10.04 install from persistent USB

[HouseShark]

If I install from a persistent USB, will all of the changes that I have made to the persistent image be carried over with the new install or will I have to re-customize the install and reinstall software.

Thanks in advance,

[wilee-nilee]

If I install from a persistent USB, will all of the changes that I have made to the persistent image be carried over with the new install or will I have to re-customize the install and reinstall software.

Thanks in advance,

Nothing will be carried over, the iso will just load whats on it.

[varunendra]

Installation would be fresh with default set of programs & options. You'll have to customize it again. This is default behaviour. I don't know of methods, if any, that can be used to tweak installation files so that additional programs & customizations can be carried in the fresh installation.
However, for programs that you have installed via synaptic or apt-get, you can create an offline repository with AptOnCD. While doing so, select 'create Meta-Package' option.
Later you can add this cd to the software sources-list of your new installation. Then, selecting only 'Meta-Package' will automatically install all the additional programs from the CD in one-go! Also, this is quite easy & convenient as most part of the whole 'create-restore' process is automated.

[HouseShark]

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

[C.S.Cameron]

Check Remastersys if you wand to make a custom iso with your modifications:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/remastersys

[tg3793]

Along the lines of this topic, is there a way of copying all of the files, programs, and permissions from one persistent image to another one?

Seems I recall stumbling across a forum or website one time that spoke of copying both persistent images to a hard drive, booting into a live CD so you could access both of the persistent images, and then running some commands to transfer all of the information.

[C.S.Cameron]

The file casper-rw holds the saved data in a persistent disk image install. You can copy this file from one pen drive to another.

[tg3793]

The file casper-rw holds the saved data in a persistent disk image install. You can copy this file from one pen drive to another.

When I changed from one pendrive to another I increased the casper imaga from 1 Gig to 4 Gig. That was why I wanted to now copy the contents of the smaller casper image now over to the larger one.

[C.S.Cameron]

This might help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1028564

[tg3793]

That actually looks like a pretty neat trick. Thanks alot. I'll try it soon.

[tg3793]

Ok; well I thought I would try it soon but that didn't happen. However I did come back to this original problem and continue my efforts. Just spent another half hour on this just now and added another objective in addition to the first one.

1) I would like to transfer the contents of this 1Gig casper image to a larger 4 Gig casper image which is on another flash disk.

2) I would like to copy my tomboy notes from my USB drive and put them on my Ubuntu desktop.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What I did, and the error
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1) With my desktop already booted into Ubuntu I placed the thumbdrive into the USB slot.
2) Drive came up in Nautilus and I looked inside the "casper" directory just to see what I could already view. The following files are listed there:

- filesystem.manifest
- filesystem.manifest-desktop
- filesystem.size
- filesystem.squashfs
- initrd.lz
- vmlinuz

3) Next I copied the casper file (or is it a directory) to a another temp directory. I'll show you my mistake too .. Here is what I did:

scribe@scribe-desktop:~/Temp/workbench$ sudo mkdir /media/casper
scribe@scribe-desktop:~/Temp/workbench$ sudo mount -o loop casper-rw/media/casper/
casper-rw: No such file or directory (duh of course not :smile:)
scribe@scribe-desktop:~/Temp/workbench$ sudo mount -o loop casper /media/casper/home/scribe/Temp/workbench/casper: Is a directory (hmm)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

So is what I am trying to do even possible? I haven't tried copying these six files over to the two gig casper image yet. But as for the second goal I thought there would be a way that I can mount the casper image and then browse the directory structure?

I know I'm a newb :smile: But I'm willing to do my homework and document my efforts for the future benefit of others ... Please help.