Build scripts for small debian live images (similar to woof)

[mareg]

As for the unetbootin that can not see the flash I had the same problem with Puppy. After some trials I have found that version Unetbootin-471-2_i386.deb (with dependencies: p7zip-full, mtools, libqtgui4, libqtcore4 and libqt4) works and sees it. I have downloaded it from debian repo and found that it installed and worked in all my puppies based on Debian or Ubuntu (Dpup 3.5.2, Upup 3,9,9,2, Puppy Precise)

[saintless]

Thank you for confirming this, Mareg
I was sure newer version will have better support.

Toni

[emil]

Hi all,

efgee wrote

Was able to follow the read.me file and create two iso files.
One wheezy-32-bit and one wheezy-64-bit.

Congratulations, you built the first 64 bit CAT!

wibble wrote

It just seems bizarre that there is not a way to do this from the terminal. I am guessing that unetbootin has to have some way of preparing the medium. as possibly I can't get the app to work properly.

I am sorry you have troubles to install this properly. I am sure there is a way to do this from commandline. If cp doesn't work, dd should. Even the "soft" method with installing syslinux to the card and putting the files manually in the live folder <should> work. Thank you saintless and mareg for support and info! I am just opening my mountainhut and can not spend much time online and test things, so I really appreciate your help! I just got my webcam working, it is a fantastic day!

needs sunglasses, cheers
emil

[efgee]

Replying to this thread off an openbox-64-wheezy version, works as well.
(used the config files that come with the package).
Will look into adding tint2 to it as soon as time allows.

However, can't get the persistence file (or partition) working; which is a must have, as the wi-fi stuff needs to be entered by hand every time.

Followed saintless tips, read through this forum topic, read through Debian Live Manual, but every thing I've tried so far didn't work

BTW: for whatever it's worth: tried to create a sid-64 iso but it didn't work. It says it can't find the linux kernel 3.13... something.
Assume this is sid's fault as all data (what files to fetch) is not hardcoded in the live script we use. In a few days it could be different... and work
Staying with wheezy for now and try to better understand how this stuff works.

greetings

[anikin]

Hi emil et al,

I built another SID Debian-Live - this time, following these instructions:

see the attached original howto

Included are Rox-filer, JWM, Geany, Iceweasel and I chose the latest, (I think) available kernel - 3.13-1-486 and it boots to root. The method in the above link is a good introductory course to live building, I thought I'd share it.

Code: Select all

root@debian-live:~# uname -a
Linux debian-live 3.13-1-486 #1 Debian 3.13.4-1 (2014-02-22) i686 GNU/Linux
root@debian-live:~#

update
See the original article below - remove fake gz

[emil]

Hi efgee,
for working puppy like persistence, you need:
a) "persistence" boot parameter (in grub or other boot manager - not "persistent" as it was used in the older version of live boot)
b) a persistence file on a different partition than the live medium (if you absolutly need to place the persistence file on the same partition there are 2 workarounds for this)
c) the persistence file has to contain a persistence.conf file, which is just the text "/ union"

This configuration worked for me, specifically I could save my wireless drivers and settings.

cheers, hope you get it to work
emil

PS: to make terminology clear, "persistence" is basically the same as the savefile in puppy linux

Edit: I noticed that the persistence boot parameter was missing from the example boot code saintless gave earlier in this thread, maybe adding this is the easy fix for your woes...

[efgee]

These are my grub4dos settings:

Code: Select all

title Debian-live-64 persistent
  root (hd0,5)
  kernel /debian-testing/live/vmlinuz live-media-path=/debian-testing/live boot=live config persistent quickreboot noprompt autologin
  initrd /debian-testing/live/initrd.img 

Saintless' 1GB persistant file resides on (hd0,4)

Still a no go...

[saintless]

These are my grub4dos settings:

Code: Select all

title Debian-live-64 persistent
  root (hd0,5)
  kernel /debian-testing/live/vmlinuz live-media-path=/debian-testing/live boot=live config persistent quickreboot noprompt autologin
  initrd /debian-testing/live/initrd.img 

Saintless' 1GB persistant file resides on (hd0,4)

Still a no go...

