HOWTO: Remaster the easy way using menu based scripts

[roadapathy]

I hate to be the devils advocate here but I would love to see this same HOW TO using
-just- run level 2!

Does anybody have a link to a how-to for Knoppix 3.6 or 3.7 that describes the remastering
process as well (if not better) than the above using -only- the command line run level 2?

PERSONAL NOTE: Anybody willing to make a new HOW-TO, I would love to see a section
that assumes the user wants to recompile his/her kernel for the remastered KNOPPIX.
I can not imagine using the stock kernel when there are so many goodies out there
that can be included.

[UnderScore]

I hate to be the devils advocate here but I would love to see this same HOW TO using
-just- run level 2!

OK. Just don't use runlevel 2. (I'm joking. sorta)
I use runlevel 5 and jump into KDE for the reasons that I like synaptic over aptitiude/apt-get and that I hate the default Knoppix transparent menus and the Keramik widget style. I install the kdeartwork package just so I can get the plastik widgets (which will be default style for KDE 3.4 thank god). If you don't need to custom configure the knoppix user's KDE desktop, and if you are comfortable with the command line and aptitude, then you can stay in runlevel 2 and complete the remastering process.

** I have updated the HOW TO reflect the concept of remastering entirely in runlevel 2 **

Anybody willing to make a new HOW-TO, I would love to see a section
that assumes the user wants to recompile his/her kernel for the remastered KNOPPIX.

That person will probably not be me. I find that custom compiling a new knoppix kernel is a task that is not applicable to the scope of this HOWTO. My initial reasons for remastering knoppix was to change the default KDE settings. Yes, I hate the transparent menus that much. I was familiar with the complicated remastering HOWTO and so I used that. When Fabian posted the menu scripts, I junped for joy since I would not have to remember all the commands. Now knoppix remastering is simple with my HOWTO.

I can not imagine using the stock kernel when there are so many goodies out there
that can be included.

If you have the time, I would like to know what kernel mods would you add. I use the stock kernels because I have found that they work on a wide variety of HW (I admit that I do have to use a lot of cheat codes) but I have not found it necessary to further customize the kernel. I will even admit that I run the latest stock 2.6.9 Debian kernel on my parent's PC. Personally I see no need to do a custom compile.

Thanks for you time,
James

[roadapathy]

James,

Thank you very very much for your excellent reply. I am anxious to try out your new HOWTO
to see if I can remaster knoppix 3.7. I follow the HOWTO's verbatim but somehow the author
seems to assume that I know something that I don't OR the software moves too far ahead
of the documents. INCIDENTLY, I had always been taught (no, beat over the head) to DOCUMENT
MY WORK! He meant comments in the code AND written documents. Hehehe. I think we
Linux users need to keep it up.

I would be happy to add to your HOWTO or make a seperate HOWTO concerning custom
kernels. My RH Fedora RC2 custom kernels all run flawlessly. They have been extremely
effective. Just so you know, I prefer to run a monolithic kernel using only what I need.
My Knoppix kernel is also monolithic but includes just about everything I think I might
run into out on the "field". I should probably use the modules for the field.

For my Fedora Kernel, I have about 4-5 kernels for various tasks. One of them has the CLOOP
patch and works just fine. The others have things that I only occassionaly need so I can reboot
and choose one of them. Mainly, I tweat them out as much as possible! I like to run lean
and mean.

I will look over your HOWTO and try to remaster (using stock kernels for now) and after that,
maybe we could collaborate! Let me know what you think.

Again, thank you thank you!

Joel

[sneakerski]

following those steps, after i switch to user knoppix within the second half and try to run startx, i get errors saying cannot start ksmserver and that theres not enough memory to run. i have 1GB of RAM with 1.5GBs of swap, all working. and startx as root works. so it's gotta be a problem with the user's config/permissions, but i can't figure it out. any ideas? using remaster 1.6 and knoppix-3.7-en

[UnderScore]

following those steps, after i switch to user knoppix within the second half and try to run startx, i get errors saying cannot start ksmserver and that theres not enough memory to run. i have 1GB of RAM with 1.5GBs of swap, all working. and startx as root works. so it's gotta be a problem with the user's config/permissions, but i can't figure it out. any ideas? using remaster 1.6 and knoppix-3.7-en

Thanks for taking the time to try out the HOWTO. Thanks for the feedback. Based on your post, I went through remastering again with Knoppix 3.7 public english and did not run into any errors. I actually copied and pasted the commands so that I knew I had typed them correctly and not made any typos. I am sorry that you had problems with the HOWTO and unfortunaetly I do not have any suggestions on how to fix that error.
James

[sneakerski]

i played around some with permissions of /tmp and /var/tmp and for some reason, after doing that i was able to get it to work
thanks for looking into the problem, and overall a great howto (the apt-get front end helped me so much, coming from gentoo's emerge)

[UnderScore]

i played around some with permissions of /tmp and /var/tmp and for some reason, after doing that i was able to get it to work
thanks for looking into the problem, and overall a great howto (the apt-get front end helped me so much, coming from gentoo's emerge)

Good, I'm glad you got it to work. Its good to hear from another Gentoo user here at knoppix.net.

[sneakerski]

haha i'm not exactly converting, just using it for it's far superior hardware detection
really tho, i got a dvd burner and felt it was time to experiment with partimage so i could have a 15 minute windows install preconfigured with drivers and programs (i use windows around 2 days out of the month, so i'm lazy securing it. this makes it easy to repair when/if it dies or gets bloated).

anyway, is there a decent way to switch window managers from kde to xfce4? i want to completely remove kde, except for qt and kdelibs (which k3b needs).

when knoppix starts up, it autoconfigures the XF86Config - is there any way to make it default use 1280x1024 instead of 1024x768? is it as simple as resaving XF86Config-4?
thanks for the help
ewww just realized knoppix STILL uses OSS. i'm definitely not stopping until i can get a custom kernel w/ alsa enabled to boot. 2.6.9-nitro4 here we come. if i get it to work and it requires not-simple steps i'll post a heads up for y'all

[UnderScore]

- Version 1.0.3 - Saturday December 18, 2004
- - - Credit Ian Naylor as a creator of the remastering scripts
- - - Changed title of HOWTO

[Decibels]

Think might have found a problem with the "Create compressed fs" when it
asked if you want "Do you want to cleanup your remaster"

I wrote a script to do some things at boot, also added cupsys to start.
Both kept getting deleted. Boot the remasted cd and cups wasn't started
and my symlink in /etc/rc5.d to myscript in /etc/init.d was also gone.

While the cleanup was going on, switched consoles and did a
'ls -l /mnt/hdb1/remaster/etc/rc*.d' and both mentioned were gone.
Stopped the cleanup and chrooted back, update-rc.d cupsys defaults.
Checked again and was there now.

Started the cleanup again and wiped them out again.
Next time didn't choose to cleanup and cupsys and myscript stayed.

Am I doing something wrong when remastering or is the cleanup removing
the links in /etc/rc*.d folders?

Looked thru the KNOPPIX.clean script and not seeing anything that would
do it, but maybe I am too tired. Spent quite awhile to get things just right
and why this problem occurs has eluded me, but looks like I have a work
around. Haven't tested the new burn yet.

New burn worked, so the cleanup was killing my links to cupsys and myscript.
Now they work. Haven't tried it, but might just be able to run cleanup, then
chroot back and add the default runlevels you want, then make the iso.