How to make a live CD/DVD from your harddisk installation

[RumorsOfWar]

I just tried to use my install disk on another machine ( it has the same processor and similar vid card), and it hung at 94% while configuring hardware.
I'm wondering if my install disk is missing some hardware components because I started out with the Alt-install in the first place.
Any ideas?

[capink]

Most hardware drivers in linux are either part of the kernel (kernel modules), or come with xorg (video and output input devices). So I don't think the alt install would make any difference. I don't know what is the cause of your problems, maybe a certain piece like a motherbord controller is not supported. Sometimes it is helpful to try the latest version of the kernel when you have trouble with hardware.

[jw5801]

I just tried to use my install disk on another machine ( it has the same processor and similar vid card), and it hung at 94% while configuring hardware.
I'm wondering if my install disk is missing some hardware components because I started out with the Alt-install in the first place.
Any ideas?

Are you certain there isn't an error in the disk from when you burned it? That sounds much much more likely.

[gjhicks]

Hello Capink,

Thanks for the suggestions about the stray non-root owned files.

Am most pleased to report that I successfully made a live cd of my IceWm-Gutsy hard disk install. The ISO file was 224mb - so now I will try and reduce it to fit onto a small CD.

Great guide! Thanks a lot!

Geoff

[capink]

These are instructions for people who want a live CD containing a clean system (or a minimal rescue disc), you can build a new custom Ubuntu from scratch using debootstarp, and then apply the steps of the guide to make a live cd out of it. These are the steps that will replace step B & C in the original guide for people who wish to build a custom system from scratch, instead of using their harddrive installation as a basis.


Note: Before doing the steps below, you must perform step A in the original guide.

B. Build a custom system from scratch using debootstrap

1. Install debootstrap

sudo apt-get install debootstrap

2. Run debootstrap to install the basic packages:

sudo debootstrap natty ${WORK}/rootfs

Replace natty with any other version you want (e.g. maverick, lucid, .....)

This step will take time as the deb files are downloaded.


Now you have a system the contain the basic packages. At this stage this system can only work as chroot system. But in the next steps we will modify it to be full system.



3. Prepare the new system before chrooting into it:

Modify the new system sources list:

sudo gedit ${WORK}/rootfs/etc/apt/sources.list

And place the following text into it:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ natty free non-free

Note: Replace natty with your version name. e.g. maverick




Copy the following files to have internet access within the chroot environment:

for i in /etc/resolv.conf /etc/hosts /etc/hostname; do sudo cp -pv $i ${WORK}/rootfs/etc/; done

4. Chroot into the new system:

sudo mount --bind /dev ${WORK}/rootfs/dev

sudo mount -t proc proc ${WORK}/rootfs/proc

sudo mount -t sysfs sysfs ${WORK}/rootfs/sys

sudo chroot ${WORK}/rootfs /bin/bash

Note: All commands in blue are run within chroot.

LANG=

5. Once in chroot, modify the new system:

apt-get update --allow-unauthenticated

This will give you GPG warning because of third party repositories (Codecs repositories). Ignore it and proceed.



6. Install the multimedia repository keyrings ( to prevent apt from complaining about missing GPG ):

apt-get -qq install wget && wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | apt-key add -

7. Install some important packages not included in the base install performed by debootstrap, most notably is the kernel:

apt-get install linux-generic linux-headers-generic ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-standard

Now, we have a complete command line system







8. To have a GUI system, install:

apt-get install xorg gdm openbox fbpanel thunar firefox mplayer w32codecs scite gqview xarchiver rxvt gtk2-engines xcursor-themes ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu ttf-freefont

xorg in necessary for a GUI.
Replace openbox with your favorite window manager.
Replace gdm with your favorite login manager. (Or you can do without login manager and user startx if you want)
The rest is optional. You can ignore them or replace them with your favorite programs. if you are a gnome fan you can install gnome-core. kde fans can install kde. xfce fans can install xfce4 ......

Note: If you want to build a system identical to official ubuntu replace all the packages above with just one metapackage called ubuntu-desktop (kubuntu-desktop for kubuntu, xubuntu-desktop for xubuntu)



By now you have built a complete GUI system.