Hi, Egfee.
The code you have will work only with downgraded initrd.img if you create one for 64 bit version with live-boot v2. Like the one I use on light wheezy. Replace peristent with persistence
Option persistent is for Squeeze + live-rw save file. And persistence is for Wheezy + persistence save file.
Use one of this two persistence save file 1Gb examples. Extract them on top of a partition different from the boot partition.
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/1Gb-p ... ive-rw.zip
http://www.smokey01.com/saintless/01-Gb ... ink.tar.gz
The first persistence file has only / union standard full persistence content in persistence.conf
The second has the workarownd with separate folders in persistence.conf in case you use more than one squashfs module in /live
Both should work.
Your boot code should look like this now:

Code: Select all

title Debian-live-64 persistence
  root (hd0,5)
  kernel /debian-testing/live/vmlinuz live-media-path=/debian-testing/live boot=live config persistence quickreboot noprompt autologin
  initrd /debian-testing/live/initrd.img 

Toni

[emil]

Manpage Debian Live Boot:
http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-li ... ntents.php

It should be made clear that the scripts run and use the debian live tools version 3.x. Please don't mix instructions for older versions. There were quite fundamental changes, if those changes were always choosen on the lucky side is none of my business.

I edited some of the earlier posts to make this clear and especially warn from the "persistence" vs "persistent" confusion.
cheers
Emil

[efgee]

OK changing the name to persistence got me one step further.

Because I wanted to see the changes made/saved I used a partition named persistence and placed the persistence.conf file on it. (/ union)
Now I can see all stuff on this partition (there are more directories with other stuff stored there, but it shouldn't matter).

However, (after booting the debian live system) if I manually change the /etc/network/interfaces file to include the wireless info it does not get written into the same file on the persistence partition.
Can say that because if I boot another linux to verify things I can see that after reboot my changes are gone.
Also if I manually modify the /etc/network/interface on the persistence partition to include my wireless info, all changes are overwritten after booting the debian live system again.
(but it should be the other way around to make some sort of sense...)

Baby steps I guess...

[emil]

efgee I can not test at the moment. But I think I had a similar issue when I did a manual setup of the wireless network in Debian light Wheezy

The baseline is, you need to add the nonetworking boot parameter to your grub config, otherways your network parameters are overwritten every fresh boot.

Note - this doesn't happen if you install WICD or network manager.

This is one of the peculiar and rather undocumented features of debian live, one finds it only with pure luck and google. This is the original forum question I found:

http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-use ... faces.html

so please try:

Code: Select all

kernel /debian-testing/live/vmlinuz live-media-path=/debian-testing/live boot=live config persistence nonetworking quickreboot noprompt autologin 

[saintless]

Hi, Efgee.

A few questions to make your trials clear?
Do you have persistence save partition working except network issue? For example if you apt-get a program is the program there after reboot? It is important to test if any other changes are saved after reboot and only network change is a problem.

I used a partition named persistence and placed the persistence.conf file on it. (/ union)

I guess it means the partition has label persistence? If yes it is the right way.

Also if I manually modify the /etc/network/interface on the persistence partition to include my wireless info, all changes are overwritten after booting the debian live system again.
(but it should be the other way around to make some sort of sense...)

How many squashfs modules do you have in /live folder? If it is only one squashfs / union should work. If you have more than one squashfs module in /live you will get exactly the result you described - backward overlay the second squashfs on top of the save partition and first squashfs on top of the second one.

If you get other changes saved after reboot here is what you can try about network issue. To enter static ip address and network settings use kernel boot line. Proper described from JBV here:
http://foxyroxylinux.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=242

Toni

Edit. We posted at the same time, Emil

[efgee]

efgee I can not test at the moment. But I think I had a similar issue when I did a manual setup of the wireless network in Debian light Wheezy

The baseline is, you need to add the nonetworking boot parameter to your grub config, otherways your network parameters are overwritten every fresh boot.

Note - this doesn't happen if you install WICD or network manager.

This is one of the peculiar and rather undocumented features of debian live, one finds it only with pure luck and google. This is the original forum question I found:

http://www.linux-archive.org/debian-use ... faces.html

so please try:

Code: Select all

kernel /debian-testing/live/vmlinuz live-media-path=/debian-testing/live boot=live config persistence nonetworking quickreboot noprompt autologin 

Added the persistance module during iso build In addition to the nonetworking parameter/. Changes get saved now.
Thank you emil.

