Hi,

Lets re-cap:

We are currently using an iso format for our live system. This is an image file with an embeded iso9660 file system. The length of a file's extent on disc is stored in a 32 bit value, it allows for a maximum length of just over 4.2 GB (more precisely, one byte less than 4 GiB). From Wikipedia: "It is possible to circumvent this limitation by using the multi-extent (fragmentation) feature of ISO 9660 Level 3 to create ISO 9660 file systems and single files up to 8 TiB. With this, files larger than 4 GiB can be split up into multiple extents (sequential series of sectors), each not exceeding the 4 GiB limit." Our problem is that the live system is a squashfs single file (included in the iso9660 file system) that goes over 4GiB often.

Now Ventoy supports iso files larger than 4GiB and can boot them from USBs with filesystems other than FAT. This solves another problem, storing an iso file (>4GiB) on a USB file system. Ventoy does not solve the problem of splitting the squashfs file into several smaller ones so they fit into the iso9660 filesystem.

In any case, Ventoy looks like a great tool for storing multiple iso files on a large USB drive and being able to boot them up directly.

Best,
Angelos


On 12/28/20 7:49 PM, [email protected] wrote:
hey All, Angelos,

incidentally i just came across Ventoy[1] via the Qemu Advent Calendar[2], a 
usb stick boot manager that boots ISOs from an otherwise usable data partition. 
it supports exFat, NTFS (to name cross platform candidates) among others so 
there is actually no 4GB file size limit.
just booted osgeolive-14.0alpha3-amd64.iso with Ventoy 1.0.31.

where there is a will, there is fun - to be had.. ede

[1] https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html
[2] https://qemu-advent-calendar.org/

On 17.12.2020 12:30, Angelos Tzotsos wrote:
Hi,

The limitation is not actually the iso format but the squashfs filesystem for 
the live system.
When that goes over 4GB, the file cannot be stored in the filesystem the 
usb/iso uses.

More details here:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=1123257&sid=5c42d363988a2c6980ae256697991aa1#p1123257

Best,
Angelos

On 12/17/20 12:28 PM, Gandalf the Gray wrote:
Hi Angelos

Just a quick question about the ISO size limit that has been bugging me
last night.

How does projects like Scientific Linux or RHEL manage to get ISOs of more
than 4GB?

I think that the aim of the OSGeoLive project is to fit the ISO on a DVD,
am I correct?

If I may be presumptuous, why doesn't the OSGeoLive project start moving
away from a DVD ISO, to an iso that can run only from USB, or is this
limitation of 4GB a Ubuntu issue?

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Pieter


_______________________________________________
osgeolive mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive

--
Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
President
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos


_______________________________________________
osgeolive mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive

_______________________________________________
osgeolive mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive


--
Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
President
Open Source Geospatial Foundation
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos

_______________________________________________
osgeolive mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/osgeolive

Reply via email to