Make isolinux 4.0.3 chainload itself

Question

I have a bootable iso which boots into isolinux 4.0.3 and I want to make it chainload itself (my actual goal is to chainload isolinux.bin v4.0.1-debian, which should start up the Ubuntu10.10 Live CD, but for now I just want to make it chainload itself).

I can't get isolinux to chainload any isolinux.bin, no matter what version. It either freezes or shows a "checksum error" message. I'm using VMWare to test the iso.

Things I have tried:

.com32 /boot/isolinux/chain.c32 /boot/isolinux/isolinux-debug.bin (chainload self)

this shows

Loading the boot file...
Booting...

ISOLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22  Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
isolinux: Starting up, DL = 9F
isolinux: Loaded spec packet OK, drive = 9F
isolinux: Main image LBA = 53F00100

...and the machine freezes.

Then I've tried this

(chainload GRUB4DOS 0.4.5b)
chainloader /boot/isolinux/isolinux-debug.bin

Result:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Next try:

(chainload GRUB4DOS 0.4.5b)
chainloader --force /boot/isolinux/isolinux-debug.bin
boot

Result:

ISOLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22  Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
isolinux: Starting up, DL = 9F
isolinux: Loaded spec packet OK, drive = 9F
isolinux: No boot info table, assuming single session disk...
isolinux: Spec packet missing LBA information, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Main image LBA = 00000686
isolinux: Image checksum error, sorry...

Boot failed: press a key to retry...

I have tried other things, but all of them failed miserably. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You will need chain.c32:

LABEL chain_isolinux
COM32 /boot/isolinux/chain.c32
APPEND isolinux=/boot/isolinux/isol401.bin

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Comboot/chain.c32

You also need to make your ISO properly. You need the -boot-info-table option.

mkisofs -o output.iso -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table CD_root

You can add additional parameters to mkisofs too (like adding support for Rock Ridge, ...).