Create OpenBSD and Slackware ISOs

Some people try to hate Microsoft and pretend their operating systems and software don't exist. If you're like me, you've still got at least one machine with Windows still on it, whether you paid for Windows or pirated it from someone else.

Problem
I spend most of my time in Windows for work. I downloaded OpenBSD 3.2-beta, but I didn't want to make a boot floppy disk. I have plenty of CD-Rs and 3 burners, all attached to Windows machines. How am I going to make a bootable OpenBSD CD so I can have something to play with until I can order the official 3.2 release CD?

Solution
Believe it or not, making a bootable ISO in Windows is exactly the same as in Linux or BSD, thanks to official Windows ports of mkisofs. Just grab a copy of cdrtools from the official cdrecord website or the download directory on this server..

I extracted the cdrtools files to c:\cdrtools.

Then I moved the directories I wanted to burn to CD to c:\openbsd creating a structure like the following:

c:\openbsd
    3.2/
        ftplist
        ports.tar.gz
        I386/
            base32.tgz
            bsd
            bsd.rd
            cdrom32.fs
            CKSUM
            comp32.tgz
            etc32.tgz
            floppy32.fs
            ...

Then here's what you need to do to make the ISO file:

Start menu > Run...
(run `command` for Win95\98\ME or `cmd` for NT\2k\XP)

cd c:\
cd openbsd
c:\cdrtools\mkisofs
    -v
    -r
    -T
    -l
    -L
    -J
    -V "OpenBSD3.2-beta"
    -b 3.2/I386/cdrom32.fs
    -c boot.catalog
    -o c:/OpenBSD3.2-beta.iso
    -A "OpenBSD 3.2-beta Install"
    .

The period at the end is necessary.

When the ISO is done, I use Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 to burn it. If you don't have it, cdrecord is in the cdrtools distribution. I haven't tried it, but mkisofs works, so cdrecord probably does too.

Another Example

For linux, I like Slackware. The process is almost the same, except the boot image for slackware has special needs (see README in isolinux). I downloaded Slackware 9.0 beta from slackware-current and wanted a bootable CD. Here's my directory layout:

c:\slack
    bootdisks/
        adaptec.s
        bare.i
        ibmmca.s
        jfs.s
        ...
    BOOTING.TXT
    Changelog.txt
    CHECKSUMS
    CHECKSUMS.md5
    COPYING
    COPYRIGHT.TXT
    CRYPTO_NOTICE.TXT
    CURRENT.WARNING
    FAQ.TXT
    FILELIST.TXT
    isolinux/
        f2.txt
        f3.txt
        initrd.img
        iso.sort
        ...
    kernels/
        adaptec.s/
        bare.i/
        ibmmca.s/
        ...
    PACKAGES.TXT
    PRERELEASE_NOTES
    README81.TXT
    rootdisks/
        install.1
        install.2
        install.3
        ...
    slackware/
        a/
        ap/
        d/
        e/
        f/
        gnome/
        k/
        l/
        n/
        t/
        tcl/
        x/
        xap/
        y/
        CHECKSUMS
        CHECKSUMS.md5
        FILE_LIST
        MANIFEST.gz
        README.TXT
    Slackware-HOWTO
    SPEAK_INSTALL.TXT
    SPEAKUP_DOCS.TXT
    UPGRADE.TXT

I didn't list kde and kdei in the slackware directory on purpose. You can't fit all of Slackware on one CD, so I removed KDE since I prefer Gnome.

Start menu > Run...
(run `command` for Win95\98\ME or `cmd` for NT\2k\XP)

cd c:\
cd slack
c:\cdrtools\mkisofs
    -R
    -J
    -v
    -T
    -d
    -N
    -l
    -L
    -o c:/slackware9.0.iso
    -V "Slackware Install"
    -hide-rr-moved
    -no-emul-boot
    -boot-load-size 32
    -boot-info-table
    -sort isolinux/iso.sort
    -b isolinux/isolinux.bin
    -c isolinux.isolinux.boot
    -A "Slackware Install CD"
    .

or if you were to burn Harry Potter, you might do this: