How do I deploy an iso with persistence built in?

[lhh29936]

@sudodus - I'm using grub-mkimage in a script to create the EFI partition as follows:

truncate -s 4M $BOOT_IMG
mkfs.vfat $BOOT_IMG
mkdir -p $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI/boot


grub-mkimage \
-C xz \
-O x86_64-efi \
-p /boot/grub \
-o $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi \
boot linux search normal configfile \
part_gpt btrfs fat iso9660 loopback \
test keystatus gfxmenu regexp probe \
efi_gop efi_uga all_video gfxterm font \
echo read ls cat png jpeg halt reboot


mcopy -i $BOOT_IMG -s $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI ::

Is there a better way?

[sudodus]

@sudodus
Have not tried extracted ISO for ages. Only tried it with 20.04 as I have one computer with only one drive and wanted to update it from old install. It also has 18.04, but is primarily a Windows computer for TV use as Linux did not (then) support most of the DRM restricted sites.

I normally just use grub2's loopmount to install from one drive to another. Is fast from RAM to drive.

The only small USB flash drive I had was an old USB2 drive. Not using that again as extremely slow. I had forgotten how slow USB2 was.
Decided to update my system's M2 SATA SSD drive with an NVMe drive. But put SATA SSD drive into a external enclosure. Makes for a faster larger external drive. Have so many larger flash drives now, will probable not buy any more.
Has full Ubuntu and will see if I can use it on my system to install like I do with my two drive systems using grub2's loopmount.

I had to check with yesterday's daily iso file of Ubuntu Focal Fossa.

It works in UEFI mode, when extracted from the iso file (with rsync) to a FAT32 partition. I did nothing extra (no flags etc). There were some complaints (some error output), but after a few more seconds I reached the desktop, and it seems OK.

Please test it yourself, @oldfred. That bug seems to have died without any explicit action related to the bug report

I followed my instructions at help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/iso2usb/diy, but I think it works with any tool to create the FAT32 partition and to extract the content.

[sudodus]

@sudodus - I'm using grub-mkimage in a script to create the EFI partition as follows:

truncate -s 4M $BOOT_IMG
mkfs.vfat $BOOT_IMG
mkdir -p $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI/boot


grub-mkimage \
-C xz \
-O x86_64-efi \
-p /boot/grub \
-o $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi \
boot linux search normal configfile \
part_gpt btrfs fat iso9660 loopback \
test keystatus gfxmenu regexp probe \
efi_gop efi_uga all_video gfxterm font \
echo read ls cat png jpeg halt reboot


mcopy -i $BOOT_IMG -s $BOOT_IMG_DATA/EFI ::

Is there a better way?

I think it is good way, quite simple, and the iso file works well. The 'only' problem (at least with 16.04.6) is that we don't know any way to create a persistent live drive with the system in the iso file, that boots also in UEFI mode.

I'm sorry, but I don't know what is missing or 'wrong'. But the senior expert about UEFI boot at the Ubuntu Forums, @oldfred, has found our thread. Let us hope that he can advice how to modify your method.

[TheFu]

@sudodus, thanks for your reply. The app is targeted to new Linux users and is a disk/partition cloning app. The concept is to make it as easy as possible for them.The app itself is 22Mb, while the current iso, including the app, is 550Mb. Due to the rather small size of the iso, it might be easier to just have them download a new iso when there's an update and burn it to a USB.

550MB!!!! Perhaps use a smaller distro? TinyCore fits in 16MB with an X/Windows GUI. http://tinycorelinux.net/ Your program is bigger than the OS! Apps are packaged w/ the TCZ format and can be preinstalled.

Just something to consider. Actually, mkusb w/TinyCore might be an interesting project.

[sudodus]

550MB!!!! Perhaps use a smaller distro? TinyCore fits in 16MB with an X/Windows GUI. http://tinycorelinux.net/ Your program is bigger than the OS! Apps are packaged w/ the TCZ format and can be preinstalled.

Just something to consider. Actually, mkusb w/TinyCore might be an interesting project.

@TheFu, Interesting

Do you know how to create a TCZ package, and would you help explaining? Or even better, would you have time to do it?

[TheFu]

http://tinycorelinux.net/architecture.html
http://tinycorelinux.net/arch_copymode.html

[lhh29936]

@sudodus - I'm wondering whether building the iso on a drive with an msdos partition table or a gpt partition table makes a difference. I've building on a drive with a gpt partition table. Tomorrow I'll throw one of my spare drives into my development machine and set it up with an msdos partition table and move everything to it. Then I'll do a build and see if there's any difference. You already have a build from a gpt partition so I'll put a build from an msdos partition table up on the FTP site. Will let you know when it's up there.

[sudodus]

I think it should make no difference.

[lhh29936]

@sudodus - I put a new iso on the ftp site. See if it's any better please

[sudodus]

@sudodus - I put a new iso on the ftp site. See if it's any better please

Yes, I can manage this iso file dated 2020-02-22 with mkusb. I can make a persisstent live drive, that boots both in EFI mode and BIOS mode. I use the default settings in mkusb. This makes a GUID partition table (GPT). I also made a compressed image of this system, foxclone30_2020-02-22_persistent-gpt-8GB.img.xz, that I uploaded to your FTP server.

Unfortunately the persistent live system with MSDOS partition table of your iso file does not boot in UEFI mode. This means that there is a complication, when creating a USB boot drive from the image: The end users must fix the backup partition table of the GPT. it is done automatically, it they use mkusb to {extract + clone} from the compressed image file to a USB pendrive. Otherwise they can use the tool gdisk manually or via the shellscript gpt-fix.

But it might be difficult to make it work from Windows.

If you install mkusb in the Foxclone operating system, the end users need not install it, and can use it also to create a persistent live system (of Foxclone). if they wish.

---

I uploaded also a small tarball with three shellscripts, that I use to create compressed image: mkpersimage that calls mkxzimage that calls ender. They should be in PATH.

There is also a small file with the md5sums of the compressed image and the small tarball.

So in the future you should be able to use these three shellscripts to create your own compressed images of persistent live drives made by mkusb.