trick - create a live installable copy of your system

[jalu]

if i follow the how-to linked to by Bro.Tiag above:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/deans_c ... 8.php.html
would i that way be able to add the debian-installer to an existing live-iso i created?

post-edit: i installed debian-installer, but that doesn`t seem to have worked.

EDIT:
due to the next posts: thanks, i think i got it.

[gnudude]

if i follow the how-to linked to by Bro.Tiag above:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/deans_c ... 8.php.html
would i that way be able to add the debian-installer to an existing live-iso i created?

post-edit: i installed debian-installer, but that doesn`t seem to have worked.

afaik you cannot just install the debian installer to the live system. It is not like ubiquity or other installers that reside inside the squashfs. It is externel from the squashfs. It is a handful of parts that reside on the iso. It is within the initrd(?) that is booted when you boot the cd. You should be able to add the installer parts to the iso you created but wether it would be able to find and use the squashfs probably depends on if you have every file in the right place and have it setup correctly. Either way it would really be the hard row to hoe when easier rows are available.

[Bro.Tiag]

if i follow the how-to linked to by Bro.Tiag above:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/deans_c ... 8.php.html
would i that way be able to add the debian-installer to an existing live-iso i created?

post-edit: i installed debian-installer, but that doesn`t seem to have worked.

afaik you cannot just install the debian installer to the live system. It is not like ubiquity or other installers that reside inside the squashfs. It is externel from the squashfs. It is a handful of parts that reside on the iso. It is within the initrd(?) that is booted when you boot the cd. You should be able to add the installer parts to the iso you created but wether it would be able to find and use the squashfs probably depends on if you have every file in the right place and have it setup correctly. Either way it would really be the hard row to hoe when easier rows are available.

Installers are for chickens (when enough feed is supplied), how to manually install a lenny/sid live CD.

[jalu]

i (better: a friend of mine) screwed my lenny-installation.
i tried this and that without success.
guess what:
i put in my installable backup-cd, created with live-helper, ran install and after less than 15 minutes i got my system and personal configs back. sure without data, but they`re stored elsewhere

cool.

[norb]

Dean thank you for the info. I followed your instructions and all went well, the first time I tried it.
I'm posting this from the live cd I made. The image finished at 799 megs so I burned to a DVD using k3b, it took approx 1 minute's time. When booted, I was given various options, the two I remember are,
boot from cd or install, for those who may be asking if you can install from this disk, the answer seems to be yes you can. This system is squeeze / sid, however the kernel that was installed is 2.6.26-2-amd64
I'm guessing this is lenny's kernel, not a problem and easily fixed after an install, just an observation that the kernel I'm running was not copied , cloned or put to use. The kernel in use is 2.6.30-1-amd64 with the
ext4 file system except for / which was left as ext3.
Thanks again.

[nadir]

i ran into this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-live ... 02573.html
but from what i understand it is set as solved. (?)


system is a squeeze with a linux-image-2.6.32-2-686 (not trunk) with sid repos enabled (for one package), but apt.conf default set to squeeze.
mh, mh, mh... i think installing a higher version of live-initramfs is of no use (?).
installing live-helper from sid?
(usually i go for lenny when playing with live-helper, as it just works, but i need a higher kernel than 2.6.26 to access ext4-partitions)

if someone knows how to set the resulting live to use the backports kernel i may use lenny and am fine.
otoh it took me all saturday to install debian, install the packages, copy my private stuff and do a little bit of configuring. i'm not that keen doing the same again for lenny.

edit:installing live-initramfs from sid did solve that problem. odd.
next edit: but for the live of me i don't get it build... i tried all variants i might think of: manually, unpacking, bootstrap --copy, from squeeze and finally from sid...argh.

[sossego]

I'm curious. How does one get the live-helper program to recognize the root file on a ppc system?

I won't be able to post anything right now because my g3 is being used.

[nadir]

usually you add the architecture with:
lh config -a i386
which is kind of superflous for me (its getting done automatically) i got it from here:
http://www.debe17.com/web_pages/deans_c ... 8.php.html

under /usr/share/live-helper/templates there is yaboot to be found and a short search gave me this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-live ... 03793.html
(afaik D.Baumann is the maintainer/developper, a short question at the mailing list might be a good way to go).

you might just try to run the command from the OP:
lh config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live #(assuming you want to make it installable, else)
lh config --bootstrap copy
if that doesnt work try to run
lh config -i ppc --bootstrap copy #or something like that.

i wouldn't know if that will work and can't test it.
i for one understand the how-to's over here (from MeanDean) way better than the official wiki:
http://live.debian.net/
just search the how-to section for live.
nontheless it never does what i expect it too and is very time consuming.

