Remaster from HD install

[CrashedAgain]

On Mon Sep 22, 2003, Fabianx posted
('News' forum, subject 3.3 changelog):

>>>Klaus as always prefers the "knoppix-mode", which installs a system, which runs as if you run it from CD. You can even remaster from this system, as "nothing" is changed...
[endquote]

Has anyone actually done this?

I've tried but it's not going well. Other than using a 'Knoppix-install' Feb-04 Knx3.3 on hda5 as a remaster source, I've pretty much followed the method in the Docs How-to. The system also has Mandrake 9.2 on hda8, I've put the remaster iso on hda8. Initially I made the compressed fs from Mandrake but attempting to run it got the same 'Can't find file system' problem Danmak describes in his post. So I remade the compressed fs using Knoppix running from CD but still got the same error.
Then, since Knx 3.3 has the 'Tohd' & 'FromHD' cheatcodes, I installed 'poorman Knoppix' on hda8. After verifiing that it ran OK, I substituted the remastered-compressed fs for the original. No other changes. Now it finds the fs & runs but I'm getting the following error during boot:

fsck 1.35-WIP
fsck.ext2: ls a directory while trying to open /
/:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem.
fsck failed. Please repair manually & reboot

root@console[/]#:

Then if I try to startx, it is unable to start dcopserver so KDE will not run, although xFCE runs fine.

I'm beginning to think this may be because of starting from a HD-install.

Any ideas anyone??

Incidentally, I'm using the following as a boot procedure for the 'FromHD' install:

Copied vmlinuz & miniroot.gz from Knoppix to Mandrake /boot, renaming them vmlinuz-knx & miniroot-knx.gz.

Added a lilo entry:
# boots Knoppix compressed file system on hda7
image=/boot/vmlinuz-knx
label="Knoppix"
initrd=/boot/miniroot-knx.gz
append="fromhd=/dev/hda7 apm=power-off"

No need for boot disk & works like a charm.

[CrashedAgain]

OK, it looks like no one else has tried this. It seems like a good idea, make your remaster from a workable system rather than a 'chroot jail' as tech2k calls it.
Well, here's a partial answer to my own question FYI to anyone who is interested.

1) Expect video problems. Once you get the remaster burned, it seems reluctant to read the hardware & properly set itself up on a different machine (particularly video). Not sure why, mkfx86config is still there & seems to work when tried alone but xf86cnfig-4 doesn't update, it stays set for the video on the orignating machine.

2) The knoppix-installer script & associated files do NOT get copied to the HD when you do a HD install. So, unless you manually find & install them they are not going to be on your remaster. Which means that you cannot do a HD install from your remaster unless you use the old knx-hdinstall script (which doesn't install automounters for floppy & CD, among other shortcomings).

3) There seems to be other problems with it thinking it has printer modules when it doesn't really. I haven't sorted this out yet, maybe it is just a dodgey remaster.

Overall, I think the 'chroot' method is going to give better results.

[mzilikazi]

I suppose the chroot method is fine if all you want to do is add or remove a few apps but if you really want to remaster you'll boot into your remastering environment.
I use the knoppix-type install, boot into it, change it accordingly and then
compress it and write it. Works flawlessly everytime. :) No chroot nonsense required! You might like to read this:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3314

[CrashedAgain]

I suppose the chroot method is fine if all you want to do is add or remove a few apps but if you really want to remaster you'll boot into your remastering environment.
I use the knoppix-type install, boot into it, change it accordingly and then
compress it and write it. Works flawlessly everytime. :) No chroot nonsense required! You might like to read this:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3314


WARNING: THESE SCRIPTS WILL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM, MAKE YOUR
HARDDISK UNREADABLE, YOUR TV WILL EXPLODE, YOU WILL HAVE 7 YEARS OF BAD
LUCK, YOUR GIRLFRIEND WILL LEAVE YOU, AND THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
WILL COME TO A SUDDEN END. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ;-)


Sounds like the theme for a country music song!(grin)

Are you using these scripts?
Are you doing something different than I am?

I would really like to do it this way, it's a lot easier but I seem to have problems as you can see.
I don't understand why the video problems, when booting the remasterd CD on my laptop mkxf86config runs & properly detects the video card (ati) but doesn't update xf86config-4 which remains set for the video card of the originating machine (i810). With this setting, x won't start so the system retries with VESA. X then starts but video isn't right.
If I then exit x & manually edit xf86config-4, x starts OK.
There are other problems, I have upgraded to KDE3.2.2 but ksplash crashes or freezes at "initiating interprocess communications" (KDE still starts more or less OK) but this is not likely due to anything in the remaster process.
Also, if I boot the remaster Knoppix 2 then try to startx manually, x won't start & ends up with a 'No screens found" error. If I try to edit xf86config before starting x (using 'joe' editor), the editor starts, reads the file then the whole system freezes up.
I also want to be able to do a HD install from the remaster but 'knoppix-installer' is missing, it doesn't get transferred to the Knoppix-style HD install used for the source. I have tried to just copy it in but that didn't work.
I've tried 3 remasters with various amounts of changes (one with a bunch of excess removed but still with KDE 3.1, one with the same stuff removed but with complete KDE 3.2, one with a minimal amount of stuff removed but KDE upgraded to 3.2) but all have the same problem so I assumed it must be a result of remastering from HD install.
Now (as per my new post), I am having problems getting internet (nameserver) connection when trying the chroot method so can't get apt-get to work.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[CrashedAgain]

Have studied your scripts & I think I see where some of the problems are so I'll have another go at it. Thanks.

[CrashedAgain]

OK, I have finally got a couple of working remasters starting from 'Knoppix' HD install. My video problem was that I didn't realize XFConfig files had to be deleted on the CD in order to be re-created at boot and if you nuke KDE by doing apt-get remove libarts1', it also nukes knx-installer.
Many thanks to Mzilikazi for your help.

I started out doing everything manually then started working with some of the scripts. It appears Mzilikazi's script which he says was based on Charan's originally was based on Klaus' original script, so I've been trying to work my way through Klaus' to understand how it works. I'm not very good at scripting, I have some questions which I will put in another post.

Thanks again.