Best debian to remaster into my own liveusb?

linus72 · 08-07-2009, 08:33 PM

Been playing with the debian live stuff recently

debian live lxde
debian live rescue
debian live standard

grml 2009
hag 2009
gparted live newest

My aims?

Debian Live fluxbox edition

Hag has the most beautiful/functional fluxbox I've seen so far...
Gparted live at 100mb comes with fluxbox too

combining aspects of both is my objective

This means probably chrooting into either/both and working out the kinks..

I could probably just unsquashfs both and rebuild too...

Anyone here tried remastering live before?
or any debian based distro?
thanks

j1alu · 08-10-2009, 11:17 PM

this methods from the second post work for me:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/dean...apr08.php.html

(ok: usually work :-) )

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 08:04 AM

Very nice
I'll see if it works on grml/hag, as they are debian unstable...

What did you do j1alu to remaster yours?
which live did you use?

j1alu · 08-11-2009, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

Very nice
I'll see if it works on grml/hag, as they are debian unstable...

What did you do j1alu to remaster yours?
which live did you use?

ok, i hope it will work for you (for me its an either it work or it doesn`t. on sid as host its an disaster, on lenny all is nice and easy).

i use lh_config to create a standard-x11 system, unpack it as described in the link
and add the wm`s (fluxbox and e17) and apps and all later. I`m not sure if i did it with an existing distribution yet (i dont think so, but it should work).
But i sure allready did it with unstable.

(if you run into trouble with live-helper im not sure if i may be of big help. as said i`m happy if i get it running. the wiki for live-helper aint bad. at how-to-section of forums.debian is a thread and theres the live-helper mailing-list; but its never easy finding info if one runs into trouble).

btw: i never heard of hag, downloaded it yesterday, and it really is great. good hint.

ok, good luck
greetings

ps: i dont think the syntax to open xnest is ok in the link, if you wanna use xnest i may give you the right way to open it.

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 09:03 AM

Yeah, Hag's pretty cool huh?
Nice fluxbox; I'm trying to make a basterdized version of Hag-0.1-20 and grml-medium-2009rc2
which is latest of both.

In a way I'm cheating, cause I'm not using the build from scratch method via lh_config, etc

I'm just unsquashfs'ing the grml-medium jank, chrooting in with either an already-hacked grml-medium or PMagic 4.4 on usb.
and then apt-getting stuff and changing wallpapers, etc

I keep getting errors permissions cause I'm trying to use a bothched together fluxbox menu, etc in home/grml; how do I change the permissions?

BTW, I have been using this very incomplete how-to, from myrinix, a russian remaster of debian/sidux unstable, it's pretty cool too
http://www.myrinix.com/www/index.php...d=53&Itemid=39

I'm gonna use the how-to you showed me above cause it seems to deal with permissions and stuff

OH, can I get X while I'm chrooted???
if so, how?
do I have to start the chroot from the console, no X
or what happens?

BTW, also, HAG won't let me auto-startx like grml does
try bootcode "startx=wm-ng" or "startx=fluxbox" and it won't do it
says no file somewhere?
thanks

j1alu · 08-11-2009, 10:43 AM

hi,
im in the library, so a bit spare on time.
i`ll check tonight or tomorrow if i may unsquash hag and let you know
(but it will need a bit of time).
in the link is a way to open X from within chroot with xnest, but i think it dosna work. I`ll edit this post and add the way to do it.
i`ll have a look at the link you gave
greetings

edit: that should work, or: thats the way i do it:

Quote:

as root from the host
Xnest -ac :2 &

chroot into the unsquashed fs:

Quote:

chroot fs
export LC_ALL=C
su username_of_live_cd
export DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:2
enlightenment_start &

(or startfluxbox or...)

-----------------
edit: mh, bad news i couldnt unpack it:

Quote:

ROOT# mount -t squashfs -o loop iso/live/Hag.squashfs temp
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

dont know why ?

