Make a ubuntu boot CD without iso file

Question

I have installed ubuntu using wubi and want to create a boot cd...how can I do this without downloading the iso file....

Answer 1

The live CD is usually created with a filesystem called squashfs. Squashfs is read only compressed filesystem that allow us to squeeze our system into a single CD. Note that your system has to be about 2GB (this might need some trial an error) to produce a compressed image that fits on the CD. Otherwise, you will have to use a DVD

Creating a live CD from an existing/new installation

Follow the procedure to create a live cd from your current installation.

1. Set up some variables:

   export WORK=~/temp
   export CD=~/livecd
   export FORMAT=squashfs
   export FS_DIR=casper
   

   Replace ~/temp with a path to a temporary directory in which we will work in. Replace ~/livecd with a path to the CD tree.

2. Make the folder structure.
   sudo mkdir -p ${CD}/{${FS_DIR},boot/grub} ${WORK}/rootfs

3. Now we will need to install some packages:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install grub2 xorriso squashfs-tools
   

4. Now we will copy the current installation, modify the exclude flags to fit your needs:

   sudo rsync -av --one-file-system --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/dev/* \
   --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/home/* --exclude=/lost+found \
   --exclude=/var/tmp/* --exclude=/boot/grub/* --exclude=/root/* \
   --exclude=/var/mail/* --exclude=/var/spool/* --exclude=${WORK}/rootfs \
   --exclude=/etc/fstab --exclude=/etc/mtab --exclude=/etc/hosts \
   --exclude=/etc/timezone --exclude=/etc/shadow* --exclude=/etc/gshadow* \
   --exclude=/etc/X11/xorg.conf* --exclude=/etc/gdm/custom.conf \
   / ${WORK}/rootfs
   

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Note -If you have a separate boot partition, execute this: sudo cp -av /boot/* ${WORK}/rootfs/boot

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Note-If you want to copy settings and some files from the home directory then First, define what directories we want to copy:
CONFIG='.config .gconf Desktop "some-other-folder" "and-another-folder"' And now we copy that:

    cd ~ && for i in $CONFIG
    do
    sudo cp -rpv --parents $i ${WORK}/rootfs/etc/skel
    done  

Nautilus stores its settings in a directory called .config in the home directory, so I added .config to the variable $CONFIG:

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5. Now we chroot into the new system and modify it.

   sudo mount  --bind /dev/ ${WORK}/rootfs/dev
   sudo mount -t proc proc ${WORK}/rootfs/proc
   sudo mount -t sysfs sysfs ${WORK}/rootfs/sys
   sudo mount -t devpts devpts ${WORK}/rootfs/dev/pts
   sudo chroot ${WORK}/rootfs /bin/bash
   

   The next commands are done in chroot:

   LANG=
   apt-get update
   apt-get install casper
   

   Casper contains live scripts. If you want an installer too, run this:

   apt-get install ubiquity ubiquity-frontend-gtk
   

   Or if you want KDE:

   apt-get install ubiquity ubiquity-frontend-kde
   

6. Update modules.dep and initramfs:

   depmod -a $(uname -r)
   update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)
   

7. Remove non-system users - do not worry, we have copied the settings and data into the "skeleton" of users. That means all new users will have them.

   for i in `cat /etc/passwd | awk -F":" '{print $1}'`
   do
       uid=`cat /etc/passwd | grep "^${i}:" | awk -F":" '{print $3}'`
       [ "$uid" -gt "999" -a  "$uid" -ne "65534"  ] && userdel --force ${i} 2>/dev/null
   done
   

8. Clean up:

   apt-get clean
   find /var/log -regex '.*?[0-9].*?' -exec rm -v {} \;
   find /var/log -type f | while read file
   do
       cat /dev/null | tee $file
   done
   rm /etc/resolv.conf /etc/hostname
   

9. Exit chroot. exit

10. Now, we copy the kernel:

    export kversion=`cd ${WORK}/rootfs/boot && ls -1 vmlinuz-* | tail -1 | sed 's@vmlinuz-@@'`
    sudo cp -vp ${WORK}/rootfs/boot/vmlinuz-${kversion} ${CD}/boot/vmlinuz
    sudo cp -vp ${WORK}/rootfs/boot/initrd.img-${kversion} ${CD}/boot/initrd.img
    sudo cp -vp ${WORK}/rootfs/boot/memtest86+.bin ${CD}/boot
    

11. If you have installed the installer, you will need to do this, so that the installer doesn't install things like casper:

    sudo chroot ${WORK}/rootfs dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package} ${Version}\n' | sudo tee ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.manifest
    sudo cp -v ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.manifest{,-desktop}
    REMOVE='ubiquity casper user-setup os-prober libdebian-installer4'
    for i in $REMOVE 
    do
        sudo sed -i "/${i}/d" ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.manifest-desktop
    done        
    

12. Unmount what we have mounted:

    sudo umount ${WORK}/rootfs/proc
    sudo umount ${WORK}/rootfs/sys
    sudo umount ${WORK}/rootfs/dev/pts
    sudo umount ${WORK}/rootfs/dev
    

13. Convert to squashfs:

    sudo mksquashfs ${WORK}/rootfs ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.${FORMAT}
    

14. Make filesystem.size: echo -n $(sudo du -s --block-size=1 ${WORK}/rootfs | tail -1 | awk '{print $1}') | sudo tee ${CD}/casper/filesystem.size

15. And md5: find ${CD} -type f -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum | sed "s@${CD}@.@" | grep -v md5sum.txt |sudo tee ${CD}/md5sum.txt

16. Now grub.cfg:

    sudo nano ${CD}/boot/grub/grub.cfg
    

    (replace nano with your fav text editor, it doesn't matter) Paste this and save:

    set default="0"
    set timeout=10
    
    menuentry "Ubuntu GUI" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Ubuntu in safe mode" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper xforcevesa quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Ubuntu CLI" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper textonly quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Ubuntu GUI persistent mode" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper boot=casper persistent quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Ubuntu GUI from RAM" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper nopersistent toram quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    menuentry "Check Disk for Defects" {
    linux /boot/vmlinuz boot=casper integrity-check quiet splash
    initrd /boot/initrd.img
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Memory Test" {
    linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
    }
    
    
    menuentry "Boot from the first hard disk" {
    set root=(hd0)
    chainloader +1
    }
    

17. Make the CD/DVD! sudo grub-mkrescue -o ~/live-cd.iso ${CD}

18. Test it using a virtual machine!

All credit goes to capink, because the guide is from here.

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I copied it from here and made a few edits

Answer 2

If you want to make your existing installation into a Bootable CD, here is a very detailed and easy to follow instruction.

If you want to simply obtain an original Ubuntu ISO from an installed system, I have no idea still now (It may be impossible) .

[source] : ubuntuforums.org

You can also see this short answer about creating Live CD from existing installation.

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Detail instruction of using remastersys software You can do this by installing remastersys.

Open your terminal, type sudo su and enter.

type wget -O - http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu/remastersys.gpg.key | apt-key add - and press enter and type your password.

type again sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list and in the new opened file add this line at the end of the file.

deb http://www.remastersys.com/ubuntu precise main save and close the file.

If you are using Ubuntu 11.10(Oneiric), replace precise with oneiric. for Ubuntu 11.04(natty) replace precise with natty.

Then run sudo apt-get update in the terminal & sudo apt-get install remastersys.
This will install remastersys software, which can be used to create a CD from your installed system.

Go to this page for instruction.

Answer 3

You can't. You need the iso to make the official cd.

Answer 4

Yes ,you can use remastersys for it , Note: It is just backup existing ubuntu installation ,It can't create original ubuntu cd