Linux 20 in 1 Multiboot DVD

Latest News UPDATE!!!

 The links have been posted in my blog post found here;
http://tazbuntu.blogspot.com/2009/12/linux-20-in-1-multi-boot-has-arrived.html

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

That's right! A 20 in 1 Linux Multi-Boot DVD. I'm putting the final touches on it right now.
I've packed in a lot of goodies and added a custom menu and sub menus. I've learned some new techniques since making the last multi-boot DVD.

I bet everyone thought I was dead or this blog was dead. Far from it! I have much more to add in the near future. I got the urge to create one of the largest (in terms of distros) multiboot DVD's and I was spending all my free time on it. Now that it's finished, I can continue adding other goodies to my blog.

Now for the technical portion and specifics. I will be uploading the links to Rapidhare. Expect to see them within 5 or 6 days. I have a few people still testing it and I won't upload it until I get thumbs up across the board. There will be 40 files. 39 of them will be 100 Mb and the last one is 65 Mb.

As for the distro list? Here you go;
Mint 6, Knoppix 5, Slax, Feather, DSL, Puppy, Astrumi, Slitaz, TinyMe, Tiny Core, Backtrack, xpud, antiX, NimbleX, Insert, NetBoot, Clonezilla, NT Password Recovery, MemTest, Free Dos.

That's a lot of computing power packed into one DVD. I decided to use Knoppix 5 rather then the newer releases as version 5 packs more software into it then the newer versions. Most of the other distros are the newest releases. I tried staying away from versions that were beta or 'cutting edge' as I wanted a stable DVD.

I'm including 2 screenshots of the main menu. When I post the links for the DVD I will also include a few screenshots of the sub-menus.
Here is the main menu layout. Had to do 2 screenshots because I used isolinux for my menu config and not all the distros fit in the window. You need to scroll up and down using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

    

   

I will add a post with the links to this DVD in 5 or 6 days. It will take some time to upload all the files as my ISP has serious issues with allowing us paying users to have more then a few 100k in upload speeds.

Hope I'm not the only person excited about this DVD.
LOL!!

UPDATE!!!!!

This project is on hold until I can sort out some of the issues I have encountered in Mint and Karmic Koala. Those issues being file permissions being changed to root during the burning with k3b and problems with checksums and the inability to create a proper iso file due to the "the size can't be determined" bug I have encountered in Karmic.

Thank you for your interest and patience during this time. I am working on getting this completed as soon as possible.
 
TaZMAn

Multiboot Linux Cd And Automake Script Download

I have been asked numerous times about providing download links to some of my multiboot disks I have made. Unfortunately, they are all over 4 gigs as they contain 8 or more distros on them and my upload speeds make that type of upload almost impossible.

So I put together a small multiboot Cd that will provide you with Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux and Memtest.
The total size is 136 megs and is split into 2 rar files (Using the script in my previous post) and is available via the 2 Rapidshare links.

MultiCd Part 1 75 Megs
http://rapidshare.com/files/161640669/multicd.iso-Split_RAR-75Megabyte_s_.part1.rar

MultiCd Part 2 61 Megs
http://rapidshare.com/files/161640671/multicd.iso-Split_RAR-75Megabyte_s_.part2.rar

Not only do you have a small Iso file but it contains 2 fully functional Linux systems and a utility to test your Ram! Also, both are very small and fast and will work on older, slower systems with minimal Ram and hardware.

It will also help you to see how a multiboot Cd is made although I have a confession to make.
Every other multiboot disk I have ever made was created by me from scratch. I did all the tedious editting and creating both the loader and menu.

But then I found a forum post that has a script to make multiboot disks.
It supports many distros and even a WinPE compilation.
There is a slight bug however that doesn't seem to affect the final Iso.
It has to do with the genisoimage version 1.1.6
I get an error that it expected a certain value but gets a different value.
No matter. I leave it run and it usually finishes with a working Iso.

But I have had the occasional tests where the script failed after getting that error.
It is a known bug when dealing with genisoimage version 1.1.6
If you use an older version you have no problems.
I must express the fact that the genisoimage bug is not due to itself but rather the way scripts are trying to use genisoimage.

Another con of this script is that it allows a limited choice of Linux distros.
The creator of the script has done a remarkable job of adding many distros but there are some good ones missing.
Also, because many distros use the same kernel you have to be careful of which versions you add into your compilation.

Examples would be Damn Small Linux and Knoppix. They both use the Knoppix kernel. Because the kernel of each Distro needs to be in the root path of the Cd and they are named the same you can't use both on a Cd unless you do custom editting of the files needed to boot up a renamed kernel.

But other then that it does a good job of creating multiboot Iso's.

The forum post can be found here;
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=718016

And the script file can be found on this page;
http://multicd.tuxfamily.org/

I strongly suggest you read all the pages in the forum post and the page at tuxfamily to understand how this script is used.

Enjoy!!

TaZMAn

P.S. I hope a few thank you's are in order.