mkbiarch (8) - Linux Manuals

mkbiarch: make a multiple architecture Live boot disk image

NAME

mkbiarch.py - make a multiple architecture Live boot disk image for USB, CF SSD or any disk from 2 architecturally different LiveCD ISO9660 image files.

SYNOPSIS

mkbiarch <LiveCDx86ISO> <LiveCDx64ISO> <MultipleArch Disk IMG File>

DESCRIPTION

mkbiarch(8) create a multiple architecture, bootable Live Disk image file (IMG) for use on USB or any disk (CF, SSD) from 2 LiveCD ISO9660 files of different architecture (ISO).

USAGE

mkbiarch.py Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso Fedora-13-x86_64-Live.iso Fedora-13-MultiArch.img

Then to write it /bin/dd if=Fedora-13-MultiArch.img of=/dev/sdb bs=4M

In the above example, mkbiarch.py creates Fedora-Multi-arch.img from the two existing ISO9660 LiveCD image files. The resulting image file, is written to a raw disk device using dd(1)

UNDER THE HOOD

mkbiarch.py(8) first checks that the two ISO9660 image files exist. It will create a blank file using dd(1) writing data from /dev/zero, the size of the two ISO9660 images files combined. The blank file is then bound via loopback using losetup(8) partitioned, and bound at an offset via loopback of 512 bytes, this second loopback device is formatted type ext3 using mke2fs(8) This filesystem is mounted using mount(8) on a temporary directory. The two ISO9660 files are then mounted via loopback, files are copied using shutil module in Python, from them to the newly formatted filesystem in the image file. Data is gathered from the ISO9660 image files from it's isolinux.cfg, after the files are copied the loopbacked ISO9660 image files are released. extlinux(1) is installed to the loopback mounted filesystem on the target image file and an extlinux.conf is written. The temporary directories are unmounted using umount(8) and the looback devices are released. The temporary directories are then removed, and the resulting Multiple Architecture Disk Image File is moved using shutil to the specified location on the command line, which is provided as argument 3 to mkbiarch.py

BUGS

Please report any bugs to http://bugzilla.redhat.com under component livecd-tools

AVAILABILITY

To check out the git version of this program
 git clone git://git.fedorahosted.org/livecd

AUTHOR

Jasper Hartline <autopsy [at] liveprojects.info>

CONTRIBUTORS

Richard Shaw <email [at] address.com> pyparted suggestions and feedback

Jan Kratochvil <email [at] address.com> for the original bash script which the python version was derived