[efgee]

Hi, Efgee.

A few questions to make your trials clear?
Do you have persistence save partition working except network issue? For example if you apt-get a program is the program there after reboot? It is important to test if any other changes are saved after reboot and only network change is a problem.

I used a partition named persistence and placed the persistence.conf file on it. (/ union)

I guess it means the partition has label persistence? If yes it is the right way.

Also if I manually modify the /etc/network/interface on the persistence partition to include my wireless info, all changes are overwritten after booting the debian live system again.
(but it should be the other way around to make some sort of sense...)

How many squashfs modules do you have in /live folder? If it is only one squashfs / union should work. If you have more than one squashfs module in /live you will get exactly the result you described - backward overlay the second squashfs on top of the save partition and first squashfs on top of the second one.

If you get other changes saved after reboot here is what you can try about network issue. To enter static ip address and network settings use kernel boot line. Proper described from JBV here:
http://foxyroxylinux.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=242

Toni

Edit. We posted at the same time, Emil

The partition has the label persistence, and all changes are saved (installed htop through synaptic and was still there after reboot)
Networking is working now but I have to manually do:

Code: Select all

ifconfig wlan0 up
ifup wlan0=wireless

because wicd isn't working on my hardware.
Will try out more stuff.

BTW: have only one squash file (the standard one)

thank you tony.

[efgee]

Installed ceni (best console network interface tool) for setting up wi-fi and works fine, even after a reboot.
(no manual intervention needed anymore)

ceni is a perl5 script, the perl libs that need to be installed are:

Code: Select all

libcurses-ui-perl
libfindbin-libs-perl
libexpect-perl
libio-pty-perl

How to get ceni (it's not in debian's repository):

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# cd /tmp
# wget http://packages.siduction.org/base/pool/main/c/ceni/ceni_2.38_all.deb
# dpkg -i /tmp/ceni_2.23_all.deb
# apt-get -f install

Next step will be to get ceni and libs onto the iso,..

Thank you all for your tremendously generous help you guys provided.


BTW: will surely post more infos/questions as I move along in this endevour...

happy greetings

[efgee]

Found out that if you want to manually copy the 3 needed files (image, filesystem, kernel) onto a partition of your choice, you don't have to mount the iso to have access to them.
If the build goes right there will be a "build" directory and inside of it there will be a "binary/live" directory with all the files that are pushed inside the iso.

BTW: Every time I want to disable "root" and enable "user" on startup I end up with X and no window manager, no menu, nothing.
Also I googled around to find the sequence that is used after init (things like startx, xinitrc, etc.) so I could plug in my settings, but didn't find anything. (using openbox-session and it's autostart file for now...)

[saintless]

Hi, Efgee.

Found out that if you want to manually copy the 3 needed files (image, filesystem, kernel) onto a partition of your choice, you don't have to mount the iso to have access to them.
If the build goes right there will be a "build" directory and inside of it there will be a "binary/live" directory with all the files that are pushed inside the iso.

Yes, I usualy mount the iso and copy /live folder on top of a partition. This makes frugal install like in puppy.

Every time I want to disable "root" and enable "user" on startup I end up with X and no window manager, no menu, nothing.

I had the same problem with SLIM display manager. I guess you have nodm and it is not the same, but there is a way to boot as user or root without display manager installed. If you like to try this is the section from /etc/inittab which does that. Change root with user for example:

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1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f root </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
#6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6

Toni

[efgee]

Thanks, will try it out as soon as I can.

One more question if I might ask:
From your point of view what is the best display manager: SLIM?

[saintless]

SLIM is the smallest but unfortunately it does not work well for IceWM, OpenBox, JWM.
I would suggest to test xdm and nodm (both the same size) and a little bit bigger but working without problems lightdm.

Toni

[emil]

If the build goes right there will be a "build" directory

yes, the build directory is very instructive! you will find the files for frugal install and the complete chroot directory there.

Every time I want to disable "root" and enable "user" on startup

efgee, for building a CAT with being user after autologin you have to add the following line to the nodm-hooks.chroot in modules/CAT/hooks

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/^NODM_USER.*/NODM_USER=user/g' /etc/default/nodm

If you want to change this in running CAT (with persistence enabled) please edit file

/etc/default/nodm

change NODM_USER=root to NODM_USER=user

cheers
emil