Re: Questions from a new Debian Live Build user
Roland Clobus wrote:
>
>
>On 11/02/2022 18:10, Lucas Krupinski wrote:
>> Iâ??ve been experimenting with Live Build lately, and am now building my new images successfully for the most
>part. I do have a couple of questions, though:
>>
>> 1) When I use lb config to install the Debian installer, and then try to launch the installer from the Live Build,
>I get an error that the kernel versions of my live and normal builds donâ??t match. I thought the benefit of Live
>Build is that its a repeatable process, but some how Iâ??m ending up with two different kernels?
>
>The installer is totally separate from the regular live content. The
>installer is started directly from the boot menu. Occasionally the
>kernel version of the installer and the kernel version of Debian drift
>apart. I assume that you are creating live builds from bookworm.
Right. d-i needs to be built knowing the version of the kernel that's
available, so it uses the right package names for kernel modules
etc. As that changes, there are (sually short) periods where d-i
builds are broken.
>> 2) Iâ??ve since abandoned trying to be able to install from the boot screen, have installed Calamares to do the
>installation, and itsâ?? working great.
>>
>> 3) My next question is: I understand that Calamares installs the live image, whereas the Debian installer installs
>the â??normalâ?? image. If Iâ??m only using Calamares, should I be using any â??normalâ?? hooks, or is it just
>adding time to the build if Iâ??m replicating my steps between live and normal?
>
>There is a difference:
>The Debian installer installs from scratch, you can select any desktop
>environment and other settings, even though they are not present on the
>live image.
>Calamares installs a copy of the live environment on your hard disk, and
>removed the live part afterwards. That's why there are so few questions
>asked.
>
>So depending on the installer part, you might end up with totally
>different Debian installations.
Sorry, but you're wrong here. The version of d-i that runs on a live
image *also* installs the exact content of the live image. It runs
through the normal process of user creation, partitioning, etc. but
then instead of installing the base system and running tasksel it
simply unpacks the squashfs onto the new system - see the
live-installer package if you're not sure.
If the d-i on the live image tried to install packages nowrmally, we'd
end up having to include a lot of extra .debs into the build to
support that.
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
"We're the technical experts. We were hired so that management could
ignore our recommendations and tell us how to do our jobs." -- Mike Andrews
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