(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Sometimes one only wants to make a remaster of the base sfs. Puppy's builtin remaster script requires your distribution's CD or iso to be loaded before it attempts the remaster but you may not have the actual iso or cd at hand (eg: only having the files required for frugal install). So this how to is a way to do your remaster nevertheless, using the remaster script as is (without editing the script).

The remaster script asks one to load the distribution's iso, at least, so it can copy files. It requires that the iso at least contains the files initrd.gz and the distribution's base sfs. So, we are going to create an iso with fake files:
1. Right-click in a rox window and choose to create a blank file, name it initrd.gz
2. Do the same as in 1 but name the blank file "the name of your base sfs" eg: puppy_tahr_6.0.5.sfs
3. Use the isomaster utility (normally included) from menu to create a new iso and include the two created blank files. Name your new iso whatever you like, eg. fake.iso

When you run the remaster script, load the iso you have created when it's required and select it from the dropdown menu. The remaster program will then proceed with the remaster. When you get to the stage where the application asks if you want to create a cd or an iso, select "no". When the process has finished, you will find the newly remastered base sfs (and a seperate zdrv if you have chosen that option) and the blank initrd.gz (which was copied during the process) in the "puppylivecdbuild" folder. You only need the remastered base sfs (and zdrv if applicable) of course so delete the fake initrd.gz


ALTERNATIVE:

Download the attached zip file. It contains an already made fake iso and a slightly altered remaster script to be used instead (it looks for initrd.gz only).

Nice hack!

awesome idea.

That please me. Just do as requested. (for humans)
Just need to understand English.. nice.

Ooh, that is very clever, nic007!
Is the sequence limited to a particular version of the remaster program, or can it be used with the remasterpup2 version in Lucid 5.2.8.7?
It is one of the few times I haven't seen a result from the command asking for a version: remasterpup2 --version.
Are there reasons it cannot be used with a live puppy? (I'll try anyway, I just ask in case you know the answer already! )

tallboy wrote:Ooh, that is very clever, nic007!
Is the sequence limited to a particular version of the remaster program, or can it be used with the remasterpup2 version in Lucid 5.2.8.7?
It is one of the few times I haven't seen a result from the command asking for a version: remasterpup2 --version.
Are there reasons it cannot be used with a live puppy? (I'll try anyway, I just ask in case you know the answer already! )

Hi,tallboy. I used the builtin remaster script of Xenialpup 7.5 as base for the "alternative" method where I edited the script slightly to only look for initrd.gz. The reason is that that remaster script works on all my puppys ie. Wary, Racy, Precise, Tahr and Xenial. There's a good chance that it would work on most puppys in the 5, 6 and 7 series.

Generally, the remaster script also requires reference to the base sfs of the distribution you are using. So, if you are going to use it as is, you need to follow the first method where you also need to add reference to the base sfs in the iso. This method would probably work with the specific remaster script of your distribution but I can't be sure. Remember - This is a workaround to still use the remaster script to do a remaster of the base sfs without the distribution's actual cd or iso. You need the actual iso/cd to make an iso with all the files of your distribution.

Attached a completely automated script to remaster the base sfs. This is based on the builtin remaster script and requires NO user input and no need to load any CD/ISO. The result is a fully customised base sfs and seperate zdrv. It works for me with 32-bit versions of Wary, Racy, Precise, Tahr and Xenial. More testing with other flavours of puppy will be appreciated, so please report back. PS: The working directory is /PuppyRemasterSFS so please make sure you have enough space for the operation.

Cleaned up some code. Attached official release of Remasterpup-Auto-2018

Part of Remasterpup-Suite-2018 now. See: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 027#996027

regards nic007,
can you add lz4 compression
as in debiandog?
thanks

zagreb999 wrote:can you add lz4 compression

Booting with lz4 compressed sfs's is totally dependent on the kernel supporting it.
Also, earlier versions of mksquashfs will not support lz4.
So, adding lz4 compression option to a remaster-script makes no sense if you cannot be sure that the Puppy kernel has support for it (which is not in most cases).

Fred

zagreb999 wrote:regards nic007,
can you add lz4 compression
as in debiandog?
thanks

Hi, not with this automated version as there are no user options. I have another older version with various compression options so may add lz4 compression to that one later. What I want right now is feedback on how "universally" workable this version is. I'm not familiar with debiandog, will puppys mainstream remasterscript work on that?

FRED,OK!

I USE KERNEL 4.10 FROM
PUPJIBARO AND IT HAS LZ4....
IT IS THE BEST KERNEL
IN PUPPY LINUX.

nic007 wrote: I'm not familiar with debiandog, will puppys mainstream remasterscript work on that?

No. Also *Dog remaster scripts won't work on Puppy.

Fred

Thank you, nic007.

tallboy wrote:Thank you, nic007.

Pleasure. See: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 027#996027 for newly released Remasterpup-Suite-2018.pet

Nic007:

Thanks for sticking with this over time! I remember you helping me years ago with this issue.

Kind regards,

Slavvo67