Download MGISO
MGISO was conceived as a no frills GUI for mkisofs making the creation of iso files, that can then be written to CDROM or DVD, a far easier task than done from the command line. MGISO has built in options for building bootable DOS, LINUX and Windows XP installation CDROM iso's. DVD Video iso's are also catered for. In addition to this there is even the facility to enter custom instructions if your requirements differ from the default selections.
Documentation and readme files are included with MGISO, please refer to these before using the variety of options on offer from MGISO.
Download and extract MGISO to a location of your choice on the local drive, MGISO can also be installed to a USB keydrive.
By default MGISO looks for mkisofs.exe in its' own working directory. If mkisofs.exe is to be used in a directory other than MGISO's root directory then the path to mkisofs.exe must be entered into a file call ''variables.ini' which is also in the MGISO's root directory.
To change the mkisofs path, open the 'variables.ini' file and edit the path as shown below.
[external_exe_paths]
;mkisofs_path="C:\Program Files\MGISO\"
Can be changed for example to;
[external_exe_paths]
mkisofs_path="K:\stuff\MGISO\"
The semi–colon comments out a line, multiple commented out paths can be inserted into 'variables.ini', this is useful if testing different versions of mkisofs.exe. Always remember to include the trailing backslash.
If the path to mkisofs.exe is incorrect, MGISO will return a 'Please check that the path for mkisofs in variables.ini is correct.' error.
No other installation procedures are required apart from the option of creating a shortcut to MGISO.exe if required.
Also included with MGISO are this guide, the mkisofs guide, the source code for MSISO and required boot files.
The six options provided have been chosen on the basis of being the most likely variety of choices required for creating data, bootable and video iso files. Never the less, some knowledge is assumed on the part of users. This is especially the case with bootable CDROM\DVD isos. MGISO is not for the novice user. The six options provided will not satisfy all circumstances so the user must have some knowledge of the iso9660 standards and mkisofs if they are to be successful at customising the switches that are to be fed to mkisofs by MGISO.
All of the default switch options can be changed by editing the [switch_settings] section of the variable.ini file, for example;
[switch_settings]
;custom="–joliet–long –r –v –debug –log–file log.txt"
Can be changed to;
[switch_settings]
custom="–v –debug –log–file log.txt –iso–level 4 –r"
The semi–colon comments out a line. Please note, syntax errors will not be reported by MGISO. Check your typing carefully. It is recommended that the variables.ini file be backed up before alterations.
The six default iso writing options are as follows;
This setting enables file back up to iso. At the present time, multi–directory selection is not catered for, only sub–directories of the source directory are backed up. Filename lengths are limited to thirty one characters and path depths are restricted to eight.
Isos' written to CDROM\DVD with this setting can be read on Linux and Windows systems.
The directory containing the video files should be structured as follows, create a directory called, for example, DVD. Inside the 'DVD' directory create sub–directories called AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. From MGISO, select the 'DVD' directory, this is the root directory, it is everything within this directory that is written to iso. This setting has only been tested with single layer discs.
This option allows both DOS and Linux distributions to be bootable from the same disk. Isolinux, created by Peter Anvin, is used to make the disk bootable. The isolinux directory and its contents must reside in the root of the iso. For convenience, isolinux is supplied with MGISO. The Multi–OS option has been tested with a combination of live distributions based on Freedos and Damn Small Linux.
This option is similar to the Multi–OS Boot option except this has the Rockridge support necessary for DOS boot CDROMs. Isolinux is also used to make the DOS–OS Boot disk bootable. The DOS–OS Boot option has been tested with GH_DOS, a live DOS distribution based on Freedos.
This setting allows the creation of Windows XP installation disks. The 'bootsect.bin' file, which is supplied with MGISO, is required to make the Windows XP disk bootable. The procedure to create the iso is quite straight forward. Make a directory called, for example, xpdisk. Copy all the files from the Windows XP installation CDROM to the 'xpdisk' directory. Copy the 'bootsect.bin' file to the 'xpdisk' directory. Add to or modify the XP files as required and then use 'XP Boot' option from MGISO to create the iso file to be written to CDROM.
