remaster in windows

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: remaster in windows
started by: MistaMuShu

Posted by MistaMuShu on June 23 2004,00:12

hi all,

Is it possible to remaster DSL from windows xp? I don't have a linux distro going, and I like how my setup is right now so I'd rather not repartition and everything. So basically I need a way to open up the iso and delete/add what I want. Is that possible?

Thanks in advance

Posted by rich on June 23 2004,11:26

You can open up the ISO with winISO.

But that wont help you very much, as it will only show you the boot.img and the knoppix compressed image file. - If all you want to do is add files to the CD (.dsl or .cl from mydsl for example) then winISO will do that, but I don't know of a way to mount the image file in windows.

If you have a spare HD you could boot into DSL and then mount the spare HD and do the remaster that way.

Or use VMWare - my current pefered method

Rich

Posted by MistaMuShu on June 24 2004,02:14

I used Alcohol 120 to open it up, but unfortunately, like you said, I can't do much cept fill those couple extra megs. What I really wanted to do was remove more. So the Knoppix file is also an img that I could mount?

Posted by jls legalize on June 24 2004,11:46

u can use dsl under winzoz via VMware :blues:

Posted by clivesay on June 24 2004,13:25

Is VMware difficult for the average user to setup?

Posted by AwPhuch on June 24 2004,16:28

Not really, VMWARE is actually pretty easy to setup...

PM for further details

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by MistaMuShu on June 24 2004,17:14

The VMware seems like a good idea, but I just dont want to install a program that I'm going to use for a one time deal...

Posted by tecker on June 24 2004,17:30

There is alwasy < Daemon Tools >. To mount the image but i dont think it has write capabilities. Are you trying to add files to the ISO or the Knoppix image?

Posted by rich on June 24 2004,17:33

Quote (MistaMuShu @ June 23 2004,22:14)

Along those same 'remove' lines, what on the package list (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/packages.html)

can i remove and still have a decent underlying working install?

I was thinking of removing sound, games, wirless utils and extra X utilities (all i need i guess is dildio, a text editor, and xterms)
And looking to add python (might try the .dsl because I'm not famiular with debians packages and not sure i understand all the relevent dependancies), expect, libpcap, libnet etc

Also want to add perl cpan support and other modules as they don't see to be included in the debian perl-base package

then I can add various work stuff

Wonder if I remove and add all that and still fit it on a 50mb card.

Rich

Posted by hasty on June 25 2004,06:05

Just a thought, but have a look at the amigo linux site < http://amigolinux.org/news.htm >

Theres a small c. 22mb version of slack that will run under windows with just a terminal which might do what you want (with a few additions & a little tweaking).

Posted by MistaMuShu on June 25 2004,22:33

ooooo, the Amigo looks good, thanks !

Posted by Fordi on June 29 2004,01:51

To add .dsl, .tar.gz and .ci packages to the core of DSL:

-Extract all files from the ISO using whatever program you like. I prefer "WinImage", as it's very small and easy to use. Extract them to their own folder. You should end up with 4 files and one folder in the following form:
Root
|-KNOPPIX
| |-KNOPPIX (Compressed ISO, about 48MB)
| |-boot.cat (catalogue file, necessary for burning the disc using cdrtools
| |-boot.img (floppy boot image, same deal)
|-index.html (the advert file for DSL)

-to this root, add your .tar.gz files and your .ci files. Try to avoid making coasters; never include both the ci version and the .tar.gz version of either firefox or openoffice (use the .ci versions; less ram used all around, and you have space to putz around with the other software)
put your .dsl files in DSLRoot/optional

-Open up your CD burning software. It must be capable of making bootable discs. Nero works fine for me. mkisofs/cdrecord also do a fine job.

-Tell your CDR software the name of the boot image (DSLRoot/KNOPPIX/boot.img), and add all files to the burn queue.

-Burn. Reboot. You're done.

As for remastering the compressed image (IE: KNOPPIX), you need unpartitioned harddrive space and a lot of patience.

It boils down to:
-start DSL

-partition, format and mount your stage-drive

-copy all DSL files (ie your /) to the drive (you must be careful to omit the directory in which your stage driive is mounted).
tweak the drive. This includes, but is not limited to:

-modifying the /etc stuff to do your bidding (ie: set up your mail/instant messaging accounts upon start), removing programs you'll never see a use for, including programs you really liked from the myDSL distributions (I'll let you figure out how to do that yourself), adding programs you really liked from other Linux distributions, tweaking the login, default background, or anything else you can do to make DSL more your OS than not.

-make a compressed iso of the drive according to the description listed elsewhere in these forums

-use that in place of the KNOPPIX file when burning.

I will not give you specific instructions; if you're going to remaster, I must insist that you make mistakes and learn enough to make a useful remaster. Even if it's only useful to yourself.

Posted by MistaMuShu on June 30 2004,18:05

Wow fordi, thanks so much for the detailed reply. I'm sure there's enough info in these forums and online for me to figure it out, I just wanted to know if there was a quicker solution to do a remaster in windows specifically. i.e. on XP with windows software and on the same NTFS partition, but from the looks of it, I have to repartition (hassle for me since I have my drive fully partitioned), and run DSL or some variant of Linux to remaster. *sigh, I guess there's no shortcut for a old-time windows user like myself.