[vox-tech] burning opencd & venting

[Peter Jay Salzman]

On Thu 29 Apr 04,  9:58 AM, Jimbo <evesautomotive@charter.net> said:
>    Hello again:
>    I have d/l opencd because the graphics on their web site are delightful.
>     
>    Anyway...I tried to open it in windoes before burning it but was unable. 
>    Is this a bootable disk?  I don't understand. Do I have to modify this
>    .ico file somehow?
     
jim, you probably downloaded an iso file, not a .ico file.


an iso file is like a mini filesystem, along with files in that
filesystem, wrapped up in a single file.  it's kind of like tar, zip, or
ar, but it's much more than that.  you can unzip a zip archive into any
filesystem.  an iso is already a filesystem.

you CAN view iso files under linux:

   mount -o loop ./opencd.iso /mnt

and you can take a look at what's in opencd.iso in /mnt.

if you MUST, you can also view iso files in windows.  there's a nice
utility called undisker that lets you mount an iso file as a separate
partition.  or hard drive.  or whatever microsoft calls them.  it's a
single letter, like "C:" or "D:".  i hear many MS windows people talk
about these things as hard drives, but as i understand them, they're
more accurately called partitions.

anyway, whether you view iso files in linux or windows, you can only
view them read only.  try and try as you might, you have to recreate
them if you want to modify them.  going with the linux example:

   # make a directory to hold the new image
   mkdir ~/newiso

   # copy all the old stuff into the directory, assuming you
   # loop mounted the old iso, as above.
   cp -a /mnt/* ~/newiso

   # create a new file
   touch ~/newiso/a_new_file

   # make the new iso image
   mkisofs -r -J ~/newiso > newiso.iso

   # unmount the old image
   umount /mnt

   # mount the new image
   mount ~/newiso.iso /mnt


>    I want to add this disk to my brother-in-laws computer that I am
>    building as well as check it out myself.
>     
>    I don't want someone to just give me a disk, I want to learn how to do
>    these things myself.  It would be so easy to get a cd but I like the
>    pleasure of bashing my head against my keyboard to see how good it feels
>    when I stop.  That's why I'm still experimenting with Linux.

whether you use undisker or linux tools, one of the really nice things
about iso's that most people just "don't get" is that you DON'T have to
burn them to a CD to use them, although that's what they were intended
for, and it's the most common way to use them.

once you loop mount them (i'm sure undisker essentially works the same
way), just run setup from the image.

so in the case of windows, mount the iso as your "Z" drive, or whatever,
click: My Computer | Z | mozilla and double click the "setup.exe" icon.

99% of the time you don't have to burn to disk.  the only time you need
to burn the iso to disk is if a setup program requires the writing of a
file in its current directory (as opposed to some temp directory
elsewhere on the hard drive).  this should be viewed as a BUG.  setup
programs should not do this.  not even under windows.


however, if none of this made sense, the easiest thing to do is to burn
the .iso file to a CD.

>    Got nuthin to do?  Come on over!  I have some ice cold coronas in the
>    fridge.  Bring some lime.  My vacation is relaxing but oh so boring. 
>    Couldn't take vacation with my wife this year, mother-in-law staying with
>    us. Sweet.

anything to get a ticket back to california...  ;)

pete

-- 
Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.  -- Albert Einstein
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