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(experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Stuff that has not yet gone into the official build.

Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby nadir » Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:59 pm

I understand.
I used this version:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/test ... b02.tar.gz
The rest i have to check later (it is late, i am tired, ...). Perhaps tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

But wouldn't it be possible to simply del everything already there? I mean: should it really matter what has there been before?
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby fsmithred » Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:19 am

The latest version is still on my hard drive. The one you used (refracta2usb02 tarball) does copy a syslinux folder in place of the isolinux folder in the iso.

Alright, here, it's not just on my hard drive now. This one copies the isolinux folder and renames files instead of copying a refracta syslinux directory. It does still copy /live/hooks onto the usb stick.
https://gist.github.com/fsmithred/5242259
It's still in the middle of being edited, so there's some old dead code and some new dead (not yet activated) code, and it's slightly reorganized. Just drop it into the existing refracta2usb directory to replace the previous version.

If you use it to replace the /live folder on a usb stick that already has a live system on it, beware of a couple of pre-set variables in the script. 239, 244, and 248. It's set to save an existing /live/hooks or /live/boot folder rather than copy the packaged versions. The /live/boot folder is only relevant if your usb stick uses grub, such as the usb image for refracta-606.
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby fsmithred » Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:24 am

Delete the stuff you can see, or delete the stuff that you can't see? You might need to do some voodoo for the latter.
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby nadir » Tue Mar 26, 2013 2:56 am

delete everything there and put the iso on the stick.

Here is the actual output of /media/sdc1/syslinux,
put on the SD-card via unetbooting,
iso is crunchbang:

Code: Select all
user$  ls /media/sdc1/syslinux
exithelp.cfg  f1.txt  f3.txt  f5.txt  f7.txt  f9.txt       live.cfg  prompt.cfg  stdmenu.cfg   vesamenu.c32
f10.txt       f2.txt  f4.txt  f6.txt  f8.txt  ldlinux.sys  menu.cfg  splash.png  syslinux.bin

Now let me try to use the new script and put the refracta iso on the card.
Reboot, and post more.

After running refracta2usb i got this:
Code: Select all
user$  ls /media/sdc1/syslinux
boot.cat      f1.txt  f3.txt  f5.txt  f7.txt  f9.txt       isolinux.bin  menu.cfg    splash.png   syslinux.cfg
exithelp.cfg  f2.txt  f4.txt  f6.txt  f8.txt  install.cfg  live.cfg      prompt.cfg  stdmenu.cfg  vesamenu.c32


====
And that worked.
Now let me try it the other way around again.
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby dzz » Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:16 am

You might need to do some voodoo

Many mystical things go on here but we don't do voodoo. An example of what can be done:

I was given a laptop with a knackered mainboard. The 320 gig HD was good and I got already a £5 usb caddy

Repartitioned one fat32, one ext4. Refracta snapshot "live" installed with full LUKS persistence to part1 with syslinux bootloader.

The FAT part is large enough to contain other live images in a multiboot setup with space left for data transfer (music and vids) with lesser OS's

It actually boots and runs faster on my old Lenovo than the installed squeeze.. and can boot different machines. It fits in the laptop bag. We wont be dd'ing an isohybrid to that one nor will "ubkernel" be it's master!

On-topic a bit more: Some Debian "deviants" use modified (or very different) "live-boot" mechanisms but whatever is in /isolinux is mostly syslinux compatible by just changing text strings (and directory/file names) from "isolinux" to "syslinux"

EDIT the interesting bit is what is in crunchbang's live.cfg
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby nadir » Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:28 am

After running the script again, this time choosing crunchbang.iso
Code: Select all
user$  ls /media/sdc1/syslinux
boot.cat  install.cfg  isolinux.bin  live.cfg  menu.cfg  splash.png  stdmenu.cfg  syslinux.cfg  vesamenu.c32

I will reboot, but ain't got much hope.

live.cfg
Code: Select all
label live-686
        menu label Live Session
        menu default
        kernel /live/vmlinuz
        append initrd=/live/initrd.img boot=live config quiet
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby dzz » Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:32 am

Crunchbang needs
Code: Select all
config

refracta (and refractasnapshot) does not. In cmdline.. because in refracta, "live-user" is already configured therefore "config=whatever, and_more" is for selected use only, e.g. setting live locale and keyboard.. "config" on it's own runs all live scripts including user-setup
Last edited by dzz on Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:03 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby nadir » Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:33 am

That says nothing to me.

And my problem is not crunchbang. My problem is to put an iso on a stick as easy as possible. Any iso.
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby dzz » Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:23 am

This is somewhat out of date (syslinux has evolved since) but for anyone who doubts the validity if this method in a Debian environment:

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i ... y-flexible
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Re: (experimental) Alternative usb installation method

Postby fsmithred » Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:49 pm

New version of refracta2usb. I organized the code a bit, and I think it's pretty smooth. I squashed a lot of bugs, but there may be more. This one will detect your text editor if you choose to edit the boot menu. I've tested it with geany, leafpad and mousepad. It should also work with gedit or kwrite. Others can be hard-coded in the script.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/refracta/test ... b06.tar.gz

Code: Select all
   1. Create a live-USB using files taken from a live-CD .iso file.
   This is the normal mode. The program asks you which iso file and usb
   stick you'd like to use, mounts both the iso and the usb, copies
   files from the iso to the usb, copies syslinux files and custom
   hooks from its own library to the usb device, and makes the usb
   bootable with syslinux.
   
   2. Create a live-USB using files taken from a running live session.
   You can do this if you don't want to install Refracta to hard drive.
   Files are copied from the running system. (/lib/live/mount/medium)
   Burn the iso to a CD and boot into the live system. Then follow this
   guide.
   
   3. Update a previously prepared usb stick with a newer (or older)
   image, without reformatting the stick. Lets you choose the iso file
   and usb device, copies files as in #1 above, but does not reinstall
   the bootloader. If the stick already contains a /live/hooks
   folder, hooks are preserved and not replaced with the ones from the
   program's library. This option will also work with a device that
   uses GRUB to boot - it will preserve the existing /live/boot/grub
   folder.
   
   4. Run the partition editor (gparted or cfdisk) on the selected
   usb device.
   
   5. Edit the boot menu and add an entry to boot with Refracta
   custom hooks. Use this if you plan to create an encrypted,
   persistent /home. Run this after you've used one of the "Create"
   options. You must have a linux partition ready for this,
   and the script will add the menu entry with the uuid of the physical
   partition. This will allow you to use the new boot entry without
   having to manually add the device name to the boot line at every
   boot.
   
     Note that this will not create the encrypted /home partition. You
   need to boot into the live system and run musbcrypt. (see below)
   
   Note also that this method is separate and distinct from standard
   debian-live persistence, which at this time in Debian Wheezy does
   not handle encrypted partitions. This is a hack to get around that
   limitation. If you want standard debian-live persistence, see the
   section on persistence below.
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