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 12:32 PM

LOL
oh, did I forget to mention grml is squashfs-lzma?
theres a bin here
http://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2009-...b_without_a_cd

I also found out slax 6.1.2 uses mksquashfs/unsquashfs with lzma so go get slax 6.1.2 and it's in /slax/tools folder

I placed mksquashfs/unsquashfs and unsquashfs-lzma in the remaster folder and went to work

I wannna write a script that will aotumate the process of unsquashing, adding apps, etc then resquashing it

Hey check out this script for clamav livecd; it mounts/chroots and then updates clam, then resquash's everything and you end up with a updated iso
cool or what? it runs off usb good too

http://www.feedingthemachine.com/200...te-script.html

http://www.volatileminds.net/projects/clamav/

we should hack at this together?

you notice in hag the volume control on the flux toolbar and the "devices" menu in menu?
I gotta get that stuff

j1alu · 08-11-2009, 01:10 PM

ah: squashfs-lzma
(never heard that before, but i understand now).
Though i gotta slax-cd around, could you tell me a fast and easy way to install hag?
(as the squashfs-lzma-tools seem to be on it too). else i`ll try to adapt the how-to install on usb.

i had a short look at the clamav-script, though i dont know bash-scripting (just started of with python, but still beginner). The steps of the script seems very similar to the how-to i know.

im tired now and will try later, the easiest way for me would be installing hag (or slax) in virtualbox, move the hag.iso over there and unsquash(-lzma) it from there.

as i understand it worked for you? that would be cool.
greetings

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 01:40 PM

OK

fast and easy grml/hag on either fat32/syslinux usb or ext2/3 grub usb

You got hag iso; so just xtract or mount/copy that baby to a folder

open a term and become root

Quote:

sudo su
mkdir newusb
mkdir mount
mount -o loop Hag-0.1-20.iso mount
cp -a mount/* newusb

Now, hag is in "newusb" folder....
go into that folder and move it's contents to usb....

If using a grub ext2 or ext3 usb, it's already got a menu.lst in /boot/grub
but missing stage1, etc
so, copy grub files from your system
usually

Quote:

cp -a /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/* /mount-point/of/usb/boot/grub

that will copy files to usb

if using fat32 syslinux

change isolinux folder name to syslinux, there is a syslinux.cfg in /boot/isolinux

here's my syslinux.cfg

Code:

# use this to control the bootup via a serial port
# SERIAL 0 9600
#DEFAULT grml
DEFAULT /boot/isolinux/vesamenu.c32
TIMEOUT 300
# ONTIMEOUT chain.32 hd0 0
MENU BACKGROUND /boot/isolinux/blackcat.png
F1 /boot/isolinux/boot.msg
F2 /boot/isolinux/f2
F3 /boot/isolinux/f3
F4 /boot/isolinux/f4
F5 /boot/isolinux/f5
F6 /boot/isolinux/f6
F7 /boot/isolinux/f7
F8 /boot/isolinux/f8
F9 /boot/isolinux/f9
F10 /boot/isolinux/f10

# LABEL menu
# MENU HIDE
# KERNEL menu.c32

MENU TITLE grml - Boot Menu

LABEL -
MENU LABEL Back
KERNEL /boot/syslinux/vesamenu.c32

# the default:
LABEL grml
MENU LABEL grml - Standard Bootup
MENU DEFAULT
KERNEL /boot/grmlmedium/linux26
APPEND apm=power-off vga=791 quiet tz=US/Eastern noautoconfig initrd=/boot/grmlmedium/initrd.gz boot=live nomce persist startx=fluxbox persistent toram=grml-mediumz2.squashfs nolvm noswraid swap noprompt noeject

note that I already had a syslinux folder from pmagic, so I just left the isolinux folder as is, didn't change it's name

PERSISTENCE
make 2 partitions on usb, one for booting and one for persistence

sdb1 fat32 bootable syslinux installed labeled "GRML"
sdb2 ext2 labeled "live-rw"

or

sdb1 ext2 or ext3 bootable with grub labeled GRML
sdb2 ext2 labeled "live-rw"

Not persistent
GRML/Hag by default have eth0, etc disabled at boot, whats worse, even with persistent, when you shutdown it erases the file in /etc/resolv.conf/run/interface/*
so that at boot, no net!!?

discussed here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...48#post3636648

you gotta edit stuff in /etc/network /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/dhcpd3 plus more
it's hard

Here's part of my current flux menu

Code:

[begin] (Fluxbox) {} <>
    [exec] (XTerm) {grml-exec-wrapper xterm} </usr/share/pixmaps/xterm-color_32x32.xpm>
    [exec] (Root Eterm) {sudo /usr/bin/Eterm} <>
    [exec] (Root Xterm) {sudo x-terminal-emulator} <>
    [exec] (Root Gedit) {sudo grml-exec-wrapper gedit} <>
    [exec] (Root-Rox) {sudo grml-exec-wrapper rox-filer}
    [exec] (The GIMP) {/usr/bin/gimp} </usr/share/pixmaps/gimp.xpm>
    [exec] (Iceweasel) {grml-exec-wrapper iceweasel} </usr/share/pixmaps/iceweasel.xpm>

root baby! Gotta be root for me
LOL

does that work for usb or no?

