larch-5.3 released

callista · 2009-03-08 10:03:34

Hello,

just a question, I need the aufs package for the 2.6.27 kernel, is it possible one of you have this package somewhere ?
thanks in advance.

gradgrind · 2009-03-08 11:48:06

callista wrote:

Hello,
just a question, I need the aufs package for the 2.6.27 kernel, is it possible one of you have this package somewhere ?
thanks in advance.

I don't think I have got it anywhere, but it's not difficult to compile - just get the PKGBUILD (etc) from ABS and adjust it for your kernel.

yvonney: Is there still a question there?

I expect the example profiles with xfce won't work very well after the 4.6 update - I'll try to fix these when I have a moment. For the moment I would recommend building your own profiles (see docs) or else using the larchify approach.

yvonney · 2009-03-09 09:06:17

Yes gradgrind !!! Having a terrific time with larch the last 24 hours when I had time.
Works so clean and nice.

I have two questions of many that I could relaly use thoughts on.

[SESSION SAVE when booting from CD]

If I boot off Live CD and i want to save sesssion overlay etc.... How do I do this..?? I do have the #save in the file as is needed though of course the default as it says is only for SUB installs... SO I have many great things I have learned and still to learn. The best thing is that i can say the LARCH is what I will invest my time in. I learned thru struggles with two non-ARCH methods and am SO happy to now know LARCH is for me. OK, I said this laready, must be tired.

[BEFORE ISO BURN: How may I start Buildlive/mklive manually]

I simply run mklarch all over again if I want to change something in addedpacks etc. The packages are already downloaded and this seems to work. (maybe a reboot if pacman sync gets stuck on my machine) And, even without passing the -a arguement to larch I have been give the box that says are you sure you want to delete everything the the folder that the ISO files will install to just before burning process. So, I gues there are many tips for WHERE and WHEN to alter files after the packages are downloaded. I'll get into that later.

I would love to know IF it's OK to, and then HOW to start mklive or buildlive or IS it possible/good to run these whenever I like WITHOUT downloading all over again the packages? SO, I have tried to run mklive.... and buildlive (I think it's called) nothing happens.... so I do it all from the beginning again.

I must apologize for being so rambly here... I must now go to sleep.
Really wanted to post first though.... hehehe!:--)

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-09 09:07:09)

gradgrind · 2009-03-09 14:46:05

If you just want to change a package or two it might be easiest to do this manually (using pacman -r /home/larchbuild ...) on the system that gets installed by mklarch (then using 'larchify' to remake the iso) rather than reinstalling the whole system.

Or, depending on what you want to achieve, experimenting with a USB system and session saving might be more appropriate. Or 'installing' it to a VirtualBox partition and working on that, or ... It very much depends on what you are aiming for.

A long time ago I did try to support session saving to CD but it was rather messy and USB sticks are really much easier to work with, so I dropped it from recent larch versions.

yvonney · 2009-03-09 18:10:55

Thank.

MAINLY: I will be experimenting with USB stick.

- virtualbox: have had some difficultly figring out how to install vbox drivers after larch boot for some reason.
- Still unable to find out command buildlive/mklarch and whether it's runnable after the folders are created by pacman and larch process finishes. [-a]
- ?: is larchify only for laready booted and running systems or is it also used to 'continue' the process of creating the iso compile/burn from the basic larch process.

Here's what happens:

There's always some reason to want to save the overlay session as I invariably need to alter some setting or add a package. I want to give a cd to a couple of very non-technical friends. I need to be able to remote into their machine, which should work fine pretty much with the larch ssh which is nice.

I will be working with the USB boot though would like to confirm: Is there some way to save the session to hard drive? Is this the thing you removed? I love to see larch be as clean and logical, so if you do mean that no sessions can be saved to hard drive or usb WHEN booting from CD I just need to understand that clearly.

When my friends boot their CDs they will have hopefully I expect, wired internet and basic video. Then I can remote in and amaze them by altering things and showing them things. hehehe

SO.... I will be more concise with future comments questions.

