larch - latest news

gradgrind · 2007-01-24 16:47:55

Sigi wrote:

Tanks a lot gradgrind for the answer to my question. In this case I'll change the /etc/inittab after the installation with a little script to fit my needs.
One other issue I was thinking about for my VMware Image:
I'd like to have an automated (l)archin installation. Is there a more convenient way to achieve this than by picking the steps I want and writing a script to carry out them? (Some kind of default configuration archin goes through step by step without user interaction?) How about automated disk partitioning? What's the easiest way to achieve this?
Or would it be easier to take all the stuff in ArchImage and copy it to a freshly generated partition in the VMware Image?

I'm afraid I am not acquainted with VMWare, so I don't really know what sort of thing it feeds on. If you are trying to feed it an Arch installation, you don't really need larch at all, though you could use pacin to build the installation image (that's what mklarch uses to put the stuff in ArchImage).
In any case, something along those lines would probably be the easiest, then you just need to copy your own customized stuff on top of it.
If formatting/partitioning/boot loaders are needed, I guess it shouldn't be too difficult to write a little customized script to do it if your needs are well defined (most of the complication in an installer comes from trying to cater for a variety of systems, needs and wishes).

Sigi · 2007-01-24 22:05:19

Thanks once again for the quick and competent answer. In this case I think I'm going to change the inittab via a script on/after Installation in the VM environment and keep using l(archin).
btw, I just noticed that you're using this

pacman -r ${INSTALL} -R initcpio_larch

in larchin-3.
(in /usr/share/archin/stages/40install/chooseinstall/10livecopy/script)
Thought I'd mention that there is initcpio_larch_ide now - sorry for the complications I cause, mate.

Cheers Sigi

gradgrind · 2007-01-25 05:38:28

Sigi wrote:

btw, I just noticed that you're using this
pacman -r ${INSTALL} -R initcpio_larch
in larchin-3.
(in /usr/share/archin/stages/40install/chooseinstall/10livecopy/script)
Thought I'd mention that there is initcpio_larch_ide now - sorry for the complications I cause, mate.
Cheers Sigi

Indeed there is - I missed that, but will patch it now. Thanks!

_alexmyself · 2007-01-27 18:22:41

hello,
my boot problem have been killed by the use of initcpio_larch_ide
very cool, thanks

i have problem with the save of change after session, larch burn change on my cd and then no more possible to boot on it, files seems to be still there, no "blank" problem
i don't really know a lot about multissession cd, i use k3b: burn iso, start multisession
and result is not very good..

gradgrind · 2007-01-28 05:47:50

_alexmyself wrote:

hello,
my boot problem have been killed by the use of initcpio_larch_ide
very cool, thanks
i have problem with the save of change after session, larch burn change on my cd and then no more possible to boot on it, files seems to be still there, no "blank" problem
i don't really know a lot about multissession cd, i use k3b: burn iso, start multisession
and result is not very good..

Yes, indeed - it's a nice idea but in many cases not very practical, multisession CDs are difficult beasts. Many PCs can't boot from multisession CDs. I have one that can, three that can't. If you have one, it can be a useful feature for tweaking the configuration, etc., otherwise its usefulness is quite limited! If you can boot from USB stick, that is a better bet.

lilsirecho · 2007-02-14 22:09:53

Hopefully, some one has loaded the Larch3 scripts in a USB flash boot.

Perhaps some of the observations from such an activity can be shared with the forum?

gradgrind · 2007-02-20 07:33:00

Now that neither unionfs nor squashfs can be built outside of the kernel, I have changed all supplied profiles to use the beyond kernel (in larch-3.2). Until I get around to building a unionfs module, the stock kernel is unfortunately not supported.

Sigi · 2007-02-20 08:07:05

I could afford the money and bought an "usb-stick" yesterday and was just in this moment on the way to post a message that stock 2.6.20 doesn't work anymore (because I had to try larch on usb)..

Going to try beyond...

phrakture · 2007-02-20 16:08:01

gradgrind wrote:

Now that neither unionfs nor squashfs can be built outside of the kernel, I have changed all supplied profiles to use the beyond kernel (in larch-3.2). Until I get around to building a unionfs module, the stock kernel is unfortunately not supported.

Yeah it's a good idea. It appears that our kernel maintainer doesn't want these patches in the kernel due to idealogical reasons *sigh*

I'm going to have to use the beyond kernel for my own stuff as well.

Sorry gradgrind, I wish I could do something to help, but my hands are tied.

Sigi · 2007-02-20 17:45:58

JFYI: It works great with beyond and working with usb is fun too: saving back to device works and the speed is great also...
Looks like I'm going to provide three versions of my LiveCD for "my school": a LiveCD-Image, a VMware Image and a .tar.gz or even a .rar of the LiveUSB thingy.

