isolinux.cfg for a live CD

isolinux is a bootloader included in the syslinux package and is used to boot a CD or DVD. isolinux is one of several popular bootloaders used to create a bootable CD for open-source operating systems, including Linux and FreeDOS. Another bootloader is GRUB, which I rarely use except for booting Windows 7 with BIOS emulation.

To create a bootable CD with isolinux, just copy the file isolinux.bin to a folder that will hold CD contents for ISO mastering. On Debian or Ubuntu, the file is located at the /usr/lib/syslinux folder.

A file named isolinux.cfg needs to be created in order to provide a menu or boot entries. A sample isolinux.cfg is shown below. It makes use of vesamenu.c32 which helps display a nice graphical menu with a background picture. Vesamenu.c32 is also located in /usr/lib/syslinux and needs to be copied too.

# isolinux.cfg
# Configuration for ISOLINUX

# Wait for 60 seconds before booting up the default entry.
TIMEOUT 600
F1 help.txt #ff702640

UI vesamenu.c32
MENU RESOLUTION 640 480
MENU BACKGROUND back642.jpg
MENU COLOR border 30;44 #40dfdfdf #00000000 std
MENU COLOR title 1;36;43 #e0fdff49 #804206ef none
MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 #e0000000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR hotsel 1;7;37;40 #e0af0000 #40ffffff all
MENU COLOR disabled 1;30;44 #ffe4de6f #00000000 std
MENU COLOR scrollbar 30;44 #40000000 #e0af0000 std
MENU TITLE Boot Menu
MENU CLEAR

MENU ROWS 14
MENU TABMSGROW 20
MENU CMDLINEROW 20
MENU TIMEOUTROW 22
MENU HELPMSGROW 24
MENU VSHIFT 1

# The default is to boot the first hard drive.
DEFAULT hd0
ONERROR hd1

MENU BEGIN livecd_menu

  MENU TITLE Linux Live CD Menu

  LABEL livecd_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL livecd_640x480
  MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm 
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=640x480

  LABEL livecd_800x600
  MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=800x600

  LABEL livecd_1024x768
  MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 edd=off vmode=1024x768

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL livecd_console_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux live CD into text console
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL livecd_console
  MENU LABEL text-mode console
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 nox

  LABEL livecd_console_old
  MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND root=/dev/sr0 acpi=off irqpoll nox

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit0
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

MENU BEGIN cdram_menu

  MENU TITLE Linux on RAMdisk Menu

  LABEL cdram_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux on RAMdisk
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL cdram_640x480
  MENU LABEL 640x480 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm 
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=640x480

  LABEL cdram_800x600
  MENU LABEL 800x600 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=800x600

  LABEL cdram_1024x768
  MENU LABEL 1024x768 screen
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 edd=off vmode=1024x768

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL cdram_console_heading
  MENU LABEL Boot Linux RAMdisk into text console
  MENU DISABLE

  LABEL cdram_console
  MENU LABEL text-mode console
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 nox

  LABEL cdram_console_old
  MENU LABEL text-mode console for an old computer
  MENU INDENT 1
  KERNEL 360.lnx
  INITRD initram.lzm
  APPEND boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 acpi=off irqpoll nox

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit1
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu.
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL hd0
  MENU LABEL First Hard Drive
  LOCALBOOT 0x80

LABEL hd1
  MENU LABEL Second Hard Drive
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd1 swap

MENU BEGIN hd0_menu

  MENU TITLE Partition in First Hard Drive

  LABEL hd0_part1
  MENU LABEL 1st partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 1

  LABEL hd0_part2
  MENU LABEL 2nd partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 2

  LABEL hd0_part3
  MENU LABEL 3rd partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 3

  LABEL hd0_part4
  MENU LABEL 4th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 4

  LABEL hd0_part5
  MENU LABEL 5th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 5

  LABEL hd0_part6
  MENU LABEL 6th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 6

  LABEL hd0_part7
  MENU LABEL 7th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 7

  LABEL hd0_part8
  MENU LABEL 8th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 8

  LABEL hd0_part9
  MENU LABEL 9th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 9

  LABEL hd0_part10
  MENU LABEL 10th partition
  KERNEL chain.c32
  APPEND hd0 10

  MENU SEPARATOR

  LABEL exit3
  MENU LABEL Return to the main menu
  MENU EXIT

MENU END

LABEL fd0
  MENU LABEL Floppy Drive
  LOCALBOOT 0x00

LABEL next
  MENU LABEL Next in boot sequence
  LOCALBOOT -1

LABEL memtest
  MENU LABEL Test your computer memory
  LINUX memtest.bin
  TEXT HELP
  Run Memtest86 to test your computer memory
  ENDTEXT

LABEL help
  MENU LABEL Help
  MENU HELP help.txt #ff702640

The example above is one that I use for my live CD, so some settings are specific to my situation. Thus, KERNEL and APPEND settings may have to be adapted for other users. However, all the keywords shown above is standard and acceptable.