Light-Debian-Core-Live-CD-Wheezy + Porteus-Wheezy

[stemsee]

Hi all

Where does DD store its boot drive/folder info? Puppy uses /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE for example.

thanks in advance

[saintless]

Hi, Stemsee.

The only valid for all boot methods information about what squashfs is in use is inside /etc/blkid.tab and /etc/blkid-cache
Otherwise it depends from the init script for each boot method.

Poreteus-boot -> /var/log/porteus-livedbg
Live-boot-2x and 3x -> /var/log/live.log
Puppy-boot -> /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE

Toni

[fredx181]

Hi stemsee,

Tell us first about which boot method, e.g. live-boot, porteus-boot, puppy-boot.
Things could also depend on if save file/folder in use or not.

Fred

[stemsee]

Hi Fred & Saintless


Of course, I didn't even check, /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE for puppy boot method!

hmm .... /etc/blkid.tab ... so in my case, booting from sda1, sda1 is listed first and has the earliest boot time - is it that time is the reliable source for a script to find the boot device from /etc/blkid.tab? Of course I know that it booted from sda1 too! Or is blkid.tab simply a list in order of partitions on the disks? I will have to change boot drive to see what happens in blkid.tab!

Now I am thinking more clearly too, DD always boots from 'live' folder, so I only need to find the boot partition.

Now I need to boot with the other methods to check /var/log/porteus e.t.c.

Thanks

[fredx181]

Hi Stemsee,

For porteus boot it's listed in: /mnt/live/etc/homedrv
To extract you could do:

Code: Select all

cat /mnt/live/etc/homedrv | cut -c6-9

For live boot v2 'df -h' will show /live/image as boot drive, so this should show it;

Code: Select all

df -h | grep -P '/live/image' | cut -c6-9

Live-boot v3 is problematic with this.

Fred

[stemsee]

For Your Interest

Each distro already has its own remastering solution but I wanted one to cope with all the distros I use. And one that is the fastest. sfsdirect-remaster is my favourite. I am posting from a sfsdirect remastered 01-filesystem.squashfs, I can't find any issues at all!!!! But I know saintless will

I made a .deb package in DD of my Remastering-Suite, which contains three scripts; sfsdirect-remaster, unattendremaster, and unresync. For now the first two both build sfs/squashfs for DebianDog FatDog EmSeeV2+ Slacko-5.7+ and other pups. Only the iso stage is missing for DD, as I need to insert the code to find the boot folder (for non puppy boot methods) and copy the kernel and initrd and related files to build the new iso, similar case for FatDog, just needs code to edit and replace sfs in initrd and repack initrd.
fake .gz

[saintless]

Hi, Stemsee.

I can't help you much with the code but made quick test of sfsdirect-remaster.
It does not make personal settings cleaning like network settings and audio settings which means with different hardware and different ISP you will get troubles settong up network connection. Multiuser also will not work correctly because /tmp has wrong permissions. We fixed this problems long time ago while Fred was working on RemasterDog and all cleaning information and /tmp permissions you can see in /opt/bin/remasterdog or /opt/bin/remasterdog-cli

unattendremaster - make the choice time longer. It is not easy to read all the info and make proper choice for 8 seconds. Also swap partition or swap file do not help for working in RAM. The actuall RAM size (which is 50-80% from existing RAM) is what you can use as free space to remaster in RAM. SWAP is different and you cant actually use swap to create working folder there.
I couldn't test unattendremaster proper because it does not except sda1 as working ext partition (or it needs already existing apupsys work directory) and points ram or sda2 as default (but sda2 is my SWAP partition). Remaster in /tmp fails because I have only 64 Mb free space there. This is the output (unfortunately I do not have much time for testing these days):

Code: Select all

                      INTRODUCTION
This is an unattended remastering script.  All questions throughout the 
script are optional. There is no need to answer any of them, as default fallback
answers are provided.

Please note on a full install you must copy initrd.gz to /boot.
sed: -e expression #1, char 0: no previous regular expression
                       SPECIAL FUNCTIONS
 ... If you just want to mksquashfs an existing 'apupsys' directory
enter code number;
'1' for a gz compressed ''
'2' for fatdog ''
'3' for DebianDog.
 And
'4' for iso re/make.

Enter 'code' for 'sf' special functions or wait for default - new remaster.
 8 seconds\n: \c
3

 You entered '3'

Enter partition name of ext 2/3/4 partition for remastering folder 
or existing remaster directories for 'sf' special functions.
                eg 'sda3' or 'home' 
or press enter for '/' in ram or wait for default 'sda2' 8 seconds
: sda1

 You entered 'sda1'

mount: /dev/sda1 already mounted or /media/sda1 busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sda1 is already mounted on /media/sda1

Cannot stat source directory "/media/sda1/apupsys" because No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/media/sda1/01-filesystem.squashfs': No such file or directory
squashed xz compression and is in '/media/''sda1'/'dir2'

I guess I need to change sda1 manually in the script to create apupsys outside /tmp. Maybe option to change /tmp to ext partition when the scripts starts will help when there is no enough RAM available.

