Yannick Le Saint kyncani
May 17th, 2009, 12:29 PM
Hi,
I've made an ubuntu installer, specializing in creating ubuntu
usb sticks.
This one is different from others like the ubuntu official livecd or
usb-creator because :
- You don't have to reboot into a livecd
- It comes with a ton of features so you won't miss anything
while using it, even without internet access.
- It can be very easily reinstalled from scratch with
everything autodetected
- Very easy to use with automatic login, passwordless
sudo, firewall and automatic security updates enabled
- It can create an i386 key from an amd64 system
Let's get something out of the way : due to qemu being used,
the installation is _very_ slow (hours).
Alternatives are being considered.
Why did I do it ?
Well, first, the install cd is not practical. I use primarily
one pc, it stays on 24 hours a day and I don't like having to
reboot just to create a linux usb stick.
Then, there was the excellent usb-creator, I could create easily
and quickly an ubuntu stick, BUT :
- I always had to reboot into my newly made stick to upgrade
packages that have changed since the iso was made.
- I always had to install a whole bunch of stuff. Now I do understand
that the iso cd has limited space available but I do not suffer
the same limitation with 8,16,32 Gb sticks.
- The kernel cannot be upgraded.
- Usb-creator relies on a root filesystem stored into a fat32
file, that means that updates and new packages are limited
to the maximum 4 Gb file size. Plus regular file access is slow.
So, from a simple script to tweak usb-creator's installation
to my needs, to a script that could handle the whole installation
much like usb-creator without its limitations, I now have nrnux.
Nrnux comes with a very simple gui and can install current (jaunty)
and next (karmic) versions of ubuntu with minimum user intervention.
So, if you want to try it out, add these to your sources.list :
## Nrnux
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/y-lesaint/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/y-lesaint/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
And add nrnux's launchpad signing key with
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com AB7F250F
You can also download nrnux directly there (click "download file") :
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~y-lesaint/nrnux/stable/annotate/head:/nrnux
It currently is a single python script so that it's very easy to try
it out without altering your sources.list and can be installed
in a user account.
How to use it :
- Partition your key if you want to. First a fat32 partition, to
share files with windows if you want, then an ext3 for linux.
- You do have to be connected to the internet, because nrnux will
pull the packages from the internet, not from an iso cd.
- Make sure you install nrnux's recommendations if you want to
have access to the gui.
- Start nrnux. There is no menu icon at the moment, so press
alt+f2 and enter "nrnux".
- When the installation has started, go do something else, because
using qemu is very slow.
Ideas are more than welcomed, the project's page is here :
https://launchpad.net/nrnux
Now for some screenshots,
Here is the simple interface :
http://img190.imageshack.us/my.php?image=200905171230simple.png
And the expert interface :
http://img190.imageshack.us/my.php?image=200905171230expert.png
Have a nice day :)
I've made an ubuntu installer, specializing in creating ubuntu
usb sticks.
This one is different from others like the ubuntu official livecd or
usb-creator because :
- You don't have to reboot into a livecd
- It comes with a ton of features so you won't miss anything
while using it, even without internet access.
- It can be very easily reinstalled from scratch with
everything autodetected
- Very easy to use with automatic login, passwordless
sudo, firewall and automatic security updates enabled
- It can create an i386 key from an amd64 system
Let's get something out of the way : due to qemu being used,
the installation is _very_ slow (hours).
Alternatives are being considered.
Why did I do it ?
Well, first, the install cd is not practical. I use primarily
one pc, it stays on 24 hours a day and I don't like having to
reboot just to create a linux usb stick.
Then, there was the excellent usb-creator, I could create easily
and quickly an ubuntu stick, BUT :
- I always had to reboot into my newly made stick to upgrade
packages that have changed since the iso was made.
- I always had to install a whole bunch of stuff. Now I do understand
that the iso cd has limited space available but I do not suffer
the same limitation with 8,16,32 Gb sticks.
- The kernel cannot be upgraded.
- Usb-creator relies on a root filesystem stored into a fat32
file, that means that updates and new packages are limited
to the maximum 4 Gb file size. Plus regular file access is slow.
So, from a simple script to tweak usb-creator's installation
to my needs, to a script that could handle the whole installation
much like usb-creator without its limitations, I now have nrnux.
Nrnux comes with a very simple gui and can install current (jaunty)
and next (karmic) versions of ubuntu with minimum user intervention.
So, if you want to try it out, add these to your sources.list :
## Nrnux
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/y-lesaint/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/y-lesaint/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
And add nrnux's launchpad signing key with
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com AB7F250F
You can also download nrnux directly there (click "download file") :
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~y-lesaint/nrnux/stable/annotate/head:/nrnux
It currently is a single python script so that it's very easy to try
it out without altering your sources.list and can be installed
in a user account.
How to use it :
- Partition your key if you want to. First a fat32 partition, to
share files with windows if you want, then an ext3 for linux.
- You do have to be connected to the internet, because nrnux will
pull the packages from the internet, not from an iso cd.
- Make sure you install nrnux's recommendations if you want to
have access to the gui.
- Start nrnux. There is no menu icon at the moment, so press
alt+f2 and enter "nrnux".
- When the installation has started, go do something else, because
using qemu is very slow.
Ideas are more than welcomed, the project's page is here :
https://launchpad.net/nrnux
Now for some screenshots,
Here is the simple interface :
http://img190.imageshack.us/my.php?image=200905171230simple.png
And the expert interface :
http://img190.imageshack.us/my.php?image=200905171230expert.png
Have a nice day :)