Create Debian 9 (Stretch) minimal ISO similar to DebianDog

[labbe5]

Hi Fredx,

This way of building a minimal OS is new to me. I took the time to test it, and i found that this minimal ISO is faster than other Dog. Before that i was contemplating using mini.ISO (50MB) from Ubuntu and try a 17.04 minimal installation, very basic, adding packages that i really need with apt. But it doesn't have utilities from Dog-based OS, so it is less versatile.

What i added :

I had to install firmware-linux-nonfree for wifi. Out-of-the box, wifi is not available. You can install firmware-linux-free, but i really needed the nonfree.

I added a user. I realized that i needed a display manager with a greeter.

Without a display manager, to switch to my user account, i had to do exit x, do Alt-F1 to have a prompt to username and password. Entering both, i switched to my user account, needed for some applications, such as VLC, Firejail, and so on.

As a display manager, Slim is kind of a GUI for Alt-F1, so i installed Slim. As a result, the Debian installation is less minimal, but more polished.

I look forward to whatever you do, it is very interesting.

Finally, keep on with your 32-bit OS development, many developers are dumping this architecture in favor of 64-bit only. When you can have a good 32-bit second-hand laptop or a refurbished 32-bit Dell netbook for less than 100$ which was valued at 1000$ a few years ago, it is not tomorrow i will switch to 64-bit architecture just to have a brand new thing.

[rcrsn51]

Out-of-the box, wifi is not available.

If you want help with this, you should supply more specific information.

[fredx181]

I burned some Stretch-Live ISOs to DVD and got an interesting result.

If I booted an Athlon machine with the 32bit disc, I got an immediate kernel-panic.

But the 64bit version booted fine.

This machine will boot 32bit Puppy discs OK.

Hi Bill, did you test that with both boot methods (porteus-boot and live-boot)
I can't test that myself, but I wouldn't surprsed if live-boot works and porteus-boot not. (just guessing)

@labbe5

Without a display manager, to switch to my user account, i had to do exit x, do Alt-F1 to have a prompt to username and password. Entering both, i switched to my user account, needed for some applications, such as VLC, Firejail, and so on.

As a display manager, Slim is kind of a GUI for Alt-F1, so i installed Slim. As a result, the Debian installation is less minimal, but more polished.

As a coincidence I just made a fix for "display-manager <> console login (automatic)" conflict, see next post

Fred

[fredx181]

*** Updated mklive-stretch ***

Some small changes:
- When installed a display-manager, e.g. lightdm or slim, the script will detect it and disable the (default) login method through /etc/inittab
(otherwise strange things can happen, login on both tty1 and tty7)
See also these posts about the issue
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 774#964774
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 776#964776
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 778#964778
- The generated config file "build_setup.conf" contains now info about which architecture it's build for
(e.g: generated for architecture: i386)
And if 32 bit build, "build_setup.conf" contains now FORCE32=TRUE
(needs to be set to FALSE if making a 64 bit build)


mklive-stretch script (right-click > Save link as and make executable)

Fred

[labbe5]

If you want help with this, you should supply more specific information.

Thanks.

After installing firmware-linux-nonfree, i am able to see wifi networks available in my vicinity.

Before, the GUI did not launch at all.

I also needed to install acpi to have batteries status on my laptop.

[dancytron]

Is there a specific package that has to be included for lz4 to work on the Quick Remaster? Or is it just not supported yet.

I did a quick remaster using lz4 and it seemed to do what it was supposed to, but when I rebooted, I got the errors in the screenshot I've attached. It worked fine when I redid it with gzip and I've used xz in the past and that's worked too.

I saved the bad 01-filesystem.squashfs if there is something you'd like me to check.

Luckily someone had the great idea to include emergency backups as a part of the quick remaster program.

[rcrsn51]

did you test that with both boot methods (porteus-boot and live-boot) I can't test that myself, but I wouldn't surprsed if live-boot works and porteus-boot not. (just guessing)

Unfortunately, the 32bit disc failed to boot with either "live" setting. But the 64bit disc worked fine either way.

