Creating the CD-ROM

Here is a short how-to explaining how to create your ariane CD and check if it's working.

CD Creation
Booting the first time
What if things go wrong?
What's next?

CD Creation

Creating an ariane CD-ROM isn't difficult.

1. You need two files, first the ariane tar archive, this is labelled linux-xx.tgz where "xx" is ariane's version number and the bootdisk floppy image bootdisk-xxx.img, you can get both files from the download area. A word for the version numbers: ariane and the bootdisk image have version numbers. These number don't match. Usually you want the latest release.

2. The next things you need is a computer with CD-ROM writer and software which is able to create El-Torito boot CDs. Of course, since you are here to create a bootable CD you'll have it.

3. Now for the CD, this is important:

1. Make sure that the CD-ROM is going to boot from the image file bootdisk.img.

2. Create the directory bootcode, place the linux-xx.tgz in this directory and rename it to linux.tgz.

3. Optionally you can also place the bootdisk.img in the bootcode directory. This is not required since it not of any use for ariane there but this way you have the files you need for another CD around.
4. To make things clear, the CD should look the following way:

   boot-image: bootdisk.img
   
   /bootcode
      bootdisk.img
      linux.tgz
   

   where bootdisk.img is optional.

5. Before you burn the CD think about making a "multi session" CD. This means that you can come back putting more files on the CD (or overwriting existing files) until the free space on the CD is used up. But notice that you can not change the CD's bootdisk image in a later session.

6. Burn the CD.

Ok, that was all.

Booting the first time

Now put it into a PC with CD-ROM drive and boot. You know that you're on the right way if you see the lilo boot prompt and the text

LILO 21.7-5

ariane image loader - build xxx
Copyright ...

boot:

where xxx is the version number of the image loader, not ariane's version.

If you don't get the boot prompt, here are my latest experiences with bootable CD-ROM drives. Well, it's 2004 but

• there are server computers which are not able to boot from a multi session CD, and
• I also found CD-ROM drives which were not able to boot from an El-Torito CD at all.

If you make it to lilo's boot prompt process as usual. Sooner or later you should see ariane's login prompt. Log in as root, with no password (it's empty).

What if things go wrong?

There are some things that can go wrong:

• If you don't get the lilo boot prompt: Is the CD bootable? Is it bootable in this computer? Is "boot from CD" set in the PC's BIOS?

• You can boot but you don't make it to the login prompt: Is your CD's layout as specified (see above)? Is your CD-ROM or CD broken, do you get error messages)?

Ok, the list above are only hints, but I never had serious other problems with the CDs.

What's next?

If you have been able to boot ariane succesfully the first time you may want to ask two questions.

1. How do I get a different keyboard layout?

   As you will notice ariane comes with a German keyboard as default. But this can be changed with a boot prompt parameter or later. First, find out what the name of your prefered keyboard mapfile is. Look under /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386. If you have problems navigating there because of the keyboard layout but you are familiar with a US keyboard enter

   # set-keymap us
   

   to switch to US layout. Next look for your keymap, you need only the basename, the filename without the trailing "

   ". Give this name as keymap parameter the next time at the boot prompt. If you think the name is too long (like "de-latin1-nodeadkeys") you can shorten it until it gives a unique mapname. You can also use

   # set-keymap mapname
   

   to select this map manually.

2. How do I configure ariane for the network?

   First check if your computer's network card was autodetected. This is required. If it is you can either specifiy DHCP with "dhcp=yes" or give a manual IP configuration with the "setip=ipnum/mask" kernel boot prompt parameter.

3. How can I make these changes permanent?

   It's possible to give parameters for the keyboard and IP configuration at the ariane boot prompt, see ArianeBootOptions. The boot line would then be e.g.

   linux keymap=us dhcp=yes
   

   It's however annoying to give them everytime. An alternative is to put these parameters into a file name boot.conf:

   keymap  us
   dhcp    yes
   

   Now put this file into the /bootcode directory on the CD-ROM and reboot.

These were just two quick hints to make ariane basically usable. There are far more ways to customize it.