Distribute a hybrid ISO image
Originally created by @intrigeri on #8510 (Redmine)
As explained on #5573 (closed), our main reason to stop hybrid’ing the ISO images we distribute was that some crappy BIOS’es were not able to boot from a DVD burnt from a hybrid image. I think we should reconsider this, as:
- most distros distribute hybrid ISOs these days, so hopefully, such BIOS’es have mostly disappeared nowadays;
- we don’t use a super-weird isohybrid command anymore, so hopefully, the problems we had in the past have vanished;
- having to run one more command (
isohybrid) makes the installation process more complicated than it needs to be; - having to download and extract the syslinux tarball when installing from a Mac is tedious, and anyway is something we should avoid advising users to do;
- the Mac manual installation doc uses
isohybrid.pl, that’s not maintained anymore; -
isohybrid’s behavior depends on its exact version, so:- it’s hard to make use of bug reports about failed boots without knowing exactly what version of isohybrid was used to create the boot device
- it’s harder than it should to verify that a USB stick installed with isohybrid+dd is genuine.
To sum up, if all Tails ISO images were hybrid’ed in the same way, with a known version of isohybrid, our life and users’ life would be easier. IMO, even if some buggy systems might still have problems with booting a DVD burnt from a hybrid ISO, this drawback is by far outrun by the advantages of distributing a hybrid ISO.
Feature Branch: feature/hybrid-iso-strikes-back
Subtasks
Related issues
- Related to #7496
- Related to #8664 (closed)
- Related to #8524 (closed)
- Related to #8891 (closed)
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Blocked by #8525 (closed) -
Blocked by #8526 (closed)