CD file-system broken for Windows or UNIX

[mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com]

Howdy all.

Anybody got lots of experience with mkisofs?

Sometime between the previous release of our product, and the one
immediately prior, something went wrong with the way CD images are created.

Executables and libraries and other important stuff are ok, but my WebHelp
is now failing.

Specifically, it works fine on Windows, but would no longer work on UNIX
systems (including Linux).
It's not an uppercase/lowercase thing; I generate in all lowercase.
It's not a filename length thing, explicitly, because some of the files on
the old working version were just as long as my current longest.
A file will open if clicked directly (in UNIX), but all links are broken and
the system complains that "such'n'such file cannot be found. This is not an
hsfs file system."

I missed that, going out the door last release, because ... well, it never
broke before, so I didn't think that I had to check from burned CDs.
Instead, after generating Help onto a company server, I'd view that Help
from a selection of browsers in a selection of Windows and UNIX machines,
connected to that server.  Then some customer complaints came in, following
that last release.  Arg!

Normally our docs live on the Client software CD.
I've experimented making docs-only images, using mkisofs (which is what
we've always used at the end of the builds process).
mkisofs has hundreds of options.  I cherry-picked, trying combinations of
-l, -J, -R, -r, -joliet-long, and a few other ones whose descriptions hinted
that they might be worth trying.

My results have been a bunch of CDs where either:

 - works on Windows and then UNIX gives the file system error message

or

 - works on UNIX, but the files (when viewed in Windows) are all truncated
8.3, which breaks everything for Windows

I don't know a way to reverse-engineer a CD image to determine what options
were used in its generation. The former builds people, who worked here when
the last works-on-all OSes CD was created, are long gone.

This has landed in my lap because the current builds guy (relatively new to
his job) is swamped with work, and ... well.... it's my documentation that's
breaking.  :-)

Anyone equipped with clues and insights?
Suggestions that don't involve spending money?

I really hate the idea of creating a second docs-only CD to cover UNIX
systems, when it all worked from a single CD before. Our CM and production
people also dislike the idea of yet another part to track.

Thanks for your time,

Kevin

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