Sigi · 2007-02-20 23:12:25

Wouldn't it make sense to replace

PACINOPTS=""

with

PACINOPTS="-p /usr/share/larch/custompacks"

in config_larch?

lilsirecho · 2007-02-21 04:18:05

Gradgrind;

Getting better at this....
Made a 696MB CD and booted to ram in Larch3.2 and it runs like a top!

Thanks for the info on kernel26Beyond as part of the install required.

Still in recovery from surgery but getting stronger.

Great scripts!!!

gradgrind · 2007-02-21 05:02:17

Sigi wrote:

Wouldn't it make sense to replace
PACINOPTS=""
with
PACINOPTS="-p /usr/share/larch/custompacks"
in config_larch?

In your case it might (if that's where you have your own packages) but as (a) larch is quite usable without custom packages, and (b) someone might prefer to keep their custom packages somewhere else, I thought leaving this up to the user was the best thing. I hope it's easy enough to discover how to customize this ...

Sigi · 2007-02-21 11:07:53

Ok, I agree so far. I'd find it useful to include it in the config_larch and comment it out, but this are your scripts and I can absolutely live without this addition. (Commenting it out would IMO help new users if they are looking for a way to include own packages)

Your scripts are working very reliable right now and I have to thank you once again for your work on larch, gradgrind!

gradgrind · 2007-02-21 19:45:01

Sigi wrote:

Ok, I agree so far. I'd find it useful to include it in the config_larch and comment it out, but this are your scripts and I can absolutely live without this addition. (Commenting it out would IMO help new users if they are looking for a way to include own packages)

Yes, that seems sensible, I'll try to remember when I do the next update.

Sigi · 2007-02-28 21:15:59

Hi folks

As posted in a previous post I have an usb stick now *proud*
I've put some work into a liveUSB system one could describe best with the following features:

- Add a user on the first startup
- Use this user account in later sessions
- Is about 700Mb in size
- Features OpenOffice and other nice apps.
- Uses dwm as its main DE

You can get the larch profile here:
liveusb-0.1.tar.gz
And the used custompacks dir here:
custompacks-0.1.tar.gz

I've started to work on a documentation about used keybindings and help files in general.
Some things are still in german - drop me a message if you wish everything to be translated.

Every kind of feedback is appreciated!

Cheers Sigi

lilsirecho · 2007-03-04 05:50:52

I am wondering if USB stick boot allows the copy-to-ram option in Larch.

Also, would USB stick allow DVD sized flash cards in Larch?

gradgrind · 2007-03-04 06:47:43

lilsirecho wrote:

I am wondering if USB stick boot allows the copy-to-ram option in Larch.

Yes, but it might not be so necessary as with CD - running from USB stick is pretty fast already in my experience.

lilsirecho wrote:

Also, would USB stick allow DVD sized flash cards in Larch?

The only limit I know of is the hardware.

lilsirecho · 2007-03-04 18:49:36

Gradgrind;

Thanks for the info re: copy-to-ram.

In utilizing USB STICK for the entry device, the docs refer to using the " -u " option.

I assume it is used in tandem with the "p" option as follows to create the Larch USB STICK;

mklarch -u -p default.......... Is this correct?

Since the USB STICK is r/w, does the Larch script permit "multisession type" saving of params when rebooting?

I am considering the USB version and find little info on the USB mode used with latest mobos...USB 1.1 or usb2.0.

Sigi · 2007-03-04 20:37:41

lilsirecho wrote:

Since the USB STICK is r/w, does the Larch script permit "multisession type" saving of params when rebooting?

Yep. Works well.

lilsirecho · 2007-03-05 04:10:04

Trying to generate a USB boot larch on a secure digital card.

I ran....mklarch -u -p default...

I received a halt at line261 of "build live"...usbboot not found

I assume I am doing this incorrectly....what is correct?

gradgrind · 2007-03-05 06:44:27

lilsirecho wrote:

Trying to generate a USB boot larch on a secure digital card.
I ran....mklarch -u -p default...
I received a halt at line261 of "build live"...usbboot not found
I assume I am doing this incorrectly....what is correct?

I can't reproduce this. I would suggest refetching the scripts:
make a new directory and cd to it. Download the latest larch-setup.sh
and run it: ./larch-setup.sh
Then try mklarch again.
(./mklarch -u -p default)

As to booting from USB, all recent motherboards support USB2.0, but whether you can boot from USB depends on your BIOS. Here the USB-HDD mode is the most likely to work. If you don't have that, USB-FDD may work with syslinux, I don't know about the others. As to booting from sd card, I'm afraid I don't know whether or how this works - I have only tested USB-sticks (and CF-card in IDE-adapter, but that works like a normal hard disk).

lilsirecho · 2007-03-05 07:16:33

Gradgrind;

Thanks for the info and sounds like it might be what is needed.