9. Install Packages Essential for live CD:

apt-get update

apt-get install casper lupin-casper

casper contain the live scripts.


3. (Optional) If you want your live cd to have an installer, install the Ubuntu installer:

apt-get install ubiquity ubiquity-frontend-gtk

[QUOTE]
Note: People using kde replace replace the previous command with

apt-get install ubiquity ubiquity-frontend-kde

(Optional Step)Install any packages you want to be in the CD. Some of the following packages are useful in emergency situations:

sudo apt-get install gparted ms-sys testdisk wipe partimage xfsprogs reiserfsprogs jfsutils ntfs-3g ntfsprogs dosfstools mtools

gparted: patitioning tool. It is automatically installed as a dependecy of ubiquity.
testdisk: Partition scanner and disk recovery tool.
wipe: Secure file deletion.
partimage: backup partitions into a compressed image file (like norton ghost).
xfsprogs reiserfsprogs jfsutils: Tools for handling different filesystems.
mtools: Tools for manipulating MSDOS files





10. Update the initramfs:

Set the kernel version of the chroot env:

export kversion=`cd /boot && ls -1 vmlinuz-* | tail -1 | sed 's@vmlinuz-@@'`

First update modules.dep:

depmod -a $kversion

Update the initrd

update-initramfs -u -k $kversion

As already metioned above, the initramfs is reponsible for much of the preparation required at the boot time of the CD/DVD. The updated initramfs now contain the live scirpts installed with casper.




11. Clean apt cache

apt-get clean

12. Clean some dirs and files:

rm /etc/resolv.conf

rm /etc/hostname

13. Exit chroot

exit

Now resume the steps of the original guide jumping directly to step D.1 in the original guide.

[Angus77]

Knoppix somehow "just works" on both 32- and 64-bit systems. Is there some way to make an Ubuntu disc that does the same?

[capink]

Knoppix somehow "just works" on both 32- and 64-bit systems. Is there some way to make an Ubuntu disc that does the same?

I have never used Knoppix before. But just by looking at their site it seems that they make a live CD that contains mixture of 32-bit and 64-bit applications. To be more specific almost all the packages are 32-bit except the kernel and the development tools like gcc, which are 64 bit.

My Understanding is that while a 32-bit applications can work on both 32-bit 64-bit processors, 64-bit applications can only work on 64-bit processors. So, I think the version of Knoppix you are talking about will only work on 64-bit processors, since it contains a 64-bit processor, which will not work on 32-bit processors.

From I gathered from their site, Knoppix 64-bit edition is using 32-bit applications for various technical considerations, one of which is to be able to fit the distro into one cd.

[Angus77]

Well, except that I downloaded and burned a copy of both the Japanese and English editions of Knoppix 5.1, and it ran on my home desktop (a 64-bit AMD Athlonx2), my office computer (a 32-bit 500MHz AMD something-or-other---really slowly) and a laptop at a class I'm going to (a 32-bit 1.8GHz something-or-other). I still use it at the class.

I'd like to customize an Ubuntu live disk and be able to use it at home, work and school, which I can't do right now.

Puppy Linux also works on both 32- and 64-bit systems.

[Oldsoldier2003]

very nice and comprhensive tutorial, I'm replying from my live cd so that tells you it definitely works the one thing I am having problems with at the moment is for some reason the cd mounts sda2 as the / partition. If it makes any sense thats the partition where my minimal Ubuntu install for building the live cd resides. unmounting sda2 with umount -l doesnt solve the problem.

I have tried removing all references to the device in /etc/fstab prior to creating the squashfs filesystem but that doesn't fix the issue either.Oddly enough Gparted (when run from the live cd) reports this partition as full when it is only maybe 10% full. Any thoughts on how to workaround this?

[capink]

In step C.5 we delete the fstab file. So, the live CD is supposed to not have fstab file. Are you sure you went through this step?

To make sure, please mount the squashfs (after mounting the iso) and see if there is a /etc/fstab there or not. If it present, you will have to redo the steps of the guide making sure that you get rid of this file. Squashfs is a read-only filesystem so you cannot delete the file once it is in the squashfs.