Re: How Do You Create ISOs?

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Ricardo Romanach wrote:
> I am currently attempting to create an ISO file from an existing
> Debian 11 installation.

Google found me
  https://github.com/pieroproietti/penguins-eggs
  "penguins-eggs is a console utility, under continuous development,
   that allows you to remaster your system and redistribute it as iso
   images."

I could not find out by which program the "ISO" is packed up and whether
it is indeed an ISO 9660 filesystem image or some other image which only
gets called "ISO".


> I have not found a tool that
> allows me to properly create an ISO specifically with the ext4 filesystem.

You use the term obviously for any kind of filesystem image.
Debian ISOs are mainly ISO 9660 filesystem images, i.e. read-only, capable
of booting from optical media, readable by about any operating system
(with possibly somewhat dull file names).


> what tools does your team use to create your ISO distributions?

This mailing list is about package "debian-cd"
  https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debian-cd
  https://packages.debian.org/unstable/debian-cd
  "Tools for building (Official) Debian CD set"

But this package does not create an ISO image so that it is much like the
system on which it produces the image. It rather composes the image
content from Debian package files (.udeb and .deb) and some base software
to give it enough brain to start up, to interact with the user, and to
install the Debian packages to a hard disk (which may be a USB stick).
Very much unlike an installed Debian system.


> I don’t know if my understanding of ISOs is correct, but know this must be
> possible.

Possible: Yes.
Already done and offered: Maybe.
Offered or used by Debian: Not that i am aware.


> tar ... partclone.ext4 ... dd ... e2image ...

Even if you pack up the whole hard disk, it is not guaranteed that copying
the result to another computer's hard disk will work. The packed up system
files might be too much addicted to the hardware of the original computer.

Bootable ISO 9660 images are in most cases prepared to be not specialized
to a particular configuration of hardware. One may expect them to work
with a wide range of machines, if only the processor type matches.


> I don’t know how to use Linux Live Kit since there are very few guides
> on how to use it properly or how to handle errors when they appear.

Nevertheless it promises to do what you desire.
So it seems worth to invest time in learning how to use it.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas