Disk Useage

[tom.karez@gmail.com]

I really like the Kiosk, perfectly fits my needs. The one thing I would like to see is to not have the install use the whole disk. I use a PXE based imaging tool for backup and restore and the tool can't see free space in the partition when using linux so it tries to backup the entire hard drive. If the install only used a portion of the disk it needed and left the rest as unused it would address the issue. Cut's down on the cool factor as I need to use ISO's to deploy it instead of booting accross the network.

Tom

[fanthom]

hello tom,

there is definitely a way of backing up only the real space the kiosk is taking. i remember running following command under Desktop edition:

Code: Select all

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=kiosk.iso

and it produced 46MB ISO.
unfortunately this wont work for UEFI images as separate FAT parition is created just for the EFI loader.

Please boot Desktop edition and check if you get the same result then try to figure out how to update your backing tool.

thanks

[tom.karez@gmail.com]

The iso file is fine, 56MB. I am using Terabyte's image for linux product. It boots using PXE and then it copies the disk/partitions to file server. So it is looking at the disk from the outside, not running the kiosk itself, it does not have permissions to see what is in the partitions. So onless the partitions themselves are small it will simply just back up the whole disk (very bad).

[fanthom]

it is looking at the disk from the outside, not running the kiosk itself,
i'm referring to the same method. Porteus Desktop edition is like your tool - you need to boot it on a PC where you want to make the backup and then run 'dd' command. it produces small ISOs somehow - please try and you will see yourself.