Software and Applications

[Ethyriel]

So I'm installing Gentoo in a system without broadband or a floppy, and I need to add a couple of PPP related files to the ISO. Does anybody know of a free (preferably GNU) app that will allow me to add files to an ISO and maintain the bootability? Everything I've found either can't add files (ISOBuster), or have save size limits of around 300MB or less without paying $30 (WinISO, UltraISO, MagicISO).

I don't like pirating, but damn... I'm afraid I'm going to have to here. Two files just isn't worth $30.

[Millerboy]

You can use ExtractNow to extract the original ISO and then just make compile a new ISO with the 2 files.

Download ExtractNow from www.download.com

[Ethyriel]

Well, I would do that with IsoBuster or any one of the free trials, but again, I don't have a free program that can build an ISO over 300MB. I would use Nero to burn directly, but it requires that the files either reside in an image file, or on a bootable logical drive.

Thanks anyway
Anyone else?

[Trogdor]

Why do you need it in ISO format?  Seems to me that you could just extract the files, add the two that you need, and then burn the result to a CD.  Sounds like you have Nero, so you should be able to make the CD bootable.  Am I missing something?  Are you trying to install Gentoo from hard drive ISO images, as opposed to burning it to CD-R?

[Ethyriel]

Well because I didn't think Nero was capable without using a bootable image. Then when I looked a little more closely, I discovered it can, but I thought it had requirements I couldn't fulfil (floppy drive). But now that I read a little bit more, I'm seeing that I might be able to do it this way, though I'm still not sure, being a mini Linux system that's booting.

Still though, it would be a lot easier to just add a couple files to the ISO...

[Ethyriel]

Bah, it's not going to work. Linux is case sensitive, and you can have a file named ttys0, and another named ttyS0 in the same directory. That obviously doesn't work under Windows, so I can't extract the ISO.

Any other ideas? Anyone!
Thanks

[Trogdor]

Ew... yeah, that would be a problem.  Are there numerous instances of files with the same name (other than capitalization) in the ISO?  You should be able to extract everything but those files, put the "duplicates" in a different directory, and then perhaps you could create the disc image in Nero and put the files back into the appropriate directories.  Maybe?

With case sensitive filenames, you might just be stuck with doing the work in Linux itself.  Have you looked into Knoppix?  It's a Linux distro that is bootable from a CD, so you can "test drive" Linux without affecting the contents of the hard drive.  I believe that you can also access hard drives as well using it.  Anyway, perhaps you could use a Knoppix CD to boot up Linux, and then if there is a decent CD burning application - I'm not at all sure about this - you could then use that tool with Knoppix to create the Linux ISO that you want.  Rather complicated, I know, but it's at least a thought.  You can get Knoppix here.

[Ethyriel]

Yeah, there were about 15 of them before I finally got sick of pressing 'overwrite' and just cancelled the extraction.

And yes, I have Slackware installed right now (I also have Morphix and Slax live CD's), but I'm by no means a Linux guru yet. Figuring out how to do something in Linux usually takes me about 5 times as much work as in Windows, mostly because about half of the time I have no idea what people are talking about. I've started searching a bit, but haven't come up with much yet.

*sigh* And I had the GRP CD which has both of these packages in my hand just two weeks ago! Unfortunately we had no idea what it was at the time (my friend downloaded it accidently), and we threw it out. Gah, 40 minutes to download a CD, $30 to add the files... it shouldn't be this difficult

[Ethyriel]

Well, I finally gave in and obtained WinISO. Problem is, when I use the 'add file' function, and the ISO's size appears larger on disk, the checksum fails on boot. When I drag and drop the files into the ISO, which leaves the ISO appearing the same size to Windows (but the files are visible to IsoBuster), a modprobe fails upon boot... and fails, and fails, and fails. Apparently it's a very necessary module.

So I'm at a loss, and I think I've over extended the capabilities of Windows tools. Of course, if anybody has any other ideas, or any tips for exploding and rebuilding the ISO in Linux, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for all the input.

[QQQ]

I want to add more size/byte in one file on iso,but how?
is there any iso program to do that?