How to Manually Edit an ISO image before burning it to CD

[CatDude]

Hi

In a recent thread kattman asked:

Is there anyway i can add a few "Pets" to the live puppy cd before I burn it.
I see that puppy will mount a iso and let me view and extract files, but I would like to add a "pet" are two. ie: wifi driver, devx.sfs,...

What follows is my reply, copied here at the request of Flash.

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You could do it manually.

Create a directory (in this example i used testcd)
Now copy ALL of the files from whatever Puppy ISO you are going to use, EXCEPT the file boot.cat into that directory
you can now add the .pets and .sfs files of your choice.

If you look at new-iso-contents.png you will see that i added another directory for the .pets,
but just put the added .sfs files openoffice3.2-sfs4.sfs & devx_431.sfs in with the rest of the files

Now run the following command from the directory containing the testcd directory: (in this example that is /mnt/hdb5)

mkisofs -D -R -o mypuplet-431.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table testcd

Where mypuplet-431.iso is the name i gave the new ISO, and testcd is the directory containing all the files.

Image the-new-iso.png shows the new ISO after running the above command.
Image new-iso-in-qemu.png shows the new CD mounted while running Live in QEMU.

Hope this helps
CatDude
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[amigo]

isomaster allows you to 'edit' an isoimage.

[CatDude]

Hello amigo

isomaster allows you to 'edit' an isoimage.

Yes i know, but i thought i would show that it is just as easy to do it manually.

CatDude
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[emil]

Hello Catdude,

I have a question about the usage of additional sfs packages.
If you add them to the ISO I assume you will still have to add them manually in the bootconfig menu. Is there any possibility to autoload them during first boot, i.e. for a life CD?

thanks
emil

[Aitch]

Thanks Catdude

& to Flash for the suggestion!

You're bound to get follow-ups on this How To

Most folks don't realise about tailoring an ISO for a particular piece of hardware, for example - I'm sure many wifi problems could be fixed this way, until the kernel supports some more wifi devices

Aitch

[nooby]

I don't want to hog the thread.

I also want to learn this.

Can puppy only take apart puppy isos or any linux iso and put it together again?

Somebody recommended remastersys and another wrote that he stopped using linux alltogether because the damage that program made him so if puppy is safer I will use that one.

[CatDude]

Hello emil

If you add them to the ISO I assume you will still have to add them manually in the bootconfig menu. Is there any possibility to autoload them during first boot, i.e. for a life CD?

Well i just did a quick test, and added a few .sfs files to the choicepup-4.1.2minV2-k2.6.25.16.iso
i then booted the edited ISO in QEMU (using puppy pfix=ram), then when at the desktop i mounted the CD and did as suggested by jrb Here

....However, in ChoicePup you do not have to have a /mnt/home to use .sfs files. If you have them downloaded you can open ROX, find the .sfs file, right click on it. Go to OpenWith->load_sfs and click. The .sfs file will be loaded and useable. You can then start them from the menu or desktop icon. Doing it this way means you will have to do it again after a reboot.

I managed to load up both: openoffice3.2-sfs3.sfs and xnviewMP-sfs3.sfs
doing this does mean that the CD drive is tied up though.

The attached images show the contents of the edited ISO as seen mounted in QEMU choicepup1.jpg
and both of the above applications loaded up choicepup2.jpg

So it may be worth you investigating ChoicePup


@ Aitch

Thanks Catdude

& to Flash for the suggestion!

No problem mate, i was just explaining how it could be done manually, that's all.

All the best
CatDude
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[emil]

Hello Catdude,

thx for quick answer - Hm, I can see that Choicepup uses the script
load_sfs. I came across that script earlier. If this works it should be possible to put a script in your startup directory which reads like

Code: Select all

#/bin/bash!
load_sfs foo.sfs
load_sfs bar.sfs

this should autoload the foo.sfs and bar.sfs at startup, without the need to klick on them. Has anybody tried something similar?

emil

[Flash]

Nooby,

An iso is an iso. I'm pretty sure that CatDude's general instructions will work on any iso. The parts that are specific to Puppy might not.

[potong]

When playing with VirtualBox I found that remastering a puppy iso to include devx, kernel sources and virtualbox additions iso a good way to get all that you need at hand.

Before I would either download the stuff from the internet again or have to set up ssh to get the files from the host.

This way everything ones needs is on the virtual cd drive.

Potong

[nooby]

Nooby,

An iso is an iso. I'm pretty sure that CatDude's general instructions will work on any iso. The parts that are specific to Puppy might not.

Thanks Flash! That would be nice so now I only need to learn and practice again and again.

[nancy reagan]

If - making your own iso is so simple why are there always probs with new derivatives made by experts ?

[nooby]

It could be easy seen from some perspective and very difficult from another perspective.

The manual steps you have to do can be easy to learn to do. You could even write a script to do them. so that part is easy

What to include in the iso and in what order logistically and which modules that work together compatibly are the very difficult thing maybe.

One guy wrote in a thread that is very difficult to be a pet maker.

Most likely it was playdays in thread abiut pets with firefox or other browsers as pets.

That is how I remember it.

[CatDude]

Hello nancy reagan

If - making your own iso is so simple why are there always probs with new derivatives made by experts ?

I think derivatives involve quite a bit more than what this howto covers.

The instructions above basically just take the contents from an already existing ISO and put them into a temporary directory,
allowing one to add any extra files (for example: .pets or .sfs) before wrapping it all back up again prior to burning a CD.
Here is the Original Posters request:

Is there anyway i can add a few "Pets" to the live puppy cd before I burn it.
I see that puppy will mount a iso and let me view and extract files, but I would like to add a "pet" are two. ie: wifi driver, devx.sfs,...

CatDude
.

[gcmartin]

In the first entry in this post, @catdude shares the following command:

mkisofs -D -R -o mypuplet-431.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table testcd

• Is there something missing here?
  Where does the command mkisofs get isolinux.bin and boot.cat from?

I'm new to ISO editing and re-making so I missed the part about boot.cat and isolinux.bin so that mkisofs could find and use them.

Help, please.

[technosaurus]

I finally found a version of isomaster where everything worked and wrote this tutorial to do a full manual remaster using only GUI tools

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=53241

all you need is a running puppy and an existing iso

[CatDude]

Hello gcmartin

Is there something missing here?

I don't think so

Where does the command mkisofs get isolinux.bin and boot.cat from?

Well then, if you read what i posted,
you will see that i said:

Create a directory (in this example i used testcd)
Now copy ALL of the files from whatever Puppy ISO you are going to use, EXCEPT the file boot.cat into that directory

and if you also look at the first image i posted new-iso-contents.png
you will see that the file isolinux.bin is there (the green one).
It is one of the files from the ISO we copied the files from.

As for the boot.cat file, that is created when the mkisofs command is run, and will be inside of the new ISO.
You can see this for yourself by looking at the third image i posted new-iso-in-qemu.png

Hope this helps
CatDude
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