Revised version of Remastering HowTo

[Werner P. Schulz]

The MBR question is ambiguous in regard to the term 'first hard disk'.

@ utu
I'm not quite sure, whar you mean with 'first hard disk'? If you refer to "Install GRUB bootloader to MBR", then it means: MBR of the virtual drive within the virtual machine.

[utu]

@ Werner

The 'first-hard-drive' nomenclature is in the prompts
that come up during 'Knoppix-install-to-hd'. I'm really
finding this a tough slog, not knowing what next to
expect. I have the following suggestion for your Summary
page, that you have an opening paragraph entitled
Pre-requisites. I am coming to the conclusion that the
following at least must be anticipated (and I didn't):

1. A working VirtualBox or VMWare Player setup, and
some familiarity of working with such setup starting from
a working iso. I'm not at all sure Windows 7 qualifies
as an adequate host, either.

2. Previously prepared linux and linux-swap partitions of
some dimension or other of adequate size for the work
intended.

3. The usual expected familiarity with command line
operations and synaptics, with some notion of just what
changes might be interested in a re-mastering effort.
That is, what programs to add, which to remove. And
probably a good working familiarity with boot processes
is also necessary.

I'm sure this is old hat to you and others, but items one
and two are real speed bumps to those of us even fairly
well into Windows and Linux as working distributions, but
not versed in all the behind the scenes necessary for really
'involved' enterprises like re-mastering.

This lack of spelling out the prerequisites is a pervasive
negative characteristic of a lot of the interesting cutting
edge discussions on this forum, I might add. Poor-man's-
install comes to mind.

[Werner P. Schulz]

To remaster a Knoppix isn't for beginners. The user must have experience with VirtualBox and especially with Linux.

I remaster a Knoppix
a) to obtain a Rescue CD with all the tools I like
b) to create a image of Ubuntu within a Knoppix DVD

If a user isn't experienced or he only needs little changes of Knoppix, then a "Flash disk Installation" or a "Poor man harddrive Installation" is a good choice.

My "summary" isn't as detailled as my explanations on my pages in German language. But in the summary is the instruction, how to do HD Installation within the virtual drive.

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.4.4 remaster)

[itman007]

Where is the revised version of Remaster? (url) Looking at the above post from Schlz I am lead to belive that I can install to flash or hard disk and make my changes there.? I need to make my changes / add or remove packages then start terminal services and the clients have access to the changes Ive made. I need also to auto start things like rdesktop or vm view or have the icons launchable from the desktop when the clients start . Any help or directions here? Thanks greatly!

[Capricorny]

There are actually several rather different methods working. My (and some others') preferred way is to

1. Copy the compressed KNOPPIX image plus the persistent image to harddisk
2. aufs-mount them like in a running KNOPPIX instance
3. "unwrap" the /UNIONFS file system by copying (rsyncing) most of it to a remastering directory.
4. Do some minor modifications, like copy /home and /var over to a new persistent image, and copy the original Knoppix versions of these directories to the file system to compress.
5. Create isofs from the remastering directory, and compress that to a new cloop image. Squashfs is a good alternative to cloop, but requires modification of minirt.gz
6. Create new persistent image from /home and /var.
7. Copy the new versions of KNOPPIX(.sq) and knoppix-data.img into an existing KNOPPIX directory, and test run that in qemu. By setting up main drive grub to boot the remastered KNOPPIX image, you can test run it by running qemu /dev/sda & and choose the new boot option from grubs menu. There you may also make modifications.

As for net booting Knoppix, it works fine, but I don't know what has to be done to make adaptation for the clients. Everything from the cloop image is available, but I don't know about persistent store etc. But you can pack any amount of startup scripts into the remastered image, I think.

[Werner P. Schulz]

Where is the revised version of Remaster? (url)

Remastering HowTo

... you can combine:
1. remaster Knoppix
2. "Flash disk Installation" of remastered Knoppix (Install FAQ)

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.7.0 remaster)

[itman007]

Ok Ive Selected Flash Disk Install and all seems to have installed to the flash disk. I set size for persistent home. So if I understand correctly I can now remove things that I dont want and add apps that I wish? Then once thats done an iso of this flash install can be created?

[Werner P. Schulz]

Oh, no! You can remaster a Knoppix with all your changes as you prefer. Then do a "Flash disk Installation" of this remastered ISO. In this Flash disk Installation you can additional changes and they will be stored in the persistent memory. But you cannot create a new ISO of "remasterd ISO" + "persistent memory".

Why? If you for example purge GIMP and then remaster Knoppix, then GIMP isn't in the new ISO. The new ISO is not as big as before.

But if you "purge" GIMP in the Flash disk installation. then GIMP isn't really purged. It remains in the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX; only some remarks will be done in the UNIONFS to make GIMP invisible.

Now, if you try to build a new ISO using your Flash disk Installation, then there would be no benefit; all is as big as before.

That is the reason, why I prefer remastering first. I get a small ISO to burn on CD or to use for Flash disk Installation. And a small ISO boots faster than a big one.

[Capricorny]

Oh, no! You can remaster a Knoppix with all your changes as you prefer. Then do a "Flash disk Installation" of this remastered ISO. In this Flash disk Installation you can additional changes and they will be stored in the persistent memory. But you cannot create a new ISO of "remasterd ISO" + "persistent memory".

Why? If you for example purge GIMP and then remaster Knoppix, then GIMP isn't in the new ISO. The new ISO is not as big as before.

But if you "purge" GIMP in the Flash disk installation. then GIMP isn't really purged. It remains in the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX; only some remarks will be done in the UNIONFS to make GIMP invisible.

Now, if you try to build a new ISO using your Flash disk Installation, then there would be no benefit; all is as big as before.

That is the reason, why I prefer remastering first. I get a small ISO to burn on CD or to use for Flash disk Installation. And a small ISO boots faster than a big one.

This is one of the reasons we include a copying step in our "poor man's remastering" process: rsyncing most of /UNIONFS from a flash install to a new directory, we purge all removed packages, and then create a new isofs/squashfs. I know that some of the remasterers of live Ubuntu have just created the new image directly from the aufs-mounted system. This goes faster, but I don't think it is as safe. Also, I myself prefer not working from a live file system.

[kl522]

But if you "purge" GIMP in the Flash disk installation. then GIMP isn't really purged. It remains in the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX; only some remarks will be done in the UNIONFS to make GIMP invisible.

Now, if you try to build a new ISO using your Flash disk Installation, then there would be no benefit; all is as big as before.

Hmm it depends. It depends on ***HOW*** you remaster your ISO using the flash disk installation. If one does it the correct way, it is possible to remaster the new ISO to make it smaller ( ie leave out the deleted files). In fact, ***ALL** the remaster of flash installation mentioned in this forum, one of the purposes is to make the ISO/compressed file system smaller.

So if one asks me which should come first, flash installation or remaster ? I would say flash install first. Flash install first, customize it the way you want it to be. Test it fully, 3 months or later, then remaster.