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I'm wondering if anyone knows of a CDROM emulator that runs on Linux. I want to emulate this configuration:

[CDROM DRIVE]----USB CABLE----[COMPUTER UNDER TEST]

Where [COMPUTER UNDER TEST] is a computer that boots from a physical CD inserted into the [CDROM DRIVE]. Only instead of the [CDROM DRIVE] I want the following configuration:

[CD IMAGE BUILD MACHINE]-----USB CABLE-----[COMPUTER UNDER TEST].

I want to build an ISO image on the [CD IMAGE BUILD MACHINE] and have some sort of USB CDROM emulator running on it to serve up the ISO image to the [COMPUTER UNDER TEST] as though it was talking to the [CDROM DRIVE]. Does this exist? If it does, I can't find it.

I want to do this so I can test out bootable CDs without burning a lot of coasters.

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Do you want to connect 2 physical machines or you just want to test cdrom image bootability? I use qemu -hda image to test bootability of hard drive image. So try to use qemu -cdrom image.iso. – osgx Feb 18 '10 at 19:11
I want to connect two physical machines. The [COMPUTER UNDER TEST] has some specialized hardware that I can't emulate with QEMU or any other emulator. – JohnnyLambada Feb 18 '10 at 19:16
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Can you use PXEBOOT for booting? Is it critical to you to simulate CD drive? Can you use fast flash-drive or usb/sata-hdd (sata for "burning" and usb to booting)? – osgx Feb 18 '10 at 19:22
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PXEBOOT might be an option -- I'd have to change the build process of the CDROM (Android-X86), but it's probably the best alternative if the USB-USB doesn't pan out. – JohnnyLambada Feb 18 '10 at 19:28
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2 Answers

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You can connect to PCs via usb using special bridge: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/248

The bridge shown can be used as network card emulator, network mode (each pc will have new network card and they will be "connected" like crossover)

In the link mode bridge allows to send files.

I don't know about usb storage bridges. (USB mass-storage device class, usb Cdroms use this usb class)

ps. bridges does work with ordinary USB interfaces, without usb on-the-go

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bridge used in the cable is pl-2501. There is page about it prolific.com.tw/eng/Products.asp?ID=18 – osgx Feb 18 '10 at 19:08
another chips are: AnchorChips 2720 Belkin F5U104 GeneSys GL-620USB-A Laplink Gold NetChip 1080 Prolific PL2301/2302 Xircom PGUNET (driver usbnet in linux); panram PR7001 – osgx Feb 18 '10 at 19:24
hmm. what about usb-to-scsi (or may be firewire??) connectors? Some scsi host adapters (especially found in macintoshes) can be used in Target Disk Mode/SCSI Disk Mode operation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Disk_Mode – osgx Feb 18 '10 at 19:29
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One of the computers would have to have an USB-OTG port for this idea to start to work. I'm not sure about the state of Linux OTG drivers, but my knee-jerk reaction is that the driver to make it look like a CD-ROM drive doesn't exist. – Chris S Feb 18 '10 at 22:02
Sounds like the answer is... as of now it's not something that people do much. Off to PXEBOOT-land for me. Thanks, all. – JohnnyLambada Feb 18 '10 at 22:36
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up vote 0 down vote

Look at the loopback filesystem mount...

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Thanks, Tom -- I'm pretty familiar with mount -o loop, and this is not what I want to do. I tried to make that clear in my question -- how could I have made that more clear? – JohnnyLambada Feb 18 '10 at 19:18
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