Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

trick - create a live installable copy of your system

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
Message
Author
gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#1 Post by gnudude »

install live-helper, I suggest using the latest version from the live-helper repo - deb http://live.debian.net/debian/ ./

I made a folder to work in
mkdir work
changed to that folder
cd work
changed to root
su
told live-helper what I wanted to do
lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live
told live-helper to build the ISO
lh_build
when it is done binary.iso is the finished iso

and that was that....

F37U5G0D
Posts: 102
Joined: 2008-07-27 01:30
Location: Monmouth, Il
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#2 Post by F37U5G0D »

Is there an LH program that lets me specify a list of packages I don't want installed? My .iso won't fit on one CD.

User avatar
Bro.Tiag
Posts: 1924
Joined: 2007-06-02 19:14

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#3 Post by Bro.Tiag »

F37U5G0D wrote:Is there an LH program that lets me specify a list of packages I don't want installed? My .iso won't fit on one CD.
You might find some usefull information in the second post of this archived thread, live-helper create image and customize environment howto!.

Cheers

gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#4 Post by gnudude »

F37U5G0D wrote:Is there an LH program that lets me specify a list of packages I don't want installed? My .iso won't fit on one CD.
live-helper is nearly infinitely configurable...but I am not aware of any option to leave packages out of a backup of your system - if that is what you are asking.

If it was me, I would uninstall the stuff from my system I didn't want/need before I made the backup OR I would manually unpack the iso, unpack the squash, chroot in and remove stuff.

8)

jalu
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2008-11-19 23:26

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#5 Post by jalu »

Code: Select all

lh_config --bootstrap copy --debian-installer live
that command did also try to copy my private data, which is quite an amount.
is there a shortcut to ship around the manpages ones again?
greetings

gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#6 Post by gnudude »

No idea, be sure to let us know if you find one. I keep all my pr0n...err...data on a separate partition so it isn't a issue.

jalu
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2008-11-19 23:26

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#7 Post by jalu »

i tried this: from my other installation i mounted only / without home, and chrooted in it, but i ran out of space - though i had ~4 of ~7GB free (39% used): crap. if thats a way i could create a / big enough when installing.
greetings

User avatar
Alterax
Posts: 23
Joined: 2009-04-25 07:43
Location: Arkansas, USA

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#8 Post by Alterax »

This is really cool!

I have a couple of projects coming up, but no hardware to run them on has been ordered yet. I've been kicking around in qemu just to get a good idea of what I need to make these servers, only to turn around and install fresh when the boxes do come in. Now I can go ahead and do the development now, throw it on a dvd and tweak the configuration once I actually install.

Thanks, Gnudude! You just saved me a LOT of time reinventing the wheel.

User avatar
Bro.Tiag
Posts: 1924
Joined: 2007-06-02 19:14

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#9 Post by Bro.Tiag »

Dean, when you tried this, how much unused space did have on the partition that you made "work" on? What was the finger print of the system you used?

Cheers

gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#10 Post by gnudude »

It doesn't have any finger prints.

I think the system was a little less than 2gigs in size...probably had at least 4 gigs free.

I haven't looked at how live-helper does the backup but my guess would be that it copies the system to a folder and then does changes and squashes it. So you should have enough free space to make a complete copy of your system as well as a squashed iso of it. To be safe I would suggest having free space at least 1.5x as large as your installed system and 2x would probably be better.

If you have a data partition, swap file (maybe), or a usb storage device mounted then I would unmount them before doing this unless I wanted it in the backup too.

User avatar
Bro.Tiag
Posts: 1924
Joined: 2007-06-02 19:14

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#11 Post by Bro.Tiag »

meandean wrote:It doesn't have any finger prints.
You know what I mean.
gnudude wrote:II think the system was a little less than 2gigs in size...probably had at least 4 gigs free.

I haven't looked at how live-helper does the backup but my guess would be that it copies the system to a folder and then does changes and squashes it. So you should have enough free space to make a complete copy of your system as well as a squashed iso of it. To be safe I would suggest having free space at least 1.5x as large as your installed system and 2x would probably be better.
Hum, I was trying to copy a 3.62 gig partition with only 4.36 gig's of free space.
gnudude wrote:If you have a data partition, swap file (maybe), or a usb storage device mounted then I would unmount them before doing this unless I wanted it in the backup too.
This might explain why when I tryed working on my data partition (with much more space, yet lots of junk too) it filled up as well. Thanks.

Cheers

User avatar
Hadret
Posts: 354
Joined: 2007-07-19 13:04
Location: Berlin

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#12 Post by Hadret »

Just a small question: I've got kernel 2.6.29 so can I, using live installable copy of my system, format and install my system on ext4 partition? (:

gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#13 Post by gnudude »

I would think the installer would need ext4 support and I am not sure if it does. You might try the latest version of the installer with the --debian-installer-distribution option that is listed in the man page man lh_config

User avatar
Hadret
Posts: 354
Joined: 2007-07-19 13:04
Location: Berlin

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#14 Post by Hadret »

As soon as I will check that, I'll all let you know (:

jalu
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2008-11-19 23:26

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#15 Post by jalu »

Good. :D, thanks.

the long version:
due to my never ending problems with live-helper these days i did a fresh lenny installation this night.
After installing and configuring e17 and the apps i tried an lh_config backup.
I`m posting right now from the created live-cd, including the installer (~530MB), no problems occured.
thanks for the tip/how-to, that will be lots of help during my next crashes and i got a nice live-cd to impress the girls in the disco.

jalu
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2008-11-19 23:26

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#16 Post by 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.
Last edited by jalu on 2009-06-04 01:32, edited 1 time in total.

gnudude
Posts: 1684
Joined: 2009-04-05 17:30
Location: gone....

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#17 Post by gnudude »

jalu wrote: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.

:shock:

User avatar
Bro.Tiag
Posts: 1924
Joined: 2007-06-02 19:14

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#18 Post by Bro.Tiag »

gnudude wrote:
jalu wrote: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.

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

jalu
Posts: 1389
Joined: 2008-11-19 23:26

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#19 Post by 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
Posts: 16
Joined: 2005-02-11 14:56
Location: Wayfaring

Re: trick - create a live installable copy of your system

#20 Post by 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.

Post Reply