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I currently have a flash drive with GNOME and Debian set up to live boot. I use the live-booted Debian quite often, and there are a few simple changes that I have to make and packages that I have to install every time I load it up in order for it to do what I need it to do. The main thing I need to do is have it retain the wireless drivers and configuration that I set. Is there any way to modify certain aspects of the operating system like those I just mentioned permanently before it is booted (i.e. from a Windows computer)? I've tried doing research on this, since I assume that others have done it before, but I have come up empty. I just assume this is because I am not searching for the right things. Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
~JS
EDIT: I've found some stuff like this but I am not sure if it will be able to help me with what I need.
Thanks very much, that was quite helpful. I have yet to actually do it, though. Do you have any idea if it would boot the changes made when booted with the "persistent" parameter even if not booted into persistence mode? In other words, will the changes made in persistent mode stay with other live boots not in persistent mode? I don't want it to be persistent all of the time, I just want to make a few minor tweaks.
Distribution: Debian Wheezy, Jessie, Sid/Experimental, playing with LFS.
Posts: 2,900
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jstrieb
Hello,
I currently have a flash drive with GNOME and Debian set up to live boot. I use the live-booted Debian quite often, and there are a few simple changes that I have to make and packages that I have to install every time I load it up in order for it to do what I need it to do. The main thing I need to do is have it retain the wireless drivers and configuration that I set. Is there any way to modify certain aspects of the operating system like those I just mentioned permanently before it is booted (i.e. from a Windows computer)? I've tried doing research on this, since I assume that others have done it before, but I have come up empty. I just assume this is because I am not searching for the right things. Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
~JS
EDIT: I've found some stuff like this but I am not sure if it will be able to help me with what I need.
I have yet to actually do it, though. Do you have any idea if it would boot the changes made when booted with the "persistent" parameter even if not booted into persistence mode? In other words, will the changes made in persistent mode stay with other live boots not in persistent mode? I don't want it to be persistent all of the time, I just want to make a few minor tweaks.
I really don't know as I run AntiX instead of just straight Debian which uses grub2 while I use grub legacy. Maybe a grub line entry for using the live system without persistence as a choice might give you the result you want,
See, we have our own tool for that. I was not trying to be sarcastic. I was just going by what you said.
Quote:
I've tried doing research on this, since I assume that others have done it before, but I have come up empty. I just assume this is because I am not searching for the right things. Any help is appreciated!
Thanks,
~JS
EDIT: I've found some stuff like this but I am not sure if it will be able to help me with what I need.
So I did not know if you knew about Debian live persistence or not was why
I pointed you to it. Puppy Linux has a option like what you want with the pfix=ram boot option which just loads the live session without the save file.
Not running vanilla Debian. I am not sure if Debian live has that function also.
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
Rep:
I've had some success playing with the live CD builder following this tutorial http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/09/2...debian-livecd/
I enabled the non-free repositories and installed a few extra applications and some non-free firmware to see how easy it would be and it's a cinch. I've not finished playing with it yet and will hopefully create my own live USB stick with the wireless and other drivers I think I need as well as a user account other than root and some other tweaks. It's good fun to play with.
Install debian to the flash just as if it were a real hard drive install? It would take a bit more space on the drive since it isn't a compressed filesystem running live. It would allow proper updates and software additions.
It may be possible to use qemu to mount some linux disto in windows. You might then make it possible to mount the iso and make additions to the filesystem and then save it back inside an iso. There are some windows tools that can extract iso images but the issue would be if the compressed filesystem can be worked on. I doubt it.
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