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 01:59 PM

you can see the continuing effort here
http://multidistro.com/fluxboxp/fluxboxp.html

Getin ready to go in deep, and start fresh and get it up to about 300mb
I just added isomaster and set rox to open text files with sudo gedit and open iso's with sudo isomaster
radical

does that "free" output mean I'm only using 80mb? ram

j1alu · 08-11-2009, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

you can see the continuing effort here
http://multidistro.com/fluxboxp/fluxboxp.html

Getin ready to go in deep, and start fresh and get it up to about 300mb
I just added isomaster and set rox to open text files with sudo gedit and open iso's with sudo isomaster
radical

does that "free" output mean I'm only using 80mb? ram

looks cool

well: i ran into some issues:
a) after chrooting into the unpacked iso i had no net connection, so i couldnt install further apps or update/upgrade
(gotta check the link you gave above and try it again)
b) im doing it from hag-live cd (in the mounted hd-partition). i dunno with which command to pack it again (as i guess its gotta be a squahfs-lzma again ?)
c) xnest did work fine
might be doing it from slax is the better option.

i`ll install it later, thanks for the how-to, but with fast and easy i had a shorter way in mind: say typing "install" when it boots and thats it :-)

how did you do it finally?

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 02:37 PM

How did I do which?

netconnection?
LOL

you gotta edit copy your existing resolv.conf into /etc/resolv.conf and edit /etc/network
and /etc/dhcp3

here's /etc/network/interfaces

Quote:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

here's my /etc/resolv.conf

Quote:

# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 71.252.0.12
nameserver 71.242.0.12
search linksys

copy ypour /etc/resolv.conf and overwrite hag's

here's my /etc/resolv.conf/run/interfaces

it puts a file there for me named eth0
and it says

Quote:

search linksys
nameserver 71.252.0.12
nameserver 71.242.0.12

so, copy your resolv.conf from real distro to hag /etc/resolv.conf folder
then do "grml-network" or just try apt-get update

also
I just used mksquashfs form slax /tools folder

Quote:

./mksquashfs squashfs-root grml-medium.squashfs

./unsquashfs-lzma squashfs-root grml-medium.squashfs

j1alu · 08-11-2009, 02:43 PM

before chrooting into the unpacked iso i cp /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf over to the filesystem, but that didnt work. gotta look into that a bit deeper.

(ok, i also used the usual command mksquashfs, but from within hag. its running now, so i`ll check later if it worked)

no, my question was how did you configure the unpacked fs (if not with xnest)

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 02:58 PM

OH

i didn't configure it..?

I just did apt-get update/install/upgrade from terminal

you gotta edit stuff in /etc/default/dhcp-server /etc/default/ifplugd

here's my dhcp-server

Quote:

# Defaults for dhcp initscript
# sourced by /etc/init.d/dhcp
# installed at /etc/default/dhcp3-server by the maintainer scripts

#
# This is a POSIX shell fragment
#

# On what interfaces should the DHCP server (dhcpd) serve DHCP requests?
# Separate multiple interfaces with spaces, e.g. "eth0 eth1".
INTERFACES="eth0 eth1"

this is empty as is

Quote:

INTERFACES=""

ifplugd

Quote:

# This file may be changed either manually or by running dpkg-reconfigure.
#
# N.B.: dpkg-reconfigure deletes everything from this file except for
# the assignments to variables INTERFACES, HOTPLUG_INTERFACES, ARGS and
# SUSPEND_ACTION. When run it uses the current values of those variables
# as their default values, thus preserving the administrator's changes.
#
# This file is sourced by both the init script /etc/init.d/ifplugd and
# the udev script /lib/udev/ifplugd.agent to give default values.
# The init script starts ifplugd for all interfaces listed in
# INTERFACES, and the udev script starts ifplugd for all interfaces
# listed in HOTPLUG_INTERFACES. The special value all starts one
# ifplugd for all interfaces being present.
INTERFACES="eth0 eth1"
HOTPLUG_INTERFACES="eth0 eth1"
ARGS="-q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I"
SUSPEND_ACTION="stop"

I just added eth0 eth1

What I don't understand is how grml deletes my resolv.conf/run/interfaces/eth0 file at reboot, even in persistent?

I'm using grml-medium-2009rc2 testing version, I believe Hag is based on 2008 or early 2009 grml?

linus72 · 08-11-2009, 03:13 PM

OH
hey, when you did xnest and got a X window
were you already running X or running from command line?