Page 1 of 1

XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 06:36
by Dave99
Hi all

I have a customer which after much convincing, has agreed to use Porteus Kiosk instead of Win 7 for some kiosks around their offices.
Now the problem comes in when they require some changes (to local html pages) and a few other customizations.
Although they are capable of replacing the required files, they are completely afraid and clueless about Linux and asked if they can make
the required changes in a Windows machine.
They want to expand the XZM, change/update the required files, remake the XZM and put on USB flash drive.

I have tried the latest version of 7z but although it can open a XZM, it can't remake them.

Does anyone know of any other Windows pgm (GUI or CLI) that can handle XZM?

Many thanks.

Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 06:46
by Ed_P
Porteus can access files on non-Linux format drives. If the html files were stored on a FAT32 format USB stick Window users could update them and Porteus could read them. The same would be true of a network drive that the Porteus systems could access and the Windows users could update.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 07:36
by Dave99
Hi Ed_P

Thanks for that.
But what if they need to change the "home" page's location (they may need online page sometimes) and may require to make other changes.

Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 14:03
by fanthom
Hi Dave99,

maybe your customer could use /porteus/rootcopy instead of a module? just unpack customized xzm there and do tweaks as normal, then create new ISO.
disadvantage: data are not compressed which means bigger ISO size (shouldn't matter that much in kiosk which is small itself).

more about /rootcopy:
http://www.porteus.org/tutoriels/26-gen ... ctory.html
not everything applies to kiosk (ie 'norrotcopy' cheatcode is not present) but general idea remains the same.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 16:03
by Dave99
Hi fanthom and thanks for the idea.

I gave it some thought but decided against it as things could get complicated as the user would probably mess things up.
However your idea got me thinking and I came up with another one.

I had to go see the customer today anyway, so I took the Desktop Edition on CD, booted off that then put him in front of it and asked him (without any further help) to go to Google.
He managed with no problem and even exclaimed "hey Linux looks a lot like Windows".
I don't know what he was expecting, perhaps loads of CLI boxes with all sorts of cryptic commands whizzing by on the screen. :lol:
He was genuinely surprised that it had a graphical interface and it's probably a common thought that most Windows only users have.

So now that he isn't so anti Linux and has even agreed to allocate a dedicated PC (no HDD) to use as a editing PC for the Kiosks, what I have decided to do is as follows:

1) Boot off CD and install the Desktop Edition to a USB thumb drive.
2) Download GTKdialog and install that so now I can write GTKdialog scripts to automate the creation of an edited Kiosk ISO and at least it's a GUI and not frighten him with a Bash CLI script. :)

So now he can put the original unmodified Kiosk ISO on CD (but as data and not bootable), extract it to the working Desktop installation PC, do his mods on html pages, home pages and so on then click on a script
that I will write for him and it will create a new customized Kiosk to a dedicated USB thumb drive (not the same one as the Desktop Edition is on).

All sounds a bit convoluted I know, but IMO it's probably the easiest way for him.
So now the only question I have is, does the DD that comes with the Desktop Edition cope with UUID for drives?

Thanks once again.
Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 16:34
by fanthom
that's even better as i want to get rid of /rootcopy in next release and stick to modules only. /rootcopy is not working for PXE boot and wont work for 'automatic updates' so it's good opportunity to disable it.

"does the DD that comes with the Desktop Edition cope with UUID for drives?"
please run 'blkid' as root to find all the info about drives and partitions. please show your client how to recognize a drive, ie /dev/sdb1 is partition while /dev/sdb is whole drive on which you need to to burn the kiosk ISO.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 17:06
by Dave99
fanthom wrote: i want to get rid of /rootcopy in next release and stick to modules only. /rootcopy is not working for PXE boot and wont work for 'automatic updates' so it's good opportunity to disable it.
I understand your reluctance to keep it, but is it a good idea to just take it out almost "overnight"?
There may be users that rely on it.
For one, I think it's a very nice feature as it gives one an alternative to XZM only.
fanthom wrote: please run 'blkid' as root to find all the info about drives and partitions.
Haa, perfect.
fanthom wrote: please show your client how to recognize a drive
No chance, the last thing I want to do is spook him with things like that.
For now I will hide as much of the nitty gritty as possible in scripts else he might
get scared and I'll be back to the whole Windows thing again.
fanthom wrote: /dev/sdb1 is partition while /dev/sdb is whole drive on which you need to to burn the kiosk ISO.
No problem, understood because of the bootloader.

Thanks.
Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 17:24
by roadie
Clarifying up front that I have little knowledge of Windows, but is there a potential problem with Windows and working with Linux files?
I'm thinking of the filename issues and permissions that I heard of years ago.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 06 May 2014, 17:34
by Dave99
There will be problems with permissions and possibly even file names and one of the reasons why I want to keep my customer away from Windows when editing/customizing Porteus Kiosk.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 09 May 2014, 19:17
by Dave99
Right, booted Porteus Desktop Edition off USB flash drive and all is well, but I do have one question.
The USB flash drive I used has a built in LED that flashes whenever any data is being read or written to it, how come it flashes every few minutes even when I'm not accessing it?
I haven't seen this behaviour is any other distro that I have tried.
Always use the same kind of USB flash drive.

Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 10 May 2014, 06:33
by fanthom
Hi Dave99,

could be due to laptop-mode-tools syncing buffers every 5 mins. have a look on /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf and 'LM_AC_MAX_LOST_WORK_SECONDS=' in particular. more about LMT:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop_Mode_Tools

you can disable LMT completely in /etc/rc.d/rc.services startup script.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 10 May 2014, 10:58
by Dave99
Thank you fanthom.

Will look at it and report back.

Dave.

Re: XZM support in Windows?

Posted: 16 May 2014, 18:36
by Dave99
Update time.

Settled on a value of 600 for 'LM_AC_MAX_LOST_WORK_SECONDS'