Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

pa_mcclamrock · Last edited by pa_mcclamrock on Sat 14 Feb 2009, 07:14; edited 7 times in total

I'm working on an app tentatively entitled "Remaster Express" to make the Puppy custom live-CD remastering process more versatile and more user-friendly, with a GUI that persists throughout the process, incorporates more options than the existing remaster script (/usr/sbin/remasterpup2), and takes on the selected GTK+ 2.0 theme (by way of Gnocl). Here are links to some screenshots of what I've got so far. [EDIT 2009 Feb 14: Don't look at these any more, look at the completed set of screenshots with the links in the message I just posted below.)

Initial "Welcome" window: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster01.gif

Remaster Slimmer window, for removing built-in packages before remastering: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remasterslim.gif

Step Two, estimate working space needed: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster02.3.gif

Show estimated working space and select working partition: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster02.6.gif

Step Three, show information about remastering while making heap big squashfile: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster03.gif

Step Four, verify that contents of /tmp/root include everything desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster04.gif

Step Five, do the same with /tmp/etc and specify hardware configuration if desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster05.gif

Step Six, edit isolinux.cfg if desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster06.1.gif

Step Seven, rename pup_xxx.sfs file if desired:
http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster07.gif

I don't have the rest done yet, but I do have several questions that I hope somebody here can answer.

* How do you best estimate the size of the pup_xxx.sfs file compared to the uncompressed size of the directories that go into it? The "remasterpup2" script just seems to guess that maybe it will be about 1/3 as big, and maybe you'll need, oh, 150 to 200 MB of additional free space if you're going to save an ISO. Is it possible to do better than this? As I said above, I'd like to have a progressbar to show what percentage of stuff has been squashed into the squashfile and what percentage remains to be squashed, but this would seem to require a pretty good estimate of how big the whole thing will be when done.

* I need to make sure I know what to do with the various "packages" files in /root/.packages. I observe that "packages.txt" has the complete list of official packages from the current Puppy Unleashed; "livepackages.txt" is the same as the "Official Puppy 4" list you see in PETget; "livepackages2.txt" and "livepackages3.txt" are the same as Official Puppy 2 and Official Puppy 3 respectively; and "alienpackages.txt" lists the unofficial packages you have installed. To this I have added "slimpacks-xxx.txt," a modified list of built-in packages the user might wish to uninstall with "Remaster Slimmer" before remastering.

What I want to do, I think, is to (1) copy "packages.txt" intact to the /tmp/root/.packages directory for inclusion in the new CD; (2) copy the various "livepackages" files and "slimpacks-xxx.txt" to /tmp/root/.packages too, but then (3) move all the "on" lines out of the "livepackages" copies and merge them into /tmp/root/.packages/slimpacks-xxx.txt, since the packages named in these lines will become built-in packages in the new CD and will be uninstallable with Remaster Slimmer but not with PETget; and (4) omit "alienpackages," since all the packages from there will become built-in packages in the new CD. Does that sound right?

* Following line 196, "#now copy the files... ," "remasterpup2" omits "boot.cat" from the list of files to be copied from the existing live-CD, and includes something called "goofy.16" instead. What's this, and why?

* Are all these "syncs" really necessary? Almost everywhere you do anything with files in "remasterpup2," it seems, there's a "sync" before and after. Would there be any significant chance of disaster if you didn't have quite so many "syncs"?

* All references to "zdrv" can be omitted for Puppy 4.1 and later, can't they?

Thanks in advance for any help!

David McClamrock

Lobster · Posted: Wed 04 Feb 2009, 23:28 Post subject:

The last easy remaster was from Dougal and worked very well.
It was integrated into the main Puppy but was easier in Dougals version, so it might be worth contacting him directly.

I look forward to this and it would be a welcome feature to the next Puppy after Deep Thought or if ready for Deep Thought.

