New project but iso is too big

**belyi** · 03-01-2005, 04:33 AM

Ok, this way solution becomes even quicker and dirtier.

The new minirt26.gz is here: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/new-minirt26.gz
It has new linuxrc with the following difference: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/linuxrc-append.patch and an utility to check if CD/DVD contains more than one filesystem: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/fssize.c

You prepare new ISO image from the old one as following (using zsh):
1. Mount the old image
mount -o loop KNOPPIX-3.7.iso /mnt/src

2. Create filesystem containing compressed KNOPPIX. It looks like 0.25% extra for file system overhead should be enough.
size=$(du -ks /mnt/src/KNOPPIX)
size=$((($size + $size/400)/1024))
dd if=/dev/zero of=KNOPPIX-suffix.iso bs=1M count=$size
mke2fs -F -m 0 -T largefile4 KNOPPIX-suffix.iso
mount -o loop KNOPPIX-suffix.iso /mnt/root
rsync -a --exclude boot /mnt/src/ /mnt/root
umount /mnt/root

3. Create a bootable image in ISO without big compressed KNOPPIX file.
rsync -a --exclude=KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX /mnt/src/ newimage
cp new-minirt26.gz newimage/boot/isolinux/minirt26.gz
mkisofs -pad -l -r -J -v -V "KNOPPIX" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -hide-rr-moved -o KNOPPIX-prefix.iso newimage

4. Concatenate them and burn the result image on CD.
cat KNOPPIX-prefix.iso KNOPPIX-suffix.iso > KNOPPIX-full.iso

Note1: You don't have to copy text files in both prefix and suffix images but you would want to modify linuxrc even more to find them in the other part of the image.
Note2: when cloop is taught to read from a block device instead of a file the solution will be much cleaner - suffix image won't need to have filesystem overhead, plus you would be able to avoid using driver mapper altogether which will make the solution portable for Linux 2.4 as well.

Cheers,
Igor

**lilsirecho** · 03-01-2005, 05:47 AM

Belyi;

Mighty fine info and will have much to try with that setup.

I am sure others are interested as well!

**lilsirecho** · 03-01-2005, 05:53 AM

Chris-uk;

Downloaded your Knoppix3.7 w/qemu. Took four hours...Burned to CD ok and loads Linux2.4 by default.

Please advise as to whether 2.6 option is included.

I haven't been able to boot 2.6. If I recall correctly, 3.7 Knoppix has to have 2.6 capability...not found!?

Any special words on this?

Second item...downloading the DVD began at 50KiB/s but after 500MB download speed went to 3KiB and the upload to 15kiB/s. This means around 5 days more in download time.

Is this normal?

**lilsirecho** · 03-01-2005, 06:17 AM

Chris-uk.....
Following examination of the /boot/isolinux file i find that your download has no minirt26.gz file.

It isn't Knoppix3.7 without minirt26.gz!!

You really should make this clear to users in the index!!

Bittorrent doesn't perform well without a lot of participants!!!

Linux tracker has one participant and three leeches!

Gotta move on!

**chris-uk** · 03-01-2005, 08:22 AM

The 'windows boot kit' requires an extra copy of the vmlinuz and initrd, as well as a megabyte or so for QEMU. Adding those to the Knoppix 3.7 CD caused it to overflow the standard size for a CD ... it would work fine on a DVD, but that's not convenient for everyone either. So I took off the 2.6 kernel and initrd.

Linux 2.6 is set up by default for HZ=1000, i.e. 1000 timer ticks per second. Running this in emulation with QEMU is hard, and I haven't got into rebuilding kernels yet. This means that 2.4 kernels are rather more practical under QEMU. If you'd like to try a 2.6 kernel, there's always 'SuSE-for-Windows', 'Warty-for-Windows', and 'Kanotix-for-Windows'. And there was space on 'knosciences-for-windows', so that has 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.

Besides, running under Windows doesn't really need the extras that a 2.6 kernel brings.

You're welcome to take what I did and improve on it ... for example, you can put back the missing files (into the 'qemu*/bootcd.iso' as well as in the boot directory) and remaster onto a DVD, or try overburning a CD ... I have done nothing to stop you, and it should work perfectly well.

You also know the solution to 'not enough seeds'. I'm doing all I can !

**lilsirecho** · 03-01-2005, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by belyi

Ok, this way solution becomes even quicker and dirtier.

