Other Help Topics :: ReMastering HOWTO for DSL

first sorry for my english, im a french
Hoppe this with give you sompe help or way to remasterize...

I needed something like Damnsmall but not Damnsmal, more precisely, a security tool. Till now i used a knoppix remaster
I had a look on Damnsmall, very interesting because small and fast when used as livecd, even that Damnsmall pay it with less fonctionalities.
OK...i have it fully remasterized in this way....and i give you some tips.
For that i have used the debian i have installed on my laptop with reiserfs filesystem
3 things have to be done:
1) copy the files
2) add and remove things i need or not
3) mkisofs
OK !....

1) copy the files:

I used the last Damnsmall2.2 and have all my work in a partition....if this one is empty or not doesnt matter.
There are 2 methodes, the first one is more elegant, I have used the second one
1méth:
Cloop the cdrom to make a copy of the files
#mkdir /mnt/cloop
#mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom (mount the X-DSL cdrom)
#mount -o ro,loop=/dev/cloop0 /cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX /mnt/cloop
#mkdir xdsl
#mkdir xdsl/sources
#mkdir xdsl/newcd
#cp -a /cdrom/* xdsl/newcd
#cp -a /mnt/cloop/* xdsl/sources
#cp -a /mnt/cloop/.bash_profile xdsl/source

2meth is to boot with Damnsmall and copy the decompressed KNOPPX on xdsl/sources
After that you can reboot, return on your host linux and copy the rest of the cd on xdsl/newcd

2 Customize DamnSmall

Tiaaa...Damnsmall developpers are very clever...This part was rather hot like tabasco to do...
I didnt want to become crazy and i choice a dirty but efficient and quick way to do it, i didnt want to spend nights on this part. Then if somenone can help me to do that all cleaner ??....

The probleme with Damnsmall is that they have destroy all the package environnement...thats ok if we only use the dsl package but i wanted the good old debian deb packages...
Ok...
Things they must be added !!:
/etc/apt/source.lists (we need it) with Debian testing
My source.lists looks like that:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ oldstable main non-free contrib
Then some files the system needs in:
/var/lib
/var/lib/dpkg/

I copied them all from my host debian
Then......
#chroot /mnt/sda7/xdsl/sources/KNOPPIX
#dpkg—restore
#dpkg -query - (just to see all the installed packages)
#apt-get update
#apt-get upgrade (just to see but dont accept)
make your apt-get remove /install
Nota: you will have every time a lot of warnings, but doesnt matter, they are only warnings (i said it, its a dirty method)
accept the install of the glibc
Just a little trick: to prevent all the possible conflicts use the
APT::Force-LoopBreak "true"; (dont forget the ; )

If you have depends problems, dont use apt-get -f install
but
#dpkg --force-overwrite -i /var/cache/apt/archives/x11-common_6.9.0.dfsg.1-4_all.de
this is f eg to solve a probleme with x11-common i had

When all that is finished, remove the directoties and files you have added
get empty /var/lib/apt/list
then
#apt-get clean
remove status avalaible /var/lib/dpkg/info /etc/apt/sources.list
Purge /var/lib var/temp /temp /usr/share/locale with all langages u dont need
Dont forget to delete the file containig the param APT::Force-LoopBreak "true"; (/etc/apt/apt.conf)
Maybe i omit here some little things i have done, let me know...yes, i added some libs in /lib /var/lib and /usr/lib

Then OK, the last thing to do, the iso file
#cd /sda7/xdsl
#mkisofs -R -U -V "KNOPPIX.net filesystem" -publisher "KNOPPIX www.knoppix.net" -hide-rr-moved -cache-inodes -no-bak -pad sources/KNOPPIX | nice -5 create_compressed_fs - 65536 > newcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

For me the -b param in the create_compressed_fs doesnt optimize anything, just needing a lot of time to compress

#mkisofs -pad -l -r -J -v -V "KNOPPIX" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -hide-rr-moved -o knoppix.iso newcd

Thats it ! i burned that with k3b.....
First part: 15 min
Third part: 30 min
Second part....1 afternoon.....

Works fine, ..with foremost, sleuthkit, john-the-ripper, biew, tcpdump, netcat, ......
My iso is 76 megs....

loupdesteppes!

Thank's for your post on making a remaster. I, and many with me I think, would appreciate a more explicit explanation of how you make your remaster. This to make it possible for newbies and selflearned enthusiasts (like me) to understand and use this information. Thank's beforehand!

Have fun,
meo

Ok meo, as soon as im in mood to, i will try to be more explicite in my description.
but if you have any pblm, let me know.
Anyway, my remaster was easy to do because i already have a debian installed on my host, and i know how a dedian works with for eg apt-get and dpkg. And DSL is Debian or Debianlike as well as Knoppix.
I will try to do what you ask...

Quote (meo @ July 03 2005,15:41)

Hi again shui!

Well I thought I had answered your questions in my last post. I'll try to be a little more precise and explicit this time. You can't use a part of a windows partition (let's say like something C in the windows system) for reasons I mentioned in my last post. If you are going to make a bigger remaster like 200 MB or more you will need a linux partition on your harddrive and also what is called a swap partition. If your harddrive doesn't have this it will not be possible to make the remaster you want. If you have a harddrive that is big enough you can quite easily make the required partitions. So in my HOWTO I use hda3 as an example from my own setup. The part about backgrounds and styles is just what it says, different backgrounds and styles I like and want to use in DSL as I have in other distributions of linux before, like slackware etc. So it is nothing really needed. That's just what I like to have on my remaster. If something still isn't clear to you just post a question in this thread and I'll see what I can do. Depending on my circumstances it might pass a couple of days before I can answer. But if I can I will.

Have fun,
meo

MEO,
Is there anyway to make a remaster by just using RAM if I have 1 gig of RAM. I have no way or desire to pruchase a HD to connect to this laptop. I would like to remaster with TCL and EXPECT but cannot afford to make changes to the Hard Drive.

Hi Blackbird!

I guess You could try to do a DSL-Ram Remaster. It is posted before but here it comes again:

Mount the partitions needed

#mount -rw /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
#mount -rw /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 (Here I have stored files I want to add)

Make the directories needed

#mkdir source newcd newcd/KNOPPIX

Copy necessary files to directory /newcd

#cp -Rp /cdrom/boot newcd
#cp -Rp /cdrom/lost+found newcd
#cp -Rp /cdrom/index.html newcd

Copy the sources to the right directory

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

Go through and copy wanted things to source

#cp -Rp /mnt/hda2/backgrounds source/etc/skel/.fluxbox
#cp -Rp /mnt/hda2/styles/* source/usr/share/fluxbox/styles

Create the custom compressed image file:

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

Then I had to remove the source-dir to gain space and make it work

Create the iso-file as follows:

#mkisofs -no-pad -l -r -J -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -b
boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -hide-rr-moved -o mydsl.iso newcd

Copy the iso-file to the partition where you have your favourite cd-burning program

#cp mydsl.iso /mnt/hda1 (Here I have my favourite cd-burning program)

Maybe 1 GB Ram will be enough in itself. Try it out You have nothing to loose!

Have fun,
meo

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