Howto: Boot image converted to cd ISO image

[Zackbum]

When you install xpenology in a virtualizer like virtualbox or vmware player, you will have to face the problem, that the boot image put on a flash drive will not be recognized by the virtualizer, since the underlying windows asks you to format the flash drive. The normal solution is to convert the IMG file to VDI (virtualbox) or to VMDK (vmware) with e.g. vmboxmanage or qemu. Unfortunatly to boot from these virtual drives they will have to be the first in the list of being examined. And so they will get formated as part of the installation process.

 

I was looking for a different solution since I was not willing to loose any data. So I decided to convert the raw image to a bootable CD, which can be handled as well as a USB stick, since also for virtualizers it is a removable medium.

 

These are the steps I used:

1) I used "USB image tool" to put the image onto a flash drive.

2) Boot any linux (even a live distrib in a vm), stick in the flash drive and mount it (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt)

3) copy the contents to /tmp/iso

4) copy /usr/bin/grub/stage2_eltorito to /tmp/iso/boot/grub

5) menu.lst is only a link to grub.conf, so remove the link and create a copy:

rm /tmp/iso/boot/grub/menu.lst

cp /tmp/iso/boot/grub/grub.conf /tmp/iso/boot/grub/menu.lst

6) edit menu.lst:

 

#serial --unit=0 --speed=115200

#terminal serial

default 0

timeout 30

fallback 0

 

title DSM 4.2-3211++ Repack v1.2

#root (hd0,0)

#vender /vender show

#hw_model

kernel (cd)/zImage root=/dev/md0 ihd_num=0 netif_num=1 mac1=00113208d607 syno_hw_version=DS3612xs

initrd (cd)/rd.gz

 

7) generate the ISO file using mkisofs (working directory is /tmp):

mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o DSM4.2_3211.iso iso

 

Now you can mount the ISO image as a bootable cd. In addition the menu.lst is demystified and can be checked with e.g. winrar (capable of reading ISO files).

 

Have fun.