Cool

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Thu 05 Feb 2009, 08:03 Post subject:

technosaurus · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 3843

I had a look at the remasterpup2 script a while back and used it to make a mkaddonsfs script ... started toward what you are working on - I can upload my scripts tonight when I get home, but the original script is already posted in the forum - I'll edit my post with a link when I find it.... there is also a dir2iso script floating around somewhere - I have it set up to where you manually add the other files (except pup_XXX.sfs) from the cd

Edit: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=37856

& dir2iso http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=2139761034&t=36573

tasmod · Posted: Thu 05 Feb 2009, 11:10 Post subject:

David,
I'm not a programmer or anything but I was just looking at the pwidgets and noticed that Puppy Space seems to reflect the puppy space plus amount used. Is that any help?

Rob Lane

technosaurus · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 3843

I wouldn't remove the zdrv because it can still be used and I do frequently as a way to test how an sfs will work with default versions and puplets (if you name an addon to zdrv you don't need a pupsave file to load it - its automatic)

for /root/.packages/*.files - I left them in to allow people to more easily remove programs from puplets (petbegone only works for default apps). Either way is fine - depends on how you want it to be used I guess

syncs - I think? it is to minimize disk usage... otherwise you need the space of the full expanded file system + the size of your sfs (I got rid of them in my script, but only because I wanted the user to have more control)

Is boot.cat automatically generated when making the iso bootable? & goofy.16 the boot picture (usually tux)?

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Fri 06 Feb 2009, 08:26 Post subject:

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Fri 06 Feb 2009, 08:33 Post subject:

seeker · Joined: 26 Nov 2008 Posts: 89 Location: Indiana, USA

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Sun 08 Feb 2009, 21:01 Post subject:

Pizzasgood · Posted: Mon 09 Feb 2009, 02:31 Post subject:

goofy.16 is the name of a splash image that isolinux can display during the pause before it starts booting. It's an arbitrary name. Way back in the early 1.0.x days I made a splash screen but couldn't decide on which font was best, so I uploaded several versions named after the fonts. Barry chose the one using the goofy font, and for some reason left it named goofy.16 rather than renaming it to something like boot.16 or image.16. Then he continued using that name in future releases using completely different images.

We haven't used a splash image since we switched to Puppy 2.x.

Until 4.2 that is. Now we have one again. This time I've revised the system somewhat, so that the USB installs can also have it, and can have the pause so they can add things like 'puppy pfix=ram' or whatever.

So you need to know how the new system works:
There is now a directory at /usr/lib/syslinux/files/ which contains a number of files. They should all appear in the ISO. They're also copied onto a USB drive when installed to one. This is done with an *, not by hardcoding filenames.

There is a catch: the syslinux.cfg file in that location is not quite complete, because the final line depends on how Puppy is being installed (or whether being placed on a CD). It's the "append" line that looks like this for a CD version:

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Sat 14 Feb 2009, 07:25 Post subject:

Here are links to the completed set of screenshots.

Initial "Welcome" window: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster01.1.gif

Remaster Slimmer window, for removing built-in packages before remastering: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remasterslim.gif

Step Two, estimate working space needed: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster02.5.gif

Show estimated working space and select working partition: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster02.7.gif

Step Three, show information about remastering while making heap big squashfile: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster03.gif

Step Four, verify that contents of /tmp/root include everything desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster04.gif

Step Five, do the same with /tmp/etc and specify hardware configuration if desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster05.gif

Step Six, edit isolinux.cfg if desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster06.1.gif

Step Seven, rename pup_xxx.sfs file if desired: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster07.gif

Step Eight, select "Burn Only," "Save ISO Only," or "Save ISO & Burn": http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster08.gif

Step Nine, finish up by displaying more reading matter while live-CD gets burned, or at least ISO gets created: http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock/remaster09.gif

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Sat 14 Feb 2009, 07:56 Post subject:

Pizzasgood · Posted: Sat 14 Feb 2009, 14:41 Post subject:

The key thing is to hard code as few names as possible, so that we can modify the files included in the ISO later without having to edit half a million scripts to handle the new names.

Now that I think about it, I guess the new method doesn't really affect a remaster so much as it affects installations and such. Unless you're allowing a remaster without an existing CD/ISO, in which case you would need to go into that directory to get the files, and append this line to the new isolinux.cfg file:

pa_mcclamrock · Posted: Sat 14 Feb 2009, 19:48 Post subject: