Some ideas about Debian Live ...

[serni at serni.net (Lluís Gras)]

> Alle 22:30, sabato 22 aprile 2006, Llu?s Gras ha scritto:
>
>> Excuse my poor english ...
>
> No problem at all, mine is really bad too :-)

;-)
>
>> I've been working, last two years on Debian Live based distro, called
>> Xarnoppix.
>
> ?
>
> Debian Live have 2 months... maybe you intend a "ive debian system" :-9
>
>> It works with the addition of "live" mode under initramfs-tools, i think
>> it's better than Casper, ... a la KISS.
>
> I looked at it, interesting but casper is more complex. This could be a
> good
> deal anyway, do you have sources for this initramfs-tools hook? A debian
> package would also be appreciated.

I believe that Mario aka MarioDebian,
http://soleup.eup.uva.es/mediawiki/index.php/Soleupix has already done a
more professional work.

My work ...

It sources from initial work done by Juanje Ojeda ( Guadalinex 3.0 Dev
Team ) and some ideas from linux-live scripts ( Slax ).
"Everything" is on initrd.img, tree:

`-- scripts

    |-- live
    |-- live-bottom
    |   `-- inicialitza
    |-- live-premount
    |   |-- local
    |   |-- setup_image
    |   `-- tmpfs
    |-- live-top

"tmpfs" set tmpfs partition

"local" wait for boot devices to be ready and try to find squashfs file,
also evaluates "dirconf" value from cmdline when booting from usb devices,
persistence related.

"setup_image" mounts squashfs file found under /mnt/image

"live" is a especial version of local, need to set BOOT=live in
/etc/mkinitramfs/initramfs.conf

"inicialitza" builds ${rootmnt}/etc/rc2.d/S05inici which is in charge of
fstab generation, search and mounting of partitions/devices under
/media/?d??, executes xdebconfigurator -i ( hwinfo ) to generate xorg.conf
and finally erases itself.

|-- conf
|   |
|   |-- initramfs.conf
|   `-- modules

"modules" forces the inclusion of some important modules inside de initrd.

loop
squashfs
unionfs
isofs
vfat
ext2
nls_cp437
nls_iso8859-1
sd_mod
sr_mod
sbp2
raw1394
unix


Plus a especial entry in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/init , persistence
related.

dirconf=*)
        dirconf=${x#dirconf=}
        ;;

>
>> Uses standard debian kernel with squashfs 3.0, latest unionfs snapshoots
>> and allows multiple persistent changes booting from usb stick.
>
> Daniel rewrote slightly the squashfs and unionfs package to allow out of
> tree
> building for standard linux-image debs. I hope maintainers could let those
> two packages enters sid soon.

By now i'm building unionfs and squashfs without rebuilding the kernel:

"unionfs"

xarnoppix:~# cat /home/usuari/unionfs-20060423-1600/fistdev.mk
EXTRACFLAGS=-DUNIONFS_NDEBUG
UNIONFS_DEBUG_CFLAG=

xarnoppix:~# cat /home/usuari/unionfs-20060423-1600/Makefile

#LINUXSRC = /lib/modules/$(KVERS)/build
LINUXSRC = /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16

"squashfs"

Patching the sources ... and

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# make oldconfig

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# make modules_prepare

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# make SUBDIRS=fs/squashfs modules

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# mkdir
/lib/modules/2.6.16-1-686/kernel/fs/squashfs

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# cp fs/squashfs/squashfs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.16-1-686/kernel/fs/squashfs/

xarnoppix:/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.16# depmod -a
>
>> Take a look at ftp://ftp.serni.net/initrd.img
>
> Took, interesting work, would you like to join us more?

I'm not a developer, only a teacher in a secondary school ;-) ... but i'll
try to help.

I think it's very interesting project !!!
>
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