Right now I'm looking for the most flexibility the CD boot can provide. OR, I am now thinking to look into USB boots.

I do not at this point know exactly how to get them going on a USB stick that THEY would provide. I must think.
And will also have to look into what would be best if they have an old laptop with no bootable USB, though that's another subject and I have some experience with boot-assist floppies and cds.

Very happy about LARCH.

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-09 19:04:54)

gradgrind · 2009-03-10 08:43:44

larchify can also continue the process from where mklarch left off - that was actually its original purpose. Run it with the -h option to get a command description.

It is possible to save sessions from a CD boot to hd or USB but it is not built in, so it is not very easy - you would have to add a script or two to override the default behaviour. There is some info on this in the docs, but I have never used this facility.

I think on the whole it is easier to work with USB sticks anyway - and making a boot CD for one of these is very easy, that's what the usb2bootiso script does.

And if you really want or need to, you can make a CD from your tweaked USB stick, when you've got it how you want it.

yvonney · 2009-03-10 17:35:19

I understand mostly, and appreciate greatly your confirmations and new information. I will be sure to be concise in future posting. Good time to do so as I am really looking to study and get better with LARCH. So, I thought, to be efficient here I should post with clarity/brevity of course! :--)

-' larchify' can Larchify a drive etc. OR continue 'mklarch' and install larch system and lead burn ISO option... I do not need to run mklarch again I understand?

- usb2bootiso: creates a boot CD for machines that do not have USB bootable ability.

- I do not consider it modern/wise to save sessions from a CD boot, based on the logic of your system :--)

amazingly helpful. Thanks

I LOVE the UPDATES to the DOCUMENTATION !!! cool logo! [unless I've found something that I hadn't seen]

http://larch.berlios.de/doc4/larch_quick.html

Ah! Maybe this is older yet very good information.

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-10 21:47:32)

yvonney · 2009-03-10 22:11:58

ONLY 1 USB stick QUESTION::: Rest here is just my process to having almost success.

Question: got all the way thru. Need to know how to get around this when creating USB stick?? I have created one fat16 partition bootable with gparted. HOW do I make filesystem?? :--) [full output at bottom of post - thanks!]

./usbboot: line 123: mkfs.vfat: command not found
//
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
ERROR: Failed to mount device, quitting

-------- ALL the rest is my figuring out and being successful right up to the final few lines here --------

Do I use the dd command to get the ISO onto the USB stick? I am perplexed as to how exactly to pass -u to mklarch.
./mklarch -p -u sdb1 larch/profiles/xmini

>> Building for a USB-stick requires slightly less space, as the iso-image is not built.
dd command is of course not necessary: I will read more, or please tell me wha I've done wrong.

This starts: ./mklarch -a -p larch/profiles/xmini
This does not start: ./mklarch -a -p -u larch/profiles/xmini

I must mount and specify USB stick location?? /dev/sdb1 ???

OK: I find that this starts, (I am using earlier downloaded files again) and I will write after finished to see what happens for USB stick write:
./mklarch -p larch/profiles/xmini -u

NOTE: it is good to wait while 'syncronizing databases' is happening as larch5 seems to go though many mirrors etc.

--------------- WHAT HAPPENED ---------

Even though I put -u at the end as above I get this:
What have I missed in creating a USB version??

// **********************************************************
//
// ***** Creating live CD from system at '/home/larchroot'
//
// This will delete EVERYTHING under ::: /home/larchroot/.larch/cd :::
//
// I really mean it ... Are you sure you want to do this?
// **********************************************************

AH!!! This page has even more info for me:
(using the usbboot script) to prepare a bootable USB-stick

I will try the usbbootscript I hope.

LESSON 1 for me: I must use ./ before ALL scripts here. I am getting something going with: ./usbboot /home/larchroot/.larch starting from the correct folder of course where larch scripts are.

-------------------
SO: this time it went all the way through though said my stick sdb1 was already mounted etc.

