How to make a live CD/DVD from your harddisk installation

[chris4585]

I agree with capink, I always delete my old squashfs before making a new one, just seems logical to me

[umairmehmood]

I did delete the contents of WORK and CD before running the scripts for new Image.

I now tried the command as advised:

sudo mksquashfs ${WORK}/rootfs ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.${FORMAT} -noappend

but still the same problem.
The squashfs stucks at 96%.

[umairmehmood]

I tried everything from scratch now.
Installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu 8.0.4 desktop.

Installed all necessary modules and then ran the scripts as mentioned in the guide.

The installer halts at the end.

root@open-liveCD:~# sudo mksquashfs ${WORK}/rootfs ${CD}/${FS_DIR}/filesystem.${FORMAT} -noappend
Parallel mksquashfs: Using 1 processor
Creating little endian 3.1 filesystem on /home/open/cd/casper/filesystem.squashfs, block size 131072.
[================================================== ============================== ] 99466/103602 96%

With WORK:/tmp/work
CD: /home/open/cd
I am running ubuntu as a virtual Image using VMWARE.

I don't understand.
The same settings were working fine before.

Some help would sure be appreciated!

[chris4585]

why not if you dont find the solution, make a partition, about 4GB at most, and install ubuntu on there and start over? thats the only solution i can think of

EDIT: if you do that try copying your /work/rootfs/ to the new installation and try making a new squashfs and if the same thing happens then its either something to do with your rootfs or something i have no clue about..

sorry just trying to help

[user11]

Or you could just use remastersys. I googled it, downloaded it, and now I can make custom live boot CDs with it. The only catch is that it doesn't save some important setting like auto login / automatic login, which I fixed by just editing /etc/gdm/gdm.conf before backing up (I also edited the UTC option in /etc/default/rcS).

Now if I can just keep remastersys from deleting the /etc/timezone file I'm set. By the why, would anyone know how to fix that?

[umairmehmood]

chris4585:
I appreciate your help
I tired again but the same problem.
Really strange.

User11:

I tried Remastersys.
Remaster is in fact the same script automated!
I created the Live Image without any problem

I installed a few services like Tomact etc.
Now when i start Ubuntu form live image, it loads up tomcat too.
But i can't access it through the web interface.

I mean, http://localhost:8081 does not respond. !!

Could you think of any known problem ?

[Skip Da Shu]

Can you confirm that it actually worked for you.

I'm really after a duplicate install from one of my dedicated 'number crunchers'... down to the same single user and password would be fine. The only thing I really want different from machine to machine is the static IP address and hostname.

I've read thru this entire thread and it certainly seems as close as I've found so far and seems so well written that even "I" might be able to do it.

I have not looked into Remastersys yet, should I?

Sure wish I'd found this 5 machines ago.

Noob questions:

1) Is there any reason that you can think of that this would not work for on a Xubuntu 64b v8.04 (Hardy) system?

2) Since the Xubuntu machines don't have a CD burner on them can I create the .iso and save it on some samba shared storage and do the actual burn over on my WinXP box, then test it in a CD-ROM on the Xubuntu machine?

3) Lastly, and of less importance... Are there any simple changes to make my repeatable install even more complete?
a) user=me & pw=mine
b) gkrellm theme (by copying in home?)
c) desktop launchers (by copying in home?}
d) sources.list (assume will have to overlay after the install)
e) apt proxy settings (only need to have the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy included)
f) X11vnc setup (gdm.conf-custom, /etc/gdm/Init/Default, remote PW is someplace in Home also)
g) xorg.conf (they all use same display when it's attached and all use vesa driver, assume I'll have to copy over after install)

Thanx in advance, Skip

[Skip Da Shu]

10 - there are certain apps and libraries that ubuntu doesn't have on their livecd's and for whatever reason they cause the livecd to fail if they are installed - no workaround

delete me

[umairmehmood]

Is there any restriction to the live Cd as what apps can be run and others which cant.

For example, Is it only supposed to run system related apps and ignore user specified ones ?

I am observing this strange behavior with Tomcat.
Its included in the live distro. It is running perfectly, but i can't access my webapps.

[capink]

I have not looked into Remastersys yet, should I?

Remastersys can do what this guide is doing in an automated way (i.e make a distribution from your hard disk installation). So it can save you the hussle if you are not comfortable with the command line. Also the remastersys author is very friendly and is open for questions. You can find a link to remastersys site at the end of the opening post of this thread.

The only thing that can be done using this method and not with remastersys, is creating a clean distro using the debootstrap method outlined in the guide.

1) Is there any reason that you can think of that this would not work for on a Xubuntu 64b v8.04 (Hardy) system?

I have not tested it, but it should work. The only caveat here is that you will have to perform the instructions from a system with 64 bit kernel, otherwise you will not be able to chroot.

2) Since the Xubuntu machines don't have a CD burner on them can I create the .iso and save it on some samba shared storage and do the actual burn over on my WinXP box, then test it in a CD-ROM on the Xubuntu machine?

Yes you can. But I do not have any experince in samba.
You can also test the iso in a virtual machine like virtualbox or vmware before burning it.

a) user=me & pw=mine

I am not sure what you mean?

b) gkrellm theme (by copying in home?)

Yes. But instead of copying to home you will copy to /etc/skel. Refer to the the end of step B to see how to do it

c) desktop launchers (by copying in home?}

Same as abobe. It is possible by creating a directory:

sudo mkdir ${WORK}/rootfs/etc/skel/Desktop

and copying the launchers to this directory.

d) sources.list (assume will have to overlay after the install)

Yes. You simply copy the sources.list file to:

${WORK}/rootfs/etc/apt

e) apt proxy settings (only need to have the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01proxy included)

Same as above.

f) X11vnc setup (gdm.conf-custom, /etc/gdm/Init/Default, remote PW is someplace in Home also)

I do not advise missing with gdm config files because it can prevent the cd from logging in.

g) xorg.conf (they all use same display when it's attached and all use vesa driver, assume I'll have to copy over after install)

Yes.