[sossego]

Code: Select all

moleque@moo:~/livecd$ lh_config -d lenny -a powerpc -p moop --debian-installer=enabled 
moleque@moo:~/livecd$ su
Password: 
moo:/home/moleque/livecd# lh_build
P: Setting up cleanup function
P: Begin caching bootstrap stage...
P: Begin bootstrapping system...
W: skipping bootstrap
P: Begin caching bootstrap stage...
W: skipping bootstrap_cache.save
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
P: Setting up cleanup function
P: Begin caching chroot stage...
P: Begin mounting /dev/pts...
W: skipping chroot_devpts
P: Begin mounting /proc...
W: skipping chroot_proc
P: Begin mounting /sys...
W: skipping chroot_sysfs
P: Configuring file /etc/debian_chroot
W: skipping chroot_debianchroot
P: Configuring file /sbin/start-stop-daemon
W: skipping chroot_dpkg
P: Configuring file /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
W: skipping chroot_sysv-rc
P: Configuring file /etc/hosts
W: skipping chroot_hosts
P: Configuring file /etc/resolv.conf
W: skipping chroot_resolv
P: Configuring file /etc/hostname
W: skipping chroot_hostname
P: Configuring file /etc/apt/apt.conf
W: skipping chroot_apt
P: Configuring file /etc/apt/sources.list
W: skipping chroot_sources
P: Configuring file /etc/kernel-img.conf
W: skipping chroot_linux-image
P: Begin executing preseed...
P: Begin executing local preseeds...
P: Begin installing tasks...
P: Begin queueing installation of packages lists...
W: skipping chroot_packageslists
P: Begin queueing installation of packages...
P: Begin queueing installation of local packages...
P: Begin installing packages...
P: Begin installing localization packages...
chroot: cannot change root directory to chroot: No such file or directory
P: Begin unmounting filesystems...

No chroot was created.

[coldReactive]

I installed live-helper from squeeze repos, but I seem to not have lh_config command.

[nadir]

the command did change. its with a space instead of an underline now:

Code: Select all

lh config 

same goes for

Code: Select all

lh build

the link from my last post (added by Bro.Tiag at the top of this thread) is the one i like most of all
(elaborate, easy, step by step by step...).

i for one would first of all do a test-build with:

Code: Select all

lh config
lh build

without any further commands (parameters, arguments or however it is called).
result will be a very minimal iso (no gui, no nothing).
if that does work you may move on. it doesn't allways.

[Coco]

Just tried this method but unfortunately it started to copy my windows/data partitions as well (and I was trying to backup up on my external hard drive as well as i don't have enough space in my root partition). Dang! Would have been really cool to have a live backup of my system.

[nadir]

Just tried this method but unfortunately it started to copy my windows/data partitions as well (and I was trying to backup up on my external hard drive as well as i don't have enough space in my root partition). Dang! Would have been really cool to have a live backup of my system.

There is always hope:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47432
add it to --exclude

[Coco]

Just tried this method but unfortunately it started to copy my windows/data partitions as well (and I was trying to backup up on my external hard drive as well as i don't have enough space in my root partition). Dang! Would have been really cool to have a live backup of my system.

There is always hope:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47432
add it to --exclude

Ah, thanks very much.

[mike_phi]

How can I install my liveCD to a target machine hard drive, as the confiuration I have on my live CD implies interaction with a mysql database and of course being a CD does pose write problems : ).

Secondly if I where to create a live USD, I guess this would solve my write access issues when runniing live, any thoughts on this.

[MeanDean]

You can 'write' to a running live system. Those changes disappear when you reboot though.

[mike_phi]

When you say running live system you mean the target machine needs to have Debian already installed, how do I perform the write.

Second question
about creating the live USB I would like the USB to have everything on my machine in the same way the cd iso command created the cd

lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live

what would be the corresponding USB command

[nadir]

....
Second question
about creating the live USB I would like the USB to have everything on my machine in the same way the cd iso command created the cd

lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live

what would be the corresponding USB command

I think you can use that command and then use unetbootin to put the resulting iso on a stick.
unetbootin is not available for Debian Lenny. There is a way around that, but i forgot (do a quick search and you should find it)

Why do i say: " i think" ?
I just tested it with my self-made live-CD, which is a copy of an installation. But i don't use "lh config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live" anymore, but the remixer-tool from refracta (because it is more easy). It does pretty much the same.
I think it should work with the command you mentioned too, but wouldn't bet on it.
It took me about 2 minutes to put the already existing live-iso on the stick. Nice and easy.

There is also a live-helper command to create a stick-iso. I don't know if it works with live-helper/bootstrap/copy too. Not sure why it shouldn't.

Short version:
Try unetbootin.

[mike_phi]

Hi there thanks for the tips.

according to the live manual the live usb is built with

lh config -b usb-hdd

now the cd was built with

lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live (need a equivelent usb command)

which produced a great dvd of my system including my home directory and all configuration files, my question is what is the corresponding USB command to creat the same image (i.e. all home directory and configuration files) for usb as i have on dvd.

[MeanDean]

just a guess

lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live -b usb-hdd

or depending on which version of live-helper you are using

lh config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live -b usb-hdd