I then found that going to usbboot directory: /root/larch/larch/run (I am running as root so larch files are in /root
Then by doing this: ./usbboot /home/larchroot

Many things happened, though I now must figure out how to specify file system and other things though it appears partition was created on sdb1, the stick.
-------------------

I am now stuck with this:
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.00477561 s, 107 kB/s
./usbboot: line 123: mkfs.vfat: command not found
// Copying the boot sector
0+1 records in
0+1 records out
404 bytes (404 B) copied, 0.00274364 s, 147 kB/s
// Copying the files
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
ERROR: Failed to mount device, quitting
------------------------------

HOW do I make filesystem?? :--)
I already put stick in other machine and made fat16 and bootable flag with gparted.

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-11 05:28:49)

MoonSwan · 2009-03-10 23:00:51

I have a serious issue with Larch on a 64bit laptop I'm trying to use for my Larch experiments. Should I make a post in this thread or a new thread or is email preferred ?

TIA

gradgrind · 2009-03-11 08:29:37

yvonney:

You need to install the dosfstools package for mkfs.vfat (on your host machine).

The easiest way to use usbboot is to let larchify call it, e.g. (if your system has already been built and only needs converting): ./larchify -uip blah.

MoonSwan:

You can post here, that's what it's for.

MoonSwan · 2009-03-11 09:22:34

OK I don't have error logs yet but I'll provide them if they'll help at all. Caveat: I don't see any errors on boot-up or any other time, so I'm not sure I can actually rely on logs right now. Because of that, I'll say up front that I'm not sure where to start trouble shooting.

I installed the last stable Larch release (v. 5.3 I believe) on to 2 machines. One is a Dell, which runs Larch just fine thanks. The laptop, however, shows a very strange effect on boot up or any time I try to run any program at all. If I boot up and let it go on its own, it will boot but it will take anywhere from 2-5 mins to hit the CLI. I found, through a bit of luck, that if I tap a key that will "prod" the boot up sequence to continue. IE I may see that its waiting to load a new module or udev, for example, and it will sit there as if waiting for input from the keyboard. If I tap a key, it will move on to the next part of the boot sequence. If I don't, it will sit there for quite a while seemingly doing nothing.

This gets a bit more odd because I've only seen this behaviour once on this laptop with a different distro (slack 10.2 iirc). With slack I ended up having to load a different kernel instead of the default one (I believe the older kernel didn't use any Sata devices but I'm not sure on that point). When I used the "safer" kernel that slack had as a fallback, this behaviour disappeared.

My only other clue is that every distro I try to run or install finds the Sata chip on this comp and errors on it. It will sit there & spit out errors while booting but after doing that 10 times or so it just continues on without issue. I can't disable the Sata chip from the bios either (thanks Acer!) so I'm not sure how to fix that (if I can that is) or if its even relevant. I'm just trying to cover all the possible bases. Just to be clear: the hard drive in the machine is a Pata hard drive, so that Sata chip isn't even used.

I tried booting with the "nomsi" flag (I thinks thats right) but that didn't help. I already have Pclos installed and it loads the acpi modules fine, so I don't think acpi is the issue either, but I could be wrong.

Sorry this is quite long, but i am really unsure what is going on here and though I'm accustomed to fixing my problems on my own, I am truly at a loss here. Thanks for any ideas/help in advance.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2009-03-11 09:23:58)

gradgrind · 2009-03-11 14:25:17

MoonSwan wrote:

OK I don't have error logs yet but I'll provide them if they'll help at all. Caveat: I don't see any errors on boot-up or any other time, so I'm not sure I can actually rely on logs right now. Because of that, I'll say up front that I'm not sure where to start trouble shooting.

It might still be worth having a look at the logs in case there are any clues.

MoonSwan wrote:

I installed the last stable Larch release (v. 5.3 I believe) on to 2 machines. ...

Well, the latest version is 5.4.0 at the moment (since December).

MoonSwan wrote:

...
My only other clue is that every distro I try to run or install finds the Sata chip on this comp and errors on it. It will sit there & spit out errors while booting but after doing that 10 times or so it just continues on without issue. I can't disable the Sata chip from the bios either (thanks Acer!) so I'm not sure how to fix that (if I can that is) or if its even relevant. I'm just trying to cover all the possible bases. Just to be clear: the hard drive in the machine is a Pata hard drive, so that Sata chip isn't even used.

