How to incorporate the Debian Installer in my .iso?

[brodan]

I realize that I may be treading on dangerous ground by asking this.

I've made a copy of my system with a tool called Refractasnapshot. It worked well, and the resulting .iso runs well from a USB. There is also an installer available from Refracta, but I would like to use the Debian Installer if possible. I'm not asking for anyone to give me instructions, but I'm wondering if anyone might possibly know of a guide (in layman's terms) that exists which tells how to install and set up the Debian Installer.

I've read the Debian Live manual (several times)...but it's beyond my knowledge. I've also read as much info on the installer from the wiki as I can find. I'm not new to Debian (or Linux), but at the same time, I don't understand a lot about coding or technical terminology.

All I'm wanting to do is make a copy of my system and be able to reinstall it if needed.

Thank you for any consideration.

[fsmithred]

I actually have the same question and have only looked into it a little. It's been so long since I've used an official debian-live iso, I forget whether the installer will install what you're running or installs from a list of packages like the regular install isos do. I just mounted a debian-live iso, and there are udeb packages on it, so I guess it installs packages from a list.

What do you feel is missing from refractainstaller that you don't want to use it? It's designed to do exactly what you want, but there are some limitations. (for example, no lvm.) It's also easily hackable, in case there's something you need to change. I would be the guy to talk to about that. (author of refractasnapshot and refractainstaller)

[brodan]

What do you feel is missing from refractainstaller that you don't want to use it? It's designed to do exactly what you want, but there are some limitations. (for example, no lvm.) It's also easily hackable, in case there's something you need to change. I would be the guy to talk to about that. (author of refractasnapshot and refractainstaller)

Thank you for the response. I have actually used the Refracta Installer before, and it worked well. I hope you didn't take offense. I didn't mean that I don't want to use the Refracta Installer. I just really like the Debian Installer and would like to use it if possible.

[fsmithred]

No offense taken. Some people like to modify the script for their own use, and I'm happy to help with that.

Do you happen to know if the debian installer would install the live system on the CD instead of just doing a generic debian install? I could try it, but I'm hoping someone else knows and can tell me and save me an hour or two with my least favorite installer. (No, make that second least - I once had a mandrake installer partition the disk without confirming first.)

[brodan]

Do you happen to know if the debian installer would install the live system on the CD instead of just doing a generic debian install?

I don't know. Sorry.

[fsmithred]

Well, I tried, but I can't test it. I put a debian-live-8.2 iso on a usb, booted it, added a couple of files, changed the background and installed a package. Then I tried to start the installer from the desktop icon, and it won't start. If I have to reboot to get to the installer, I'll lose my changes. I don't think it would work, anyway.

Back when there used to be debian-live usb-hdd images, you could replace the /live folder with the one from a snapshot, edit the boot menu, and you'd have your own live system in a usb image. You could probably get that to work by using an old usb-hdd image.

What should work for you is if you install live-build, and run it with the --bootstrap-copy option. It will make a debian-live style iso with your installed system, similar to what refractasnapshot does. At least it used to do that.

[Dai_trying]

I have used one method for changing the installed packages on a live-cd using Q4OS which is debian based and some very basic instructions can be found in this Q4OS Forum Post.
This live cd installs the live system to the target system and so my installed packages remained after installation although there are options to remove them if you wish. I don't have the free time time to check the debian live-cd but it might be worth looking into. I keep my own personalized iso images as I seem to do a lot of re-installing and it helps.

[brodan]

What should work for you is if you install live-build, and run it with the --bootstrap-copy option. It will make a debian-live style iso with your installed system, similar to what refractasnapshot does. At least it used to do that.

I might give that a try. Thank you.

I have used one method for changing the installed packages on a live-cd using Q4OS which is debian based and some very basic instructions can be found in this Q4OS Forum Post.
This live cd installs the live system to the target system and so my installed packages remained after installation although there are options to remove them if you wish. I don't have the free time time to check the debian live-cd but it might be worth looking into. I keep my own personalized iso images as I seem to do a lot of re-installing and it helps.

I'll also look into this (and try to comprehend it. )

Thank you.