The new minirt26.gz is here: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/new-minirt26.gz
It has new linuxrc with the following difference: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/linuxrc-append.patch and an utility to check if CD/DVD contains more than one filesystem: ftp://belyi.ac93.org/pub/KNOPPIX/fssize.c

You prepare new ISO image from the old one as following (using zsh):
1. Mount the old image
mount -o loop KNOPPIX-3.7.iso /mnt/src

2. Create filesystem containing compressed KNOPPIX. It looks like 0.25% extra for file system overhead should be enough.
size=$(du -ks /mnt/src/KNOPPIX)
size=$((($size + $size/400)/1024))
dd if=/dev/zero of=KNOPPIX-suffix.iso bs=1M count=$size
mke2fs -F -m 0 -T largefile4 KNOPPIX-suffix.iso
mount -o loop KNOPPIX-suffix.iso /mnt/root
rsync -a --exclude boot /mnt/src/ /mnt/root
umount /mnt/root

3. Create a bootable image in ISO without big compressed KNOPPIX file.
rsync -a --exclude=KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX /mnt/src/ newimage
cp new-minirt26.gz newimage/boot/isolinux/minirt26.gz
mkisofs -pad -l -r -J -v -V "KNOPPIX" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -hide-rr-moved -o KNOPPIX-prefix.iso newimage

4. Concatenate them and burn the result image on CD.
cat KNOPPIX-prefix.iso KNOPPIX-suffix.iso > KNOPPIX-full.iso

I suggest that the burn of the image is to a DVD disc rather than CD..............................................

Note1: You don't have to copy text files in both prefix and suffix images but you would want to modify linuxrc even more to find them in the other part of the image.
Note2: when cloop is taught to read from a block device instead of a file the solution will be much cleaner - suffix image won't need to have filesystem overhead, plus you would be able to avoid using driver mapper altogether which will make the solution portable for Linux 2.4 as well.

Cheers,
Igor

================================================== ================================================== =========================================

A minor comment to step4 inserted.

**lilsirecho** · 03-01-2005, 09:06 PM

Belyi;

Suppose I copy the KnoppixDVD I have into a file called DVD. This will provide all of the contents of the DVD including the compressed files as well as plain text.

Can I not apply the procedures you outline on the available files in the DVD file and thusly replace the minirt26.gz with the new minirt26.gz. I don't know whether the outlined procedure you have provided just addresses the 2.6 kernel. The original DVD has both 2.4 and 2.6 kernel options and are present in the DVD file. I appreciate that other changes are needed in addition to the new minirt and hopefully can be accomplished using the DVD files.

This approach to making changes to the DVD has permitted me to change minirt26.gz to enable toram loading of the DVD. Actually, I exchanged the DVD version of minirt26.gz for the CD version with a change in linuxrc to permit 3GB ram. (Yes, the minirt26.gz from the CD)

Since your procedure addresses only minirt26.gz, I conclude it generates a DVD with just kernel2.6 available. This result is OK.

I perform the changes needed in other than Knoppix or debian OS'es. Actually do my changes in archlinuxOS.

If there is a way to split the DVD Knoppix with the prefix and suffix .iso using the DVD file I described, I would be able to build on that experience to produce a larger DVD burn, one not limited to 2GB. Thus, the use of the DVD file would be an alternate method.

If it isn't possible, just say no!!!

**chris-uk** · 03-01-2005, 10:17 PM

I have 32 kilobytes/second of uplink capacity, currently attempting to seed 11 'Linux-for-Windows' CDs and 1 'Linux-for-Windows' DVD.
At the moment, about 12 kilobytes/second is going to 2 people trying to take DVDs, and they're about 30% through; but how long it will take depends on what other demand there is, and whether anyone else chips in bandwidth to help.
It will get there eventually. I can leave it 'up' for quite a while.

**rabinhood** · 03-02-2005, 09:06 AM

I'm alone to work to steam server project DVD. Use more than one filesystem is interesting but I't too busy work. If it's not possibile now to make a dvd with a large iso size I made 2 different version, one for cs server and one with dm2 version.

**belyi** · 03-02-2005, 03:02 PM

Lilsirecho,

Sorry, I didn't quite understand what you are asking.

minirt26.gz is used only when you start knoppix with 2.6 kernel and since minirt24.gz is not changed starting kernel 2.4 will cause it to look for compressed image in a previous location - in ISO image itself. I just updated the new-minirt26.gz file so that it will first look for the second filesystem and if compressed KNOPPIX image is not there it will look in the old (ISO) location then. This way on DVD you can have one under 2Gb image in ISO for the kernel 2.4 startup and another in your second filesystem for kernel 2.6.

I don't have KnoopixDVD or archlinuxOS to check if there's a difference in linuxrc startup script. Can you give an url for me to try?

On the other hand, if you previously succeeded in using minirt26.gz from a CD for DVD there's a good chance that it will work for 2 filesystem DVD image too. There's nothing special about updates I've made to linuxrc - it just checks that block device reports bigger size than the mounted file system requires. If there's some extra space on the block device provided by CD or DVD it will attempt to mount it with the corresponding offset and check if KNOPPIX image is there. The block device provided by CD and DVD dirvers are the same so this solution is not specific for CD.

I hope this answers your question.
Good luck,
Igor