[fredx181]

Is there a specific package that has to be included for lz4 to work on the Quick Remaster? Or is it just not supported yet.

I did a quick remaster using lz4 and it seemed to do what it was supposed to, but when I rebooted, I got the errors in the screenshot I've attached. It worked fine when I redid it with gzip and I've used xz in the past and that's worked too.

I saved the bad 01-filesystem.squashfs if there is something you'd like me to check.

I see Trinitydog, is it about that ?
Anyway, are you able to mount the squashfs ? (from one of the dogs that supports LZ4)
LZ4 should work, on StretchLive I tested on 64 and 32 bit
Trinydog Stretch I just tested booting with LZ4 squashfs and works also.

Luckily someone had the great idea to include emergency backups as a part of the quick remaster program.

Mmm.. what was his name again ?

Fred

[dancytron]

Trinitydog is just the name of the folder. I was too lazy to change the menu.1st file, so I just deleted the Trinitydog I wasn't using and pasted the Stretch-live I made into that folder.

Have you tested the Quick Remaster with lz4 yet?

[dancytron]

I think I found the save2flash issue.

This is an entry from my log file.

Get:49 https://fredx181.github.io/StretchDog/amd64/Packages ./ porteusbootscripts 0.0.3 [6598 B]

When I go to the site and download porteusbootscripts 0.0.3 and extract it, it contains the old save2flash and snapmergepuppy files.

apt-cache rdepends shows

root@live:~# apt-cache rdepends porteusbootscripts
porteusbootscripts
Reverse Depends:
debdogmountscripts
root@live:~# apt-cache rdepends debdogmountscripts
debdogmountscripts
Reverse Depends:
porteusbootscripts
debdoginstallscripts
root@live:~# apt-cache rdepends debdoginstallscripts
debdoginstallscripts
Reverse Depends:
root@live:~#

My build_setup.txt file shows that I decided to add debdoginstallscripts on my own in the extra apps, because why not.

Extra Dog Packages:
google-chrome-stable gksu ntfs-3g mpv upgrade-kernel debdoginstallscripts lxterminal mtpaint xarchiver xfce4-appfinder mc desktop-drive-icons links2 gdmap

So, I believe that the issue is caused by the out of date files in porteusbootscripts, which is being installed because somewhere along the line I decided that debdoginstallscripts sounded like a good thing to install.

I will test this hypothesis tomorrow.

[jd7654]

*** Updated mklive-stretch ***
- When installed a display-manager, e.g. lightdm or slim, the script will detect it and disable the (default) login method through /etc/inittab
...
- The generated config file "build_setup.conf" contains now info about which architecture it's build for

New script looks good. Strangeness from lxdd.conf build is fixed. Also, good changes for 32-bit config awareness.

Previously:

I made JWM config deb package "jwmconf" , it;s in the repos, so can be added to install list, it will automatically install jwm and rox (and some more)
...
It's a bit of an experiment by using deb package for make a build with configured Desktop environment, not sure yet if it's the right way.

Jwm config build looks good. I think that can be a nice way to keep the simplicity of the build tool, by automating the configs/customizations by adding it at the end as a package.
I also like the adding of SFS files like Peebee did in his build. I was playing around with adding modules in script at last dialog. Maybe the description could be changed to say that you can add/edit files in chroot or add modules in isodata folders at that point?

Side note:
While playing around with Dog package tool AptToSfs to create sfs modules to load, ran into failures of that app when using older or newer forced version packages such as:
firefox-esr=24.8.0esr-1~deb8u2 mpv=0.23.0-2+b2
I found that if you remove the "=" sign from the working directory name, then the AptToSfs completed successsfully with those forced version packages.