However, I didn't give up and went on my merry way....at line 261 changed from... usbboot... to ./usbboot...in buildlive.

Having already generated the CD, I used the following to generate a USBbootable on my secure digital 1GB card:

mklarch -b -u -i -p default

Whether this is superfluous or not it produced a 14 file, 696MB USBboot program on my sda1 secure digital card.

I copied the sqf690MB file in sda1 into a folder in the desktop with USB 2.0 at 10MB/sec.

If I mount sda1 and copy the full content to the desktop, it copies at 100MB/sec because it is all in ram.

I loaded a Patriot 1GB device with the USB program at 14MB/sec.

I do not have USB boot in my machine. I will have to find a machine to try it out with.

I trust it will do fine because all the other completed scripts worked fine.

I just became the proud owner of an LCD display...19" diag...Mfr named it METRO...US$135....it is so bright I wear dark glasses!!!! Every square inch is useable!!!!

Gladdaseeya!!!

lilsirecho · 2007-03-09 23:27:12

LCD display works great.

Installed Larch3.2 into DVD-R disc...690+MB. Boot time to desktop 1min 53 seconds (in KDE)

New subject:

Still have trouble with burning to Flash card. I always receive an error message that reports ....no such file or directory for line261 in "buildlive".

I redownloaded the script from your repo, placed it in /larch3.2 directory, cd to directory , ran the script, modified the params in added packs, etc /resolv.conf, rcconfx and burned...mklarch -p default. This produced an .iso which I burned to DVD-R as reported above.

Next, I attempted to follow the options for mklarch, derived from entering .....mklarch.
I tried ...mklarch -u -p default.....mklarch -b -u -i -p default.....mklarch -b -u -p default..... ./mklarch -u -p default

All of these gave the error message about line 261 in "buildlive".

As reporeted in previous post, I did get a flash burn but not sure how. This DVD burn has later data and I am still learning the ropes.

Please advise.

raymano · 2007-03-10 16:39:52

Hi Gradgrind,

First of all I want to thank you for larch. I have played around with a lot of different live cd building scripts/distributions but yours, by far, is the most simple, elegant, yet powerful solution.

Using larch, I have created a live USB key which after boot up starts network, sound, X, and brings up firefox with flash plugin, without a window manager. Basically a very small and fast live USB distro for internet browsing. The boot up all the way to firefox happens under 40 seconds and could be improved with a faster USB key. Everything works flawlessly.

Now I'm trying to get fbsplash working at boot time. I have the hook for fbsplash added to /home/larchbuild/ArchImage/usr/share/larch/initcpio/mkinitcpio.conf. I have included the packages needed for gensplash/fbsplash to work and added the necessary kernel options in isolinux.cfg. When the USB key boots up fbsplash indeed starts and bootup continues but hangs at starting X/firefox which starts from .xinitrc for root when "login -f root" happens. If I get rid of the fbsplash kernel options in isolinux.cfg, X/firefox start up without any problems.

Do you have any ideas about what's causing this?

Thanks for any help,
Raymano

P.S. Have you thought of putting a paypal donation link on your web site? I would be happy to donate for ongoing support of larch.

Arch Linux

#51 2007-01-24 16:47:55

Re: larch - latest news

#52 2007-01-24 22:05:19

Re: larch - latest news

#53 2007-01-25 05:38:28

Re: larch - latest news

#54 2007-01-27 18:22:41

Re: larch - latest news

#55 2007-01-28 05:47:50

Re: larch - latest news

#56 2007-02-14 22:09:53

Re: larch - latest news

#57 2007-02-20 07:33:00

Re: larch - latest news

#58 2007-02-20 08:07:05

Re: larch - latest news

#59 2007-02-20 16:08:01

Re: larch - latest news

#60 2007-02-20 17:45:58

Re: larch - latest news

#61 2007-02-20 23:12:25

Re: larch - latest news

#62 2007-02-21 04:18:05

Re: larch - latest news

#63 2007-02-21 05:02:17

Re: larch - latest news

#64 2007-02-21 11:07:53

Re: larch - latest news

#65 2007-02-21 19:45:01

Re: larch - latest news

#66 2007-02-28 21:15:59

Re: larch - latest news

#67 2007-03-04 05:50:52

Re: larch - latest news

#68 2007-03-04 06:47:43

Re: larch - latest news

#69 2007-03-04 18:49:36

Re: larch - latest news

#70 2007-03-04 20:37:41

Re: larch - latest news

#71 2007-03-05 04:10:04

Re: larch - latest news

#72 2007-03-05 06:44:27

Re: larch - latest news

#73 2007-03-05 07:16:33

Re: larch - latest news

#74 2007-03-09 23:27:12

Re: larch - latest news

#75 2007-03-10 16:39:52

Re: larch - latest news

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