Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix - without "chroot"

[utu]

I now see you've changed the logo to 6.7.1.
Were there any changes within the scripts other than the logo?

[Werner P. Schulz]

The logo is in the picture '/opt/knx/knoppix/boot/isolinux/boot671.png'. You can modify it, for example with GIMP, or create another picture (640x480 pixel). Change the line "MENU BACKGROUND.." in the file '/opt/knx/knoppix/boot/isolinux/graphics.conf'

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.7.1 remaster)

[Werner P. Schulz]

I now see you've changed the logo to 6.7.1.
Were there any changes within the scripts other than the logo?

Yes, i changed some things and corrected logical errors. I inserted messages in the dialog-boxes in case of trouble.

The cloop-modul to extract the compressed filesystem image is the old (from V6.7.0). The new sources for kernel and cloop are not available; I think because of the hack of ftp.kernel.org.

[utu]

Greetings, Werner

I have a question for you.

Since I now have a USB with LOTS of Gbs, might I just as well add your remastering tools
to a LiveUSB with adequate Gbs rather than use an actual HD install as the basis?

If that's not NOW an option, would it take too much re-programming to do remastering that way?

[Werner P. Schulz]

You cannot use my remaster scripts for a flash-disk installation, only for a HD Installation.

In a HD Installation you must not fiddle with the compressed filesystem Image and the compressed persistent memory. You have a Debian-like filesystem and it is very easy to remaster it.

In a flash-disk Installation you have to recombine the compressed filesystem Image and the persistent memory. In the next step the old compressed filesystem Image and the persistent memory will be removed from the flash-disk and the new compressed filesystem Image is written to the flash-disk. The third step creates a new persistent memory.

I described this on my page, but I do not recommend "recombine". In case of error you may lose all your datas. And I did not have time to test the "recombine"-scripts in detail and to make them more user-friendly.

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.7.1 remaster)

[utu]

Greetings, Werner.

Here's my question in more detail.

Given the following:
A host computer having a working and valuable hdd install of a Non-Linux system;
... said system having CD, CD/DVD recording and several USB ports.

0. Start with a LiveCD and a bootable USB with many Gbs
1. Use GParted on the LiveCD to establish an 8-12 Gb partition on the USB
... and format that to reiserfs
2. Use GParted to establish a 1-2 Gb partition on that same USB
... and format that to swap
3. Use the LiveCD to do an 'HD-Install' on the reiser/swap USB partition

4. Adjust the bootable USB to allow its booting to the 'HD-Install' partition;
... and specifically avoid chaining to-, or changing- any existing MBR arrangement
... on the HDD of the host

5. Boot the new USB partition and add the Schulz remastering programs
6. Proceed as if this were an actual HD-Install

My question really is: is Item 4 do-able or nonsense?

[Werner P. Schulz]

6. Proceed as if this were an actual HD-Install

My question really is: is Item 4 do-able or nonsense?

In this case it is a real HD Installation, and not "as if this were". Therefore you can use the kn-scripts. But your BIOS must be able to boot from USB.

[Werner P. Schulz]

Oh, I see, my answer didn't hit your question.

and specifically avoid chaining to-, or changing- any existing MBR arrangement
... on the HDD of the host

If you do the HD Installation with the 0wn-script from KK, then this script writes the Grub-bootloader in the MBR of the flash-disk. Take care, which options of the script you select. And if your BIOS has the ability to boot from USB, you can tell BIOS to boot the USB. Therefore you don't need to change anything in the bootloader of your productive OS (Windows?).

[utu]

Hello, again Werner.

Thanks for reviewing my situation; I think you see my problem now.

I don't mind if 0wn modifies the MBR of my USB, so long as it does
not also modify the MBR of my HDD. The prompts on the 0wn grub choices
menu are unclear (to me) in this regard. I need to figure out exactly
what's going on for each 0wn choice, and probably understand grub itself
much better than I do.

If I can get past this hurdle, your revised remastering process does
exactly what I want, and happily avoids being put in a VirtualBox or
a chroot jail. HDD-MBR Hell is still a concern. I think it's what I
get if I make the wrong 0wn grub setup menu choice

[utu]

Multi purpose USB-stick
To create a multi purpose USB-stick (4 GB) proceed as follows:

Boot VirtualBox with Knoppix-HD-Installation
Insert USB-stick
Create with gparted a primary partition #1, 3 GB, fat32 formatted
Create with gparted a primary partition #2, 1 GB, fat32 formatted
Select 'Preferences/ Install KNOPPIX to flash disk'
Select '.. target device sdb ..', '.. directory containing KNOPPIX files "/opt/knx/knoppix"\
..' and '.. format device No ..'
In this case the installation will be done on /sdb1 and /sdb2 will be untouched.

Unplug and reinsert USB-stick; mount both partitions of stick
Copy '/KNOPPIX/' from /media/sdb1 to /media/sdb2; delete '/KNOPPIX/' on /media/sdb1.
If you boot with this multi purpose USB-stick, '/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX' will be found on the partition #2\
and you can also create the persistent memory on partition #2.\
But if you boot with another OS (perhaps Windows) and insert this USB-stick,\
then you can only use partition #1 of the stick.\
Don't delete '/boot/' and 'ldlinux.sys' on partition #1 of this stick!

Greetings, Werner.

1. Will the persistence file end up on partition #1? or #2?

2. How might these ideas be adapted to a large USB
... having a large number of partitions, anyway more than two,
... except for the syslinux bootable partition,
... each conceivably with its own unique iso?