The default switches of the Custom option are set to write data isos to the joliet long standard with Rockridge support. This allows the writing of files with filenames up to 103 unicode characters in length. Disks written from the isos can be read on both linux and Windows systems but this cannot be guaranteed in all circumstances as joliet long breaks the joliet standard.
To use the Custom option to experiment with a different set of switches, simply select the Custom option, the source directory and the iso filename as usual. Before clicking the make iso button, alter the switches in the command box as desired and then click the make iso button. The results and/or error messages can be viewed in the log.txt file. All the iso creating options can be edited in this way but no results are printed to the log file unless the –log–file log.txt instruction is added.
A debugging tool is provided for by the debug.bat file in the MGISO directory, this by–passes MGISO to directly test mkisofs.
Publisher, application, preparer and volume name can be set in the .mkisofsrc file in the MGISO directory. Mkisofs looks for the information in this file to print to the disk's volume header. The command line takes precedence if the information is input there instead.
The source code for MGISO is contained in the MGISO source directory. MGISO was written with AutoIT Version 3.1.1.0. If you modify and recompile MGISO, please rename the executable retaining the credits to the original authors as well as adding your own.
MGISO is very much work in progress, while the functional heart of MGISO is of sufficient level for public use, the GUI requires more refinement. The source code has been made available for those who are too impatient for progress or have a need that is not provided by MGISO's existing defaults.
Unfortunately, due to time constrains (our day jobs are as web developers), we are unable to offer to any support. Please read the documentation that comes with MGISO thoroughly, this should hopefully answer most questions.
No formal minimum requirement exists at the moment.
MGISO has fully tested on Windows XP SP1 and SP2. Only limited testing has been carried out on Windows 98SE with making data isos, which was successfully accomplished. No testing has been carried out on Windows 2000 but MGISO should work with no problems. For both Windows 98 and 2000, MGISO should work as it does on Windows XP, the only way to find out for certain is to try it.
The equipment that MGISO has been tested on ranges from machines with Intel PIII 700MHz with 256MB RAM to machines with Intel PIV 2.8GHz with 1GB RAM. A mixture of external USB, IDE, SATA, SCSI and network hard drives were used, the local drives were formatted with FAT32 and NTFS.
At present there is no progress indicator or detailed error reporting. For error reporting, use the debug.bat file.
Some text on the GUI moves out of alignment when the window is maximised. Rather than preventing maximisation it was thought useful to maintain the choice for the convienience of users who wanted to enter long commands in the command window.
If the volume name is not entered before an option is chosen, the default name is used instead and has to be manually edited to the required name.
If MGISO seems unresponsive, make sure that 'script paused' is not selected in the tray icon.
If bad arguments are passed to mkisofs it will not report it, even to the log file in custom mode, use the debug.bat file to diagnose the error.
MGISO was written by Matthew Farey and Gary Hollands.
The scripting language used to compile MGISO is AutoIt Version 3
Mkisofs is part of cdrtools.
Isolinux is the work of Peter Anvin
Damn Small Linux is a small popular live Linux distribution.
Freedos is a fully featured DOS distribution available under the GNU General Public License.
The settings for the XP Boot option were derived from the excellent live XP distribution BartPE by Bart Lagerweij.
GH_DOS is a live DOS distribution written by Gary Hollands based on Freedos.
MGISO, cdrtools and syslinux are available under the GNU General Public License.
A companion CD Recording application called MGCDR, a frontend for cdrecord, is available and is included in a combination package with MGISO, MGCOMBO. MGCDR is a no frills GUI for cdrecord and can burn ISOs created by MGISO to CD and DVD.
Gary Hollands 27 September 2005, revised 01 October 2005
Back to solriche
