Using Genisoimage Or Mkisofs on Windows 10

Question

I've searched many times on how to download Genisoimage and Mkisofs on Windows 10. However, some links and Stack Overflow posts say that Genisoimage/Mkisofs are only for Linux, and vice-versa. I tried to download Mkisofs, and even added mkisofs.exe to my Path variable, but it still isn't recognized as an internal or external command when trying to use the genisoimage/mkisofs command in Visual Studio Code. Any advice on how to properly download GenIsoImage or Mkisofs to use as a command would be helpful!

P.S: I'm new to Stack Overflow, so I'm sorry if there's anything wrong with my question.

Answer 1

Win32 https://cdrtfe.sourceforge.io/tools/index_en.html

Winx86_x64 compiled https://mega.nz/#!Ngxz2YwB!ES1jNiz5LZG_Eh_8yfb4ilCH1qMaxV1ixki_947qjrc

Latest xorriso which knows mkisofs and more https://github.com/PeyTy/xorriso-exe-for-windows/archive/master.zip

genisoimage is an old and according to commenters on the internet, buggy fork of mkisofs

Answer 2

here is the packet-list for the latest version of "mkisofs" cygwin (x64) under Windows 10

The main package under cygwin is "genisoimage".

I will use "ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de" for example:

"genisoimage" is part of cdrkit ... so you will find it here:

Download (extract from the downlods only the "usr/bin"-part):

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/cdrkit/genisoimage/genisoimage-1.1.11-1.tar.bz2

Dependencies:

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/bzip2/libbz2_1/libbz2_1-1.0.8-1.tar.xz

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/file/file-5.39-1.tar.xz

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/libiconv/libiconv2/libiconv2-1.16-2.tar.xz

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/zlib/zlib0/zlib0-1.2.11-1.tar.xz

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/cygwin/cygwin-3.3.2-1.tar.xz

From cygwin-x.x.x-x.tar extract only cygpath.exe, cygwin1.dll, mount.exe and ps.exe

https://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/sources.redhat.com/cygwin/x86_64/release/gcc/libgcc1/libgcc1-11.2.0-1.tar.zst

.tar.zst is a new archive-format, used by Cygwin-Packager:

You may extract this archive with the 7-Zip (ZSTD)-Version from here:

https://github.com/mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd/releases

Copy "genisoimage.exe" to "mkisofs.exe"

Examples (create iso-images with boot-sector):

isolinux boot

mkisofs\mkisofs.exe -hide-rr-moved -l -v -d -N -R -J -V "DiskLabel" -b "isolinux/isolinux.bin" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o /cygdrive/c/PATH-TO-ISO.iso /cygdrive/c/PATH-TO-DVD-IMAGE-FILES/

uefi boot

mkisofs\mkisofs.exe -hide-rr-moved -l -v -d -N -R -J -V "DiskLabel" -b "boot/grub/efi.img" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o /cygdrive/c/PATH-TO-UEFI-ISO.iso /cygdrive/c/PATH-TO-DVD-IMAGE-FILES/

Hint:

The parameter for "-b" to find the bootsector-image must contain a relative path to the path provided under "PATH-TO-DVD-IMAGE-FILES" (here: /cygdrive/c/PATH-TO-DVD-IMAGE-FILES/), the root-path for the source-files !!!

Output "mkisofs.exe":

C:\mkisofs\usr\bin>mkisofs.exe --version

mkisofs 2.01 is not what you see here. This line is only a fake for too clever GUIs and other frontend applications. In fact, this program is: genisoimage 1.1.11 (CYGWIN)

Answer 3

Based on https://9to5tutorial.com/recreate-a-bootable-windows-installation-iso-with-mkisofs, the mkisofs.exe is available from the cdrtfe project.

If you are only interested in mkisofs.exe, you can download the zip file and extract:

• tools\cdrtools\mkisofs.exe
• tools\cygwin\cygwin*

into the same folder, e.g.:

PS C:\image_build\mkisofs> dir


    Directory: C:\image_build\mkisofs


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----        17/09/2022  11:22 AM             48 cygwin.ini
-a----        17/09/2022  11:22 AM        3458775 cygwin1.dll
-a----        17/09/2022  11:16 AM        1356800 mkisofs.exe

Testing the command line:

PS C:\image_build\mkisofs> .\mkisofs.exe -version
mkisofs 3.02a10 2021/07/23 (i686-pc-cygwin)

Copyright (C) 1993-1997 Eric Youngdale
Copyright (C) 1997-2020 Joerg Schilling
Copyright (C) 1997-2001 James Pearson
Copyright (C) 2006      HELIOS Software GmbH

Keep in mind that Helios themselves haven't tested the windows version of mkisofs, and they don't provide a windows version themselves. Further info is available on the helios mkisofs page, which also has some useful info about the tool.

In regards to inside VSCode, my suggestion would be to use the absolute path rather than relying on the Path environment being set correctly.

Running from the base windows directory with the absolute path still works:

PS C:\> C:\image_build\mkisofs\mkisofs.exe -version
mkisofs 3.02a10 2021/07/23 (i686-pc-cygwin)

Copyright (C) 1993-1997 Eric Youngdale
Copyright (C) 1997-2020 Joerg Schilling
Copyright (C) 1997-2001 James Pearson
Copyright (C) 2006      HELIOS Software GmbH