Using "mklivecd" to create a liveCD and installable distribution.
See also:
Introduction ∞
Using "mklivecd", you can create a liveCD and installable version of your installation.
You have a lot of control over how you create the liveCD. You can create a complete backup of your computer, or you can "remaster" PCLinuxOS to make something different than your original install CD.
You need the livecd-utils package to create a livecd. It should be installed with a default installation, otherwise do:
apt-get install livecd-utils
ISO size ∞
The original PCLinuxOS comes on a regular CD, which is about 700MB that is uncompressed to an 1.8GB installation.
If you have added more data (installed software, downloaded files, etc), then your installation will be larger. If your installation is too large then making a remaster becomes complex.
"squashfs" is responsible for creating the ISO from your installation. It will "squash" (compress) your "fs" (filesystem, or installation) into an ISO. However, the early versions of squashfs could only create an ISO of, at most, 2GB. This is compressed from a filesystem around 4-5GB.
Learning the size of your installation ∞
To learn how much disk space your installation is taking up, do this:
- Method 1:
# as root cd / du -s
- Method 2
-
Faster, but a little more messy:
(df)
df # or to see the bytes: df -B 1
Excluding certain directories:
# as root cd / du -s --exclude tmp --exclude /home/user
Under 2GB ∞
If your installation can be compressed down to 2GB or less, then everything is ok.
Try to keep your installation under 4-5GB. You may need to try a remaster to see if your ISO is 2GB or less. If it's too big, then you'll need to remove some files or uninstall software from your computer, or use the following instructions:
Over 2GB ∞
squashfs 3.0 overcame the 2G size limit. In order to take advantage of the squashfs 3.0 kernel driver, you will need to upgrade a few packages:
If you are using kernel version 2.6.15
or higher, the following packages have to be updated:
busybox
syslinux
-
squashfs
You will find them in the .93
subfolder (FIXME - explain)
busybox-1.00-0.pre5.4tex.i586.rpm
syslinux-3.11-1tex.i586.rpm
-
squashfs-tools-3.0-1tex.i586.rpm
Notes ∞
EVERYTHING which is available to you while booted into that installation will be made available in the liveCD version.
This makes for a particularly cool way to back your system up.
The current maximum image size is 2GBs. This means that > 2GB of files can be compressed down to a 2GB ISO. Being able to make larger images hasn't been addressed by the tools which PCLinuxOS uses. This isn't a PCLinuxOS thing, it's a thing with the tools which several distributions use. Mklivecd builds a single squash image. In order to get past the 2 gig limit the mklivecd scripts would have to be changed to create multiple squashfs images. Large liveDVDs are possible with other distributions, so it's only a matter of time before the functionality becomes common.
Remember that you can make a USB home folder, and then boot off of a LiveCD with a cheat code to use it. This lets you have a "fixed" installation and have dynamic files, stored on that USB device.
Types of remasters ∞
Topic-specific notes are found within one of these documents:
- Making a bootable backup with PCLinuxOS remastering
-
Making a new distribution based on PCLinuxOS -- Create a new distribution based on PCLinuxOS.
Remasters ∞
-
- Slim.
- Used to be based on PCLinuxOS. Switched to Unity Linux
-
- Its goals are a very very very minimal and still-updatable distribution.
-
The PCLinuxOS MiniME is an official slim distribution.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20060502091539/http://ftp.nluug.nl:80/ftp/pub/os/Linux/distr/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100718182004/http://ftp.nl.freebsd.org:80/os/Linux/distr/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070403052821/http://ftp.surfnet.nl:80/ftp/pub/os/Linux/distr/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100925230801/http://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu:80/linux/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100916072006/http://distro.ibiblio.org:80/pub/linux/distributions/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/
Resources ∞
- http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/html/remastering.html
- https://www.berlios.de/software/live-cd/ 1
- http://www.pclinuxonline.com/wiki/RemasterLiveCD
- https://qgis.org/en/site/?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=58 2
- Creating a custom Linux LiveCD With PCLinuxOS, by Dmitri Popov
-
https://web.archive.org/web/20070322194008/http://www.goblinx.com.br:80/en/linuxlive.htm
- Turn just about any distribution into a LiveCD.
Last updated 2023-07-05 at 05:39:22
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