Linux Boot Disk/Windows Multimedia CD Hybrid?

[bstamand]

Okay, here is my problem: what I want to do is make a Linux Rescue Disk that is Linux Bootable, but at the same time, I want to be able to include other files on the cd, which are able to run in Windows (autorun.inf, as well as an exe with multimedia display and interaction) My question is: Is this possible, and how would I create and burn a cd with all these files and have it Linux Bootable?

[mdwatts]

Possible? Probably

How? With lots of research, unless someone here knows offhand.

[bstamand]

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a shot. If anyone does know off hand, please let me know, I mean, research is great, but it's even better if someone else already did all of it. hehe. Anyway, thanks a lot.

[mdwatts]

I doubt that many have attempted to do this, hence the reason I suggested doing the research. It could be possible, but I really wouldn't know where to start.

Perhaps create both images on your HD and then merge the two together and burn the CD from it. Just ensure the filenames in the root directory from either do not use the same names. Just a guess.

Good luck.

[demian]

While I understand and appreciate that it would be a challange to try this I'm just curious: Why do you bother; I mean a CD costs about .50$. So why not just make two...?

[Nailz]

For starters, go to linuxcare.com. They have a bootable cd with a scaled down linux distribution on it. Its fairly basic, but great for recovery. The .iso image can be easily extracted and burned onto a cd using Adaptec EZ CD Creator. Approx. 120 MB I think.

That gives you over 500MB to dedicate to other apps. The autorun.inf is easy enough, but the trick will be developing the Gui interface to launch/install any other apps that you have on the CD. Create a directory structure at the root of the CD (winapps for example) and leave the setup.exe and autorun.inf at the root. The Autorun will, simply enough, can just contain the following:

[autorun]
OPEN=SETUP.EXE

##This is assuming that you entitle the setup program SETUP.EXE

You can also include a .bmp to be launched as the background image, an .ini file to hold specific settings/messages/etc.

I have a linuxcare cd that I keep handy and I have a /DIST CD which contains a ton of Windows Apps that I use. I was thinking about setting up GUI interface to choose/install the apps, but haven't yet. Closest I came was creating WISE install of a few specific apps that I always install (winzip, ws-ftp, winrar, ACDSee, winamp, etc.)

Let me know if you make any headway....


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