[stemsee]

Good feedback for me to work on.

Thanks for that!

you entered 3 ... that is for special functions when an existing apupsys is in existence! I need to make this clearer! Just let it roll for the full remaster.

[stemsee]

Hi all

I just found out that mkisofs isn't in DD but genisoimage is and the options are mind boggling!! Googling didn't yield a usable result so
could you share with me the command used to build the bootable iso image for DebianDog?

Thanks

[saintless]

I use the same iso by replacing the main squashfs file for next version, Stemsee. Never builded iso with command line tools.
Mkisofs is part of rootstrap debian package but just checked in Squeeze version and it adds 32Mb because of python dependencies. Too much to add it.

Toni

[stemsee]

turns out it is a drop in replacement ie exactly the same command for genisoimage as for mkisofs

genisoimage -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -D -l -R -v -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o "$niso" $path$drive/$dir2

mkisofs -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -D -l -R -v -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o "$niso" $path$drive/$dir2

[saintless]

Hi, Fred!

Uploaded again mount-wizard with added gsu line:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/ ... 1_i386.deb

And deb package with menus for sfs-get, gdrive-get and smokey-get:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/ ... 1_i386.deb
If you like the menus we can add it as it is in the next version.

New Squeeze iso uploaded with most changes added and some special fixes for Squeeze. Any time you say we can start remaster Wheezy version.

Toni

[fredx181]

Hi, Fred!

Uploaded again mount-wizard with added gsu line:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/ ... 1_i386.deb

And deb package with menus for sfs-get, gdrive-get and smokey-get:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/Fredx181/ ... 1_i386.deb
If you like the menus we can add it as it is in the next version.

New Squeeze iso uploaded with most changes added and some special fixes for Squeeze. Any time you say we can start remaster Wheezy version.

Toni

Hi Toni,
That's a coincidence!, I'm just working on improving smokey-get script, for the most part to make updating faster (got it already 3x faster using different wget options but trying to make it work with elinks now).
I'll let you know later about it and when I'm ready for new Wheezy remaster.
May take some time, coming week is busy for me.

Fred

[fredx181]

Sorry, double post.

Fred

[saintless]

Hi, Fred.

Take your time. I also have some busy days here.
I made squeeze update mostly because /var/run and var/tmp were not included in remaster scripts cleaning (not links like in wheezy and making /var/run simlink to /run breaks the boot process) and added the latest changes.

Stemsee,
thanks for the deb package. I see /tmp gets the correct permissions now which is important for user accounts.

Toni

[stemsee]

I just noticed in DD make swap it recommends /mnt/home for location!

StemseeS-Remastering-Suite-rc2

EDIT 30th September 00:00
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4GhZV ... sp=sharing

.deb complete

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4GhZV ... sp=sharing

[saintless]

Make-swap recommends as locations /live/image (= /mnt/home for live-boot) or /mnt/home (= /live/image for porteus-boot or puppy-boot) and name pupswap.swp



The point is to make possible to use the same swap file for anyone using dual boot frugal on the same partition DebianDog and Puppy. Also valid for /opt/bin/mount-swap
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 004#788004

[stemsee]

Oh I see ... /mnt/home exists on other boot methods ... I didn't see it on puppy boot method, only /mnt/ ... !! Just a petty observation really ... the important thing is that it works great!

And I have to say I am using DD more and more without being conscious of the fact! A very polished user experience indeed.

[saintless]

Thanks to Fred in the next iso versions all boot methods will create proper /live/image (and /live/cow) link in any situation (no-save, save-file, save-folder, save-partition, encrypted-save). Porteus-boot already does that and /mnt/home can be removed from make-swap recommend line, but it does not hurt if it stays as it is. It is still available location for porteus-boot.
But you are right, Stemsee - the initrd file for puppy-boot does not create /mnt/home but /initrd/mnt/dev_save if save-file/folder is in use and /initrd/mnt/dev_ro2 for no-save boot.
/mnt/home should be symlink to /initrd/mnt/dev_save or dev_ro2 but I guess this link is created later in puppy boot process. DebianDog runs the original Debian scripts after Puppy initrd init script finish.

Toni

[saintless]

Hi, Fred.

Next version fixes post changed to point for download:

Flashplayerchoice with your improvement about changing version number for version 11:
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/Debia ... choice.zip
Small change in mk-save.gtkdlg for live-boot only for default empty label instead default label live-rw:
http://smokey01.com/saintless/DebianDog ... new.tar.gz

Toni