Revised version of Remastering HowTo

[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.

[Werner P. Schulz]

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).

Have you a script example, how to do this?

[kl522]

Have you a script example, how to do this?

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...allation/page2

Forester who has disappeared from this forum has written a few scripts on this. I must admit that I haven't tried any of his scripts and I also don't really know which is the latest and best, but I believe he has gotten the essence of flash remaster, which is to clean up the wiped-out files.

My original post requires a huge disk space to be allocated for the remaster. But I believe he took the idea one step further, he probably remaster based on the structure of flash installation.

[itman007]

Well now Im totally lost! The link I followed previously for remaster didnt work. The ISO wasnt created in a useable state. The ISO was 11Mb and seemed to be a corrupt file. Per statement from Schulz, "... you can combine: 1. remaster Knoppix 2. "Flash disk Installation" of remastered Knoppix"
So which is it? Is Flash disk and remaster not combined? My Flash Disk install is pretty much customized to what I need. Now that was a waste of time if I cant make an ISO of it.

[Werner P. Schulz]

In your original post, I think

# mkdir -p /lots_of_free_space/source/KNOPPIX
# mkdir -p /lots_of_free_space/master/KNOPPIX
# cd  /lots_of_free_space/source/KNOPPIX
# cp -a /dev .
# cp -a /UNIONFS/bin .
...

can do the job, to really purge the "hidden" packages. But the whole procedure you described to get at least a new and small ISO, seems to be very complicated and not for an inexperienced user.

By the other way, if you first remaster, then purging all not needed packages and the lots of dependencies will be done automatically by "aptitude".

In the scripts of Forester I cannot find a hint, how to purge "hidden" packages by building a new ISO. Perhaps I didn't searched for it enough.