SliTaz Cookbook (en)

+ +

Rootcd

+Descriptions of files contained on the cdrom. +

+ +

Syslinux/isolinux.
Isolinux boot splash image.
ISO bootable with isolinux.
GRUB.
ISO bootable with GRUB.
Memtest86.

+ + +

Syslinux/isolinux

+Syslinux and main bootloader of SliTaz - we use the isolinux version to start +the system contained on the CD-ROM. Simple effective and configurable, it +was installed during the creation of the base system. +The binary is named isolinux.bin and its configuration file isolinux.cfg. +Here's an example of isolinux.cfg using isolinux.msg to post the splash +image and displayable help files via F1, F2, F3 and F4. You will find the +files help.txt, options.txt, etc in SliTaz tools. +

display isolinux.msg
+default slitaz
+label slitaz
+	kernel /boot/bzImage
+	append initrd=/boot/rootfs.gz rw root=/dev/null vga=788
+implicit 0	
+prompt 1	
+timeout 80
+F1 help.txt
+F2 options.txt
+F3 isolinux.msg
+F4 display.txt
+

+ + +

Isolinux boot splash image

+We can configure isolinux to display a splash image when booting SliTaz or +any other operating system using isolinux. This image has a particular +format .lss, suitable for Syslinux, and must be indexed using the 16 color +mode. You can use the official logo, ppmforge, imagemagick, GIMP or +other tools to create your image. +

+The Syslinux file (sample/syslogo.lss) provides an official logo which you can +directly use by copying to the root of the CD-ROM. SliTaz +provides a logo (rootcd/boot/isolinux/splash.lss) which you can locate in +SliTaz tools. +To display a splash image when booting; it's necessary that the 'display' option calls +the isolinux.msg file which loads the *.lss format image. Note that the isolinux.msg file +uses 24 ASCII characters. Example using 'echo' and an isolinux.msg file incorporating a .lss +splash image: +

 # echo -e "\24isplash.lss\n" > isolinux.msg
+

+You can also add a text message underneath the splash image by modifying this +file with your favorite text editor, echo or cat and so on. +

+ + +

ISO bootable with isolinux

+To create a bootable ISO image using isolinux and genisoimage: +

 # genisoimage -R -o slitaz-test.iso -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin \
+   	-c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 \
+   	-V "SliTaz" -input-charset iso8859-1 -boot-info-table rootcd 
+

+ + +

GRUB

+GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) is a bootloader distributed by the GNU +project. This is what is used during installation to a hard drive; it can +boot Linux, BSD, HURD and Window$. GRUB provides stage2_eltorito +to start the ISO images. To find stage2_eltorito on your system, you need +to have the GRUB package installed. Finally you copy stage2_eltorito to the +root of the cdrom. Note that SliTaz provides a (.tazpkg) package +grub-0.97 that you can find on the mirrors or you can rebuild grub-0.97 +from sources. Sample copy of the stage2_eltorito image from a +Debian system or SliTaz: +

 # mkdir -p rootcd/boot/grub
+ # cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito \
+   	rootcd/boot/grub
+

+The GRUB configuration file is called menu.lst and can be edited with your +favorite text editor. Example: +

# By default, boot the first entry.
+default 0
+
+# Boot automatically after 20 secs.
+timeout 20
+
+# Change the colors.
+color yellow/brown white/black
+
+title  SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0 (vga 800x600) (Kernel 2.6.20)
+       kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/null vga=788
+       initrd /boot/rootfs.gz
+
+title  SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0 (vga 1024x768) (Kernel 2.6.20)
+       kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/null vga=771
+       initrd /boot/rootfs.gz
+

+ + +

ISO bootable with GRUB

+To create a bootable ISO image using GRUB and genisoimage or mkisofs: +

 # genisoimage -R -o slitaz-test.iso -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito \
+   	-no-emul-boot -V "SliTaz" -boot-load-size 4 -input-charset iso8859-1 \
+   	-boot-info-table rootcd
+

+ +

Memtest86

+The application memtest86 is a tool to test random access memory +(RAM). We download the utility into the src directory, decompress the archive, +and copy the (precompiled) binary: +

 # mkdir -v -p src
+ # cd src
+ # wget http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.tar.gz
+ # tar xzfv memtest86-3.2.tar.gz
+ # cd memtest86-3.2
+ (# more README)
+ # cp precomp.bin ../../rootcd/boot/memtest
+ # cd ../..
+

+Once installed, you can add the label for the memtest86 file to isolinux.cfg, +specifing the path to the utility: +

label memtest
+	kernel /boot/memtest
+

+Or if you want to use GRUB, the line to launch memtest86: +

title 	Memtest86 (Test system memory)
+kernel 	/boot/memtest
+

+Once the lines are added, you can then create a new ISO and test. +

+ + +