Other Help Topics :: ReMastering HOWTO for DSL



First of all I want to make clear that I'm not taking any credit for these remastering HOWTOS. I have just kind of "translated" posts from nucpc and Del so that even a newbie or a selflearned DSL-enthusiast (as myself) might understand HOWTO get into the wonders of remastering DSL. As you can se of the instructions below my "playaround partition" is hda3 (if you have another just replace hda3 with your own).

                       Remastering HOWTO for Damn Small Linux (Copying manually)

Start by running from the live DSL-cdrom

Become root and mount the right partition

$sudo su
#mount -rw /dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3

Make the directories needed

#mkdir /mnt/hda3/source
#mkdir /mnt/hda3/newcd
#mkdir /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX

Copy necessary files to directory /newcd

#cp -Rp /cdrom/autorun.bat /mnt/hda3/newcd
#cp -Rp /cdrom/autorun.inf /mnt/hda3/newcd
#cp -Rp /cdrom/index.html /mnt/hda3/newcd

Copy files to directory /newcd/KNOPPIX

#cp -Rp /cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.cat /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX
#cp -Rp /cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX

Copy the sources to the right directory

#cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/* /mnt/hda3/source
#cp -Rp /KNOPPIX/.bash_profile /mnt/hda3/source

Go through and copy wanted things to /mnt/hda3/source

I usually keep scripts, studyprojects  and whatever I want  to have handy in a directory on a usb-drive. That makes it easy to copy it to what will be the home directory on the live cd. In that way all I have to take along is the live cd, knowing it's all right there (and perhaps some favorite mp3's on the usb-drive):

(Don't forget to mount your usb-drive first with mount.app if you try this)

#cp -Rp /mnt/sda1/Docs/* /mnt/hda3/source/home/damnsmall

Create the custom compressed image file:

#mkisofs -R /mnt/hda3/source | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

Create the iso-file as follows:

#cd /mnt/hda3
#mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o myknoppix.iso newcd

Copying your new iso-file to another partition to be able to burn it
First be sure that you have mounted the target partition (You can use the mount.app)

#cp /mnt/hda3/myknoppix.iso /mnt/hda1

Now just burn the iso with whatever software you have installed in the target partition.

It can surely be done in many ways, but this is the way I do it


                                     DSL remastering HOWTO (Reinstalling apt-get)

Mount, copy and chroot

$sudo su
#mount /mnt/hda3
#cp -Rp /KNOPPIX /mnt/hda3
#mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX/dev
#chroot /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX
#mount -t proc /proc proc

(Connect to internet)

#dpkg-restore
#nano /etc/apt/sources.list  (Change to the testing branch)

Add and remove packages to your liking

#umount /proc
#ctrl+D
#mkdir /dev/hda3/newcd  (Copy everything from cd except the KNOPPIX image to this directory )
(See the previous HOWTO if you are uncertain)

Create the custom compressed image file

#mkisofs -R /mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > /mnt/hda3/newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

Create the iso-image

#cd /mnt/hda3
#mkisofs -r -J -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o my_custom_DSL.iso newcd

Testing the new KNOPPIX-image

Make a boot-floppy

#dd if=/mnt/hda3/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0

Boot with this floppy to try if your new KNOPPIX-image works (Then burn it if you like)


I must point out that I have not done it this way myself yet, so I can't tell if I got it wrong. If I have got it wrong please post a correction in this forum. This HOWTO is derived from a post by Del and I might have missed out in the "translation". If so keep me posted!

I hope this post will be useful for some that would like to get into the wonders of remastering DSL (this wonderful little distribution of linux) and making their own personalized copy of it.

Have a lot of fun (as I have had),
meo
Works for DSL 0.6.3!

The first HOWTO (manually copying) works for the most resent release of DSL. The only thing that is different is that there are no autorun files on the new version. So just omitting the two lines copying autorun.bat and autorun.inf will work just fine. There is also the possibility to copy these two files from a DSL 0.6.2 cd version and get the autorun feature to work (I did this on my remastering).

So keep up having fun,
meo
Thanks!  I'll have to give it a shot. :)
Instead of using a seperate partition, is it possible to save your files on say a zip 250mb drive(or a usb flash drive)? I would like to play around with remastering, but I don't want to have to make a seperate partition.
Thanks
Very nice idea mineeme401! I just had to try to remaster on a usb-drive (since I have one). It works!!! Just remember to format the usb-drive with ext2 filesystem (i tried with vfat first but it didn't work). From within DSL, before mounting, do like this: $mke2fs /dev/sda1 and you are all set. Just a word about the specs of my box. I have 256 MB of ram and a 1 GB big swap-file on my harddrive. My usb-drive is 256 MB also and there was no problem at all to make a remaster on it. I have not tried on a zip-drive yet but it might work also. Give it a shot and tell me how it works.

P.S. I'm posting this from the remaster made on the usb D.S.

Have fun,
meo
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