Change to /usr/local/bin/apt2sfs line 352:

Code: Select all

export SFS=$(for i in "$INSTALL"; do echo $(echo $i | sed 's| |_|g' | sed 's|=||g'); done)

[rcrsn51]

Here is the PeasyScan image scanning program. There are two versions because it contains a binary.

Remove the fake .gz extension.

[fredx181]

@dancytron

I think I found the save2flash issue.
...
...

Sure you did !
I fixed the problem by removing debdogmountscripts dependency in version 0.0.3
So now installing debdoginstallscripts will not install porteusbootscripts
Also added ~/Startup/initchanges.sh in the 0.0.3 version (will help empty tmpfs after running save2flash)
But in fact porteusbootscripts doesn't need to be installed, because these (essential) scripts are already in the build by default.
But version 0.0.3 has the logrotate option, if you want that:

Code: Select all

apt-get install porteusbootscripts=0.0.3

Also added new version 0.0.4 to the repo that has the exact same files as included in the build.

Thanks for finding out and sorry for the inconvenience.

About the (corrupted ?) 01-filesystem.squashfs, just try to mount it, if it doesn't mount probably it got corrupted
Then your problem hasn't got to do with LZ4, I guess

@rcrsn51
Thanks again for your contributions! Added to the repos
(had been earlier added the other two you shared)

@jd7654

Nice suggestions, added line "Also you can add .squashfs modules in the isodata/live folder..." to the script
Also will update apt2sfs later after some testing

Fred

[peebee]

Suggestion:

make purge at line #644 a config list so that other unwanted packages can also be removed if required.

Update:
LxDD-uk-i386-17.08.2.iso

[peebee]

Synaptic error when trying to apply an installation request:

E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (2: No such file or directory)
E: Could not open file descriptor -1
E: Unable to lock the download directory

[wiak]

Change to /usr/local/bin/apt2sfs line 352:

Code: Select all

export SFS=$(for i in "$INSTALL"; do echo $(echo $i | sed 's| |_|g' | sed 's|=||g'); done)

sed can do several commands, one after the other, so shouldn't need to pipe into it twice. I think this should work (though haven't tried it):

Code: Select all

export SFS=$(for i in "$INSTALL"; do echo $(echo $i | sed 's| |_|g; s|=||g'); done)

wiak

[belham2]

Hi all,

I just wanted, as a user & neophyte builder, to say "thank you" to Fred and all of you (Peebee, rcrsn51, Toni, wiak, jd and apologies if I missed anyone). Every time I think you guys can't improve the script, it improves. And the same goes for all the build suggestions.....I gave one try of Peebee's build configuration he posted awhle back for his lxdd & my first thoughts upon seeing it boot up was: "dang, how'd he do that? And, man, my builds stink!". Then Fred clued me in reading his msg awhile back what Peebee did, so am trying to learn. This all is just great stuff. Also, I saw Toni posted in "HOW TO" section an easy way to rename all my frugal install's "live" folders, thus keeping better track and also ending any boot confusion by making myself stick to "psubdir=", something I already do for all pups.

Anyway, thanks to you all again.

Going to give the latest additions to the script a go tonight!

[backi]

Hi all you boys and girls !

You guys really make steam.Me as an old horse can barely keep up
High pressure... feels like caught in a hurricane .

[fredx181]

Synaptic error when trying to apply an installation request:

E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (2: No such file or directory)
E: Could not open file descriptor -1
E: Unable to lock the download directory

Yes, thanks for reporting.
It's because /var/cache/apt/archives/ doesn't exist
When using apt-get it's OK, but Synaptic doesn't like it
Fixed now by creating chroot/var/cache/apt/archives/ in the script

Important bug fix
mklive-stretch script (right-click > Save link as and make executable)

Fred

[backi]

peebee wrote:
Synaptic error when trying to apply an installation request:
Quote:
E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (2: No such file or directory)
E: Could not open file descriptor -1
E: Unable to lock the download directory

Had the same problem ....but just deleted /var/cache/apt/archives some xxx.bin(s) .
After doing this.... could install with Synaptic .