Remastering: PuppyLinux

Revision [17332]

This is an old revision of remastering made by CrustyLobster on 2011-08-02 21:22:37.

Remasterpup (the standard remaster tool)

This builds a new .iso image of the the current install in its current state.
There are some options to leave some parts of the filesystem 'pristine'.
'Pristine' means none of your changes make it into the new ISO.
There are also some options to exclude hardware specific changes, mostly in /etc.

Only shinobars updated version supports:

- remaster with or without a zdrv (contains kernel drivers)
- Grub as a boot loader on the ISO
- Joilet filesystems on the ISO (for long filenames)

You can choose to include the hardware specific changes, so the new ISO only boots on the PC on which it was created.
This is not recommended.

The only real problem is that the contents of /etc and /root must be added manually during the remaster process, so that customisations within that folder are kept in the new ISO. Some things cannot be copied, if you want to boot on different PCs.

This has the added problem of users forgetting not to include the 'cache' contents of the /root/.mozilla folder, leaving their browsing history and even their passwords in the new ISO, easily available in the browser!

Woofy

Woofy can remaster any ISO, not only the Puppy that is currently booted.
Woofy should support almost all versions of Puppy, even if it is different from the one you are running.

Woofy does not include any customisations made to the current system, instead:

- you must supply the bootable Puppy Linux .iso file that you want to remaster
- you can supply a dir containing the packages you want to add (supports pet, sfs, tar.gz, deb, rpm, txz, xz)
- you can supply a list of files to be deleted from the remastered filesystem
- you can edit boot options and themes
- you cannot make an ISO that is specific to your hardware
- Grub and isolinux boot managers are supported
- Joliet is supported
- edit the initrd.gz file and its contents
- remaster with or without a zdrv

The only real problem with Woofy is you have to give the full path to file that you want deleted - it will not automagically delete what you want.. There are tips on the Woofy thread on how to make the list.

Woofy: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57037

Both Woofy and Remasterpup allow you to:

- edit boot options, such as pkeys and pfix options
- manually edit the filesystem before the new SFS file is created
- create a bootable ISO of the remastered Puppy

Edit-SFS

Get it here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=348127#348127

This is a simple tool that lets you edit the contents of an SFS file.
This is great for making simple tweaks and additions in the SFS, when other files, such as initrd.gz, are not affected.

You can even edit the SFS that is booted, replace it with the new one,
then simply reboot to see all your changes included as default.

Please note, Woofy should not be confused with Woof.

'Woof', by Barry K, is the advanced Puppy Linux build tool, which builds an entirely new Puppy Linux from source code, or from another distros packages. Barry Ks 'Woof' is not a remaster tool.

How to Remaster Manually

copy the existing file system to a working directory, e.g.:

mkdir /mnt/home/puppyfilesystem

cp -a  /initrd/pup_ro2/* /mnt/home/puppyfilesystem

modify the contents of the working directory to one's requirements by inspecting the contents of the pup_save file, either /initrd/pup_rw for pupmode 12 or /initrd/pup_ro1 for pupmode 13; and then copy from there the directories /root, /usr and /var.

create the SFS file of the modified file system, e.g.:

mkdir /mnt/home/puppylivediscbuild

cd /mnt/home

mksquashfs puppyfilesystem puppylivediscbuild/puppy-remastered.sfs -noappend

(optional) copy any necessary files to /mnt/home/puppylivediscbuild from the original optical disc and create the ISO file:

cd /mnt/home

mkisofs -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -D -l -R -v -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o "puppy_remaster.iso" puppylivediscbuild

(optional) livedvd write (burn) the ISO file to optical disc

PuppyLinux : remastering

Revision [17332]

How to Remaster Manually