Simple-Remaster

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stemsee

Simple-Remaster

#1 Post by stemsee »

My latest remaster script - Simple-Remaster. Remasters a puppy linux system all the way to iso or just main sfs.module. I have tested and debugged extensively on Tahr pup. There is provision for April and FatDog and Lighthouse, but not tested yet.

Having learnt from my previous efforts, I feel that this is a significant improvement.

Cleaning is performed first by excluding in rsync, and then by removal in an intermediary directory. No need to perform any special preparation. Simply run from menu, answer the five questions. 1) provide path to work dir 2) provide path to destination dir 3) modules in or out 4) xz or gzip compression 5) Make iso yes or no.

Then it should just fly through. If work dir has been used before rsync will update only, or the script will create a new dir. If destination has files, the script will advise and give time to exit script or continue and delete files and dirs, or a new dir can be created. At the last stage before creating iso, rox opens DISTRO_SFS location and destination dir for copying of intrd, vmlinuz, zdrv*, ydrv*, and adrv* files if it didn't already do so by itself. ISO is made using genisoimage command, in one dir up from destination dir.

full disclaimer: use at own risk, as per usual.
Attachments
simple-remaster.pet
(5.35 KiB) Downloaded 74 times
simple-remaster.pet
(183.52 KiB) Downloaded 460 times
Last edited by stemsee on Sun 03 Mar 2019, 13:55, edited 1 time in total.

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Ted Dog
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Location: Heart of Texas

#2 Post by Ted Dog »

lol how many swings at the bat are you going to do at the remaster game, is this related to your past work or a clean break and rethink?
Also.. any future for LZ4 compression?

Bindee

#3 Post by Bindee »

I'm guessing this means he has moved past the Alpha experimental cutting edge stage. :)

stemsee

#4 Post by stemsee »

Hey, what can I say? Still a lot to learn!! ;-)

This does use snippets of code from previous efforts, It is less ambitious but better implemented, yet achieves better results with less code. I intend to incorporate sfs-direct-remastering concept in with this, and rewrite the utilities, thusly replacing previous suite with one beautiful script and fewer supporting files.

Today I finished off the code for April, which has initrd-tree in /boot. Also ISO with syslinux.bin boot.cat etc in /boot/ISO which is along the same lines I organised things in sfs-unattended remaster. So should now work with April, all the way to iso.

EDIT: It doesn't work with April.
Attachments
simple-remaster-1.0.3.pet
fixed bug found by slavvo67
(183.58 KiB) Downloaded 345 times
Last edited by stemsee on Thu 18 Jun 2015, 14:50, edited 2 times in total.

slavvo67
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#5 Post by slavvo67 »

Hey Ted Dog:

I think he named it "Simple" after me! While I liked aspects of Stemsee's other Remaster program(s), my remastering success was limited. :roll:

Anyway, thanks Stemsee for your continued efforts!

Slavvo67

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Ted Dog
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#6 Post by Ted Dog »

ok sounds more like the goals of puppylinux are being covered, small clean and faster.. :lol:
would it be possible to take a fatdog64 and use this remaster to force it into April methods? That was something I always wished to try..

stemsee

#7 Post by stemsee »

Fatdog has kernel modules and main.sfs in intrd as does april. But april doesn't support sfs lyers and fd does. Do you mean fd expanded to a block device in ram? The script should handle fatdog correctly.

slavvo67
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#8 Post by slavvo67 »

simple-remaster-1.0.2.pet did not extract with PPM2, as the file inside was named simple-remaster and not simple-remaster-1.0.2 :roll:

I simply unpacked the pet and repacked it with simple-remaster-1.0.2 as the filename. Worked perfectly.

I saw some error messages pop-up while it was running but I'm not sure if it caused any issue with the final sfs and .iso.

One that I did catch was somewhere between when the sfs is created and the .iso part of the program starts. There's a reference to mnt/sda6/emsee or Stemsee or something similar. You probably had that hard coded in for your distro.

The other error was message somewhere while the sfs was being created and it couldn't find a /tmp directory. Not sure which one or if it is necessary. I didn't test the final sfs / iso yet.

