRAMS ON THE CD. Again sorry for the capslock, but it was just to make myself clear.
For what I understood the answer is no, and I thank you all for this. I was just trying to make myself clear in the process.

What he is trying to describe is a Linux CD that has a special selection of programs to run: some linux and some dos/windows.

To the OP:
The linux programs are not an issue, you will be running them in the environment for which they were made.
If you have Windows portable programs, wine may be able to run them without installation using a command-line.
DOS programs may run under DOSBOX or DOS-EMU well enough for your purposes.

About the difficulty relationship: Linux programs are mostly open source, and are MADE to port easily. Windows programs (and more DOS programs) are mostly proprietary, protected, difficult or illegal to port, and may be illegal to run on Linux even if it is technically easy. Better check the license agreements before you share anything unless you really enjoy going to court!

Personally, for DOS programs I run a FreeDOS cd with my programs installed. Exception being some games that use sound, that actually run BETTER under Linux using DOSBOX than they do under native DOS.

What you want can be done. If you have a reasonable selection of applications it may even be fairly easy. I cannot recommend the project for any applications that are difficult to port or run this way, your time would be better spent finding or creating a replacement linux application for that purpose.

Without a complete list of the applications and versions, we cannot help much. WITH such a list you should not expect very detailed help: it could be dozens (or hundreds, depending) of man hours for which WE are not being paid! What you SHOULD expect is that you can make progress on the project, and get some targeted help here when you run into a moe specific blockage or issue.

Some targeted advice for RIGHT NOW:
1. why ubuntu? The point here is the PROGRAM, not the OS. A lighter/smaller OS that would allow you to implement a menu of startup commands for the applications you need would seem optimal, and could be made to fit better. Projects like TinyCore, DSL, and Puppy come to mind. Even something like a minimal live debian live-cd project would be better than some heavy full desktop monster.

2. As you progress, run your tests from a USB key. Cheap and no more than 2G (the largest size that you might actually burn to a CD) so that you can re-write the image and test changes and additions without additional expense.

3. Get familiar with the tools. Search for dos emulation, read up on wine, and examine what is available (and what others have already done) that involves implementing a DOS or Windows application on Linux. This problem is not new, has been solved MANY times, and a few of the solutions still apply. (Some have gone extinct, replaced by something better.)

4. Have fun. I hang a pillow on the wall near my desk for head-banging without pain. Sometimes you seem to be making no progress, when what you are really doing is priming your brain. Keeping your humor is ALWAYS more productive than frustration.

PS: added later. Where possible, go for 'portable' applications.
In Linux these are static compiled with few or no external dependencies, allowing them to run properly under more conditions.
In DOS this is the norm.
Under Windows this is slightly more difficult, but many applications are available in portable form. This generally removes requirements to install and makes all cricital libraries (if any) available in the same folder.

Portable avoids a whole SLEW of issues, but is not recommended for most HD installed applications due to security complications. (you cannot upgrade a dependent library to solve a vulnerability if the app is static compiled against a vulnerable version and not loading the updated. Not a real issue for CD loaded apps that live on read-only media.)

1 members found this post helpful.

the expression is far fetched but somehow far stretched sounds better so i am going to say it that way from now on.

not really following the thread but what i know of bios is that no os is really running (no windows, linux, mac, bsd, ...) until the bios/efi passes control to a kernel.

i'm not sure but some of the live-cd's you mention are probably booting a linux kernel and running gnu/linux programs.

else if they are running windows nt-kernel, maybe since most gnu/linux software is open-source it is legally possible for them to include in their package and assuming they also provide source-code it is much simpler to edit the source-code to run on windows. since most proprietary software is not open-source, you must abide by their eula and probably crack into their web-site in order to steal source-code (much harder to do).

edit: according to wikipedia, hirens boot cd is based on knoppix linux:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren27s_BootCDa simple hello world type program should work via wine. my experience running 3-d games thru wine is mostly problematic. maybe check here for compatibility with your programs:
https://appdb.winehq.org/

final thought: its hard enough to force windows programs to run in linux (even booting normally (i.e.- without a live-usb).

Like Hirens BootCD which he mentions in the initial post. Never used it myself but took a look at it and the link the OP posted in his initial post is basically a list of a variety of software, some windows, some Linux so I think what he wants is to be able to add more programs? Using one of the lighter versions of Ubuntu might be better as suggested or using Knoppix, either as a Live CD on a flash drive with persistence would seem to be easier. Using Knoppix might be better as it has a lot more tools in a default installation then most general Linux systems. As suggested above, more details on specific programs you want to use might help those a little more familiar with this to help you.

^ got me thinking, i wonder if hirems boot cd has 2 partitions (1 for windows programs and another for linux).

how does the cd work. does it bring up a grub menu and one selects the program they want to run. i assume then the boot loader chainloads to either initrd or win386.sys depending on if the user selected a linux or windows function ?

No, one partition. Running ls command on the / of the system outputs directories/files shown below. It was created using unetbootin as you can see by the file names:

It boots with syslinux and all the options (14 total entries) are in syslinux.cfg which contains menuentries for Grub4Dos and plop boot mgr. Selecting the Grub4Dos menu gets all the same entries from syslinux plus quite a few options to boot from different partition on hard drives.

1 members found this post helpful.