ISO creation

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gabe
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ISO creation

Post#1 by gabe » 17 Oct 2013, 17:35

I used the /porteus/make_iso.sh script to create an iso of my system so I'll have a backup in case I need to reinstall in the future. The resulting file was about 2.5 GB in size. Why is it so much larger than the original file which was around 300 MB? About all I did was add the four Netsurf packages which totaled 1.2 MB in size and the two pcmciautils packages which totaled 48 KB.

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brokenman
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Re: ISO creation

Post#2 by brokenman » 18 Oct 2013, 00:23

The script makes an ISO of ALL files found in the directory that contains the folders 'porteus' and 'boot'. This means for example if you have /mnt/sdxY/porteus (and a whole bunch of other folders next to it) then all the other folders next to it will end up in your ISO.
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gabe
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Re: ISO creation

Post#3 by gabe » 18 Oct 2013, 03:27

Okay, I was able to remove some files I had parked in the /optional directory while I was experimenting with different programs. I also removed files from the /changes directory that related to those that I deleted in the /optional directory. I emptied the Trash Can in case those files were somehow getting included. After re-running the script I'm still getting a porteus.iso file of 1.1 GB. The only changes I recall making to the file created by the wizard was to move the firefox module to /optional and replace it with netsurf (1.212 MB) and I added the two pcmciautils modules (48 KB). The only other changes were edits to text files to enable the swap file and zram cheatcode on boot up. I need to get the file down to a maximum of 700 MB because this notebook doesn't have a DVD drive.

Any other suggestions on what can be eliminated?

I know you're planning on including the pcmciautil modules in the kernal in the future. Any chance you could offer Netsurf as a browser option in the wizard also? After trying about 6 different browsers it really seems like the best option for a system with 192 MB of RAM.

gabe
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Re: ISO creation

Post#4 by gabe » 18 Oct 2013, 16:08

I decided to take another approach on creating the iso file. I ran the wizard again with the zram option and development tools but didn't select a browser. I used a windows ISO utility program that I have to edit the wizard's iso in this way -
Added the four Netsurf modules to the /base directory
Added the two pcmciautils modules to the /base directory.
Deleted the porteus.cfg file and replaced it with one I had edited APPEND line to add the zram option. (I wasn't sure if this was necessary since I ran the wizard with zram enabled.)
Created a /porteus/changes/etc/rc.d directory tree since one didn't exist on the wizard's file.
Copied the rc.local file that I modified to activate the swap file to the rc.d directory.
I moved the development module to /optional.

I ended up with and iso of 183.122 MB. I haven't tried installing from this CD yet because I was hoping you could confirm my methodology first.

One last thing that would make this a complete disk - is there some way to create the swap file at install time if one doesn't already exist? I thought there might be a cheatcode for this but I didn't see one. My concern is that a year from now I may have to do a reinstall to a clean disk and I'll forget about creating the swap file. This computer won't run well without it.

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fanthom
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Re: ISO creation

Post#5 by fanthom » 18 Oct 2013, 17:19

a) if you created/edited any config files under windows then they wont work under linux due to different text formatting.
b) swap files can be created easily with 'mkfileswap' utility
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

gabe
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Re: ISO creation

Post#6 by gabe » 18 Oct 2013, 20:36

The files were edited using Abiword in Linux then copied to a Fat32 formatted compact flash card in the PCMCIA slot and transferred to a Windows PC to be included in the new ISO file.

Is that legit?

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fanthom
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Re: ISO creation

Post#7 by fanthom » 19 Oct 2013, 08:32

seems to be ok.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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