This was with a remaster of Vividpup installed on a USB with other pups via ISObooter. There could be issues with that but ya never know until you try. I'll let you know how the final came out --- soon.

Slavvo67

stemsee

#9 Post by stemsee »

That's great slavvo67

thanks for testing and useful feedback. Yes I may have left in hard code, tht should have taken values from variables in /etc/rc.d/PUPSTATE I wil check.

Kai
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Joined: Mon 27 Apr 2015, 08:35

#10 Post by Kai »

Why don't the other projects use this re-master ???

gcmartin

#11 Post by gcmartin »

@StemSee has made several far reaching advances in Puppyland over the last year. But, excepting for a very few, most developers have either missed his demonstrations to us or have not taken the time to incorporate his very good projects.

But, ALL of his project have surfaced in his EmSee series of distros. I have tested his 2015 series of distros and have found them one of the very best fully featured PUPs to have surfaced coming out of Puppyland. When booted, there is so much forward thinking items staring at you. He extends PUPPY such that there is little left to either add or think of. I run his distros, Live, from DVD.

Hope others take the time to download. Hope they, too, notice from the very 1st boot splash, the beginning of the many forward thinking(s) one encounters moving into the system. And, expect a very responsive user environment.
Last edited by gcmartin on Thu 14 May 2015, 02:53, edited 1 time in total.

slavvo67
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#12 Post by slavvo67 »

GCMartin:

Stemsee has done some great stuff. This one, however still needs some work, I think. Still testing... But strangely, I suddenly feel like I need a high quality passport for some reason....

FLASH... there's some spam about......

Slavvo67

stemsee

#13 Post by stemsee »

@Kai

There are several remaster scripts available to puppy users. Most of them do a more thorough job of cleaning (pipes and sockets) than mine (although they take forever). Actually I intend to add a function that has the ability to determine files and dirs created by a newly installed app at first use, thus making a better method of cleaning as yet unknown app personal configs (using timestamps).

Truly there has been very little interest in my 'amateur' scripts: I may have good ideas, but not a clue about good programing with security in mind.

:-)

slavvo67
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Joined: Sat 13 Oct 2012, 02:07
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#14 Post by slavvo67 »

Lots of interest here. Just not enough time to help you test them.... :-(

stemsee

#15 Post by stemsee »

Slavvo67
I found the bug, which prevented the making of tmp sys proc and mnt in the workdir. Silly silly silly, I must have been tired when I changed the code.
Attachments
simple-remaster-1.0.4.pet
(183.59 KiB) Downloaded 336 times

Bindee

#16 Post by Bindee »

stemsee wrote:Most of them do a more thorough job of cleaning (pipes and sockets) than mine (although they take forever).
Would Bleachbit do some of the cleaning?

stemsee

#17 Post by stemsee »

yes it would. It has a lot of applications pre-configured for clean-up, and it writes zeros to recovered/free space. Sometimes it does a bit too much cleaning, for example if you customise your browser and want to keep the plugins, then uncheck that browser from cleaning list. You would now have to remove the plugin cache also in simple-remaster too to keep plugins.

stemsee

#18 Post by stemsee »

Just tested on Light house and found the script packed sfs into initrd.xz, as though it was fatdog! Corrected along with a couple minor things.
Attachments
simple-remaster-1.0.5.pet
(183.69 KiB) Downloaded 264 times

stemsee

#19 Post by stemsee »

simple-remaster-1.0.6 Google chrome plugins will be retained after remaster. Megasync profile excluded, /root/MEGASync folder contents excluded, Geany will retain system font, /var/run/dbus folder recreated.
Attachments
simple-remaster-1.0.6.pet
(183.64 KiB) Downloaded 270 times

stemsee

#20 Post by stemsee »

I have been doing a lot of work on this script this week, especially in examining $HOME (/root) and observing apps' first use dir creation and adding to the exclude and cleaning. Does the system create a log somewhere of such events? How would I create a daemon to monitor app specific dir/file creations on first use?

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