Running X before chroot...

[nvgringo]

Thank you all very much. I'm sure I will have a lot more questions. I am creating a live DVD. I think I will call it Bloat. I added back Gnome and Xfce4 and anything else I could that didn't remove files or update libs. So far everything works great. I just need to adjust a few thing in the desktops

[nvgringo]

I got KDE up and running. The KDE setup program started. I changed a few of the settings and burned the iso. The settings did not save. I must have missed something. I will try again in a couple of days and post all of the steps.

[nvgringo]

I got KDE to start. I got the default startup. You know where it asks for your country and style settings. most of the programs are in the menu but all of the settings in KDE are default. It looks like the command cp -R /etc/skel /home/knoppix does not copy over the hidden files with the settings. Also none of my drives mounted. Am I supposed to run 45xsession script so that the .files copy to /home/knoppix? or is that someting that starts when KDE starts? Is there some command that will copy the hidden files?

I tried to start synaptic from KDE. It wanted Root password. would it be ok to set a root password to get software installed or would that create problems?

[nvgringo]

I managed to copy the files from /etc/skel to /home/knoppix using drag and drop in konq. the settings seemed right but everything was in german and the mouse did not work and none of the drives loaded. this is driving me nuts

[arkaine23]

You do not have an /etc/fstab file in your remaster's filesystem because hardware detection has not been run, so you won't be able to mount drives very easily. It's better if you use a terminal that is not chrooted in order to copy files into your remastered filesystem. Some things are easier to do outside the chroot and some must be done inside it.

cp /mnt/hda#/some/file /mnt/hda#/my/remastered/filesystem



to copy the .files if they are getting missed-

cp -R /etc/skel/.* /home/knoppix



you can

ls -al /home/knoppix

to see all files in that directory (including the hidden files)




This is why when I'm done with editing the configurations in X, I move the original /etc/skel somewhere else and then rename /home/knoppix to /etc/skel. That way I know everything is there in /etc/skel, and that /home/knoppix no longer exists. Then I chown it back to root.

mv /my/remaster's/etc/skel /mnt/hda#/skel.bak (done outside chroot)

mv /home/knoppix /etc/skel (done inside chroot)

chown -R root /etc/skel (done inside chroot)



And the last trick is the 45xsession script. This script controls just which configurations in /etc/skel will get put in /home/knoppix when you actually boot off your remastered CD. So if a configuration for some program or some part of KDE is not listed in the lines of the script that do this, then the remastered CD will not use those configurations.



It's not too hard, but it has taken me weeks sometimes to sort it out and get it working right.

[nvgringo]

It worked, it looks like all of my settings were saved. One minor problem now. At least I think that it is minor. The only window manager that will work is KDE. I used your "shotgun approach" for the 45-xsession. Maybe here is a file in /etc/skel that I need user knoppix to own so that the window manager selection will be written and saved

[arkaine23]

Ah, yes. For icewm and fluxbox, the global configs are in /usr/share I think. I haven't tried adjusting wmaker or xfce yet. I figure that a few barebones minimal window managers are a good thing.

When you are in those WM's as knoppix in your chrooted environment, you are adjusting the user-level configs in /home/knoppix that eventually get put in /etc/skel. However these WM's are set to use the global configs instead of the uyser configs. So to make changes to them, I suggest comparing your already modified configs with the ones in /usr/share/icewm and /usr/share/fluxbox.

Icepref, myice, and several other gui configurators are available for icewm if you don't want to edit the configuration by hand. You'll just need to install one of them with apt-get (and possibly remove it later if you are running low on space). I usually edit fluxbox configs by hand.

Also, if you want to set bmp/jpg/png backgrounds in fluxbox instead of the tiles that its themes use, you can edit the theme files. To accomplish this I install eterm (a transperancy-capable terminal) which includes the program esetroot. Esetroot can be used in the fluxbox theme configurations to set an image as a background. This is not the only way to set a background in a fluxbox theme, but its the way I like to do it.

I didn't know anything about tweaking icewm or fluxbox until I started remastering my own Knoppix. Google and various Linux forums were able to answer all my questions though.

I also had some trouble with getting Gnome to restore its saved session, but I can't remember now what I did to make it work......

[nvgringo]

First of all thanks again for taking your time to help.
But I dont think that you understand the problem that I am having. It does not matter which desktop I try to use KDE is the only one that will come up. If I choose fluxbox as a cheat code at startup KDE starts. If I use Fabians restart X script and choose GNOME. X restarts with KDE. I could understand If the WM started up without the changed settings. but they are not starting at all. Just KDE. The settings in KDE saved just fine by the way.
Also if I want to use Synaptic in the chroot enviroment with X running do I have to set up a root password? If I do have to set up a root can I remove it before burning the remaster?
Have I used up all of my questions yet

[Sago7]

Before chroot-.... Startx X with:

startx /usr/bin/fluxbox

That is????...

Or edit the file... i dont remember his name... but when you see it you will say: "this is".. because the name is very explicit, its in /etc/ or /etc/X11/. And inside of the file is the default window manager... Just change KDE for Fluxbox..

[pokemontel]

Hi..
After following all the step given by all member,
I managed to came out with my remastered cd.

The only problem is that, when I', using startx under the chroot env, follow the given step by

arkaine23
----------------------------------
That is how I remaster.

Boot in text mode with code knoppix 2
chroot into your remaster filesystem
(from outside of chroot) cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hdxx/your/remaster's/etc/X11
cp -R /etc/skel /home/knoppix
chown -R knoppix /home/knoppix
vi /home/knoppix/.xinitrc (and set tyhe WM I want to start)
su knoppix
startx

--------------------------------

The problem is that its say that I can't run kde . not enough memory...
FYI, I'm using 2GB of memory. I had check using top on the parents directory and still got lots of available memory.

Need input....

thank you

pokemontel...