I suppose you could try building the initcpio without the 'sata' hook (put a customized mkinitcpio.conf in your profile - see docs), but I guess problems with this would show up in the logs somehow.

yvonney · 2009-03-11 17:11:25

Have running now, a great working usb stick... !

ONE QUESTION: Would like to have tip on how to create boot ISO due to my current inability with the following:

need to pass Arch root directory as argument to make boot iso:
// Create a boot iso for this stick (to burn to a CD)?
// [y/N]: y
Must pass Arch root directory as argument

May I ask: how do I ... pass Arch root directory as argument ???

------------ Earlier written text below ----------

Amazing! Got it! AND: also amazing is that after creating the USB stick very nicely I am asked about a Boot CD for systems that can't boot USB from bios. I would like this so I push 'yes'... I get this....

One more tip and I should be a successful beginner LARCH user.... big fan!

--------- Here's output I need one tip/help on --------
// Done!
// If all went well your usb stick should now be a bootable larch system
//
// Create a boot iso for this stick (to burn to a CD)?
// [y/N]: y
Must pass Arch root directory as argument
---------

best wishes

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-12 04:43:39)

MoonSwan · 2009-03-11 23:54:32

gradgrind wrote:

It might still be worth having a look at the logs in case there are any clues.

I will do that and post back what I find, if anything.

Well, the latest version is 5.4.0 at the moment (since December).

I was using the Live CD you put up, which presumably is Larch 5.3 (it was a build from Sept 2008). I liked it because it had everything I required on it for another computer I'm using which has no internet access. Is there a new Live CD somewhere or must I build my own ? I have no experience doing so but if I have to learn how to use Larch it seems to follow logically making your own Live CD or Usb stick is a good plan. My only question, regarding building my own live media, is if its easier to use a pre-installed Arch system as a base or does it not really matter which distro you build from? (I've read the docs for 5.3 but I wasn't clear on this point).

I suppose you could try building the initcpio without the 'sata' hook (put a customized mkinitcpio.conf in your profile - see docs), but I guess problems with this would show up in the logs somehow.

The errors I often see, and I did find these in the logs for my other distro, are of this type:

Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:04.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:04.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:05.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:05.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:06.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:06.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:07.0
Mar  9 21:05:11 acer kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:07.0

For some reason this shows up when the kernel tries to probe the Sata chip I believe. I seem to recall trying the fix in the log itself, that is passing the "pci=routeirq" command to the kernel on boot up, and I don't think it made a difference. In the interests of thoroughness I will try this again and see if it helps.

Thank you for the help.

MS

gradgrind · 2009-03-12 14:35:10

yvonney wrote:

ONE QUESTION: Would like to have tip on how to create boot ISO due to my current inability with the following:

need to pass Arch root directory as argument to make boot iso:
// Create a boot iso for this stick (to burn to a CD)?
// [y/N]: y
Must pass Arch root directory as argument
May I ask: how do I ... pass Arch root directory as argument ???

As a parameter - it will normally be /home/larchroot (assuming you chose the default):

./usbboot /home/larchroot

On the other hand, if you are using mklarch/larchify there should be a symlink (larchroot) in the working directory, which usbboot will pick up automatically, so no parameter is needed. Are you not calling your scripts from the normal working directory (where the symlinks to mklarch, larchify etc. are)?

gradgrind · 2009-03-12 14:42:09

MoonSwan wrote:

I was using the Live CD you put up, which presumably is Larch 5.3 (it was a build from Sept 2008). I liked it because it had everything I required on it for another computer I'm using which has no internet access. Is there a new Live CD somewhere or must I build my own ?

I don't remember doing that! Anyway, if you want to play with live CDs and current Arch you should certainly get the latest larch scripts and build a new one, as quite a lot has changed since then.

MoonSwan wrote:

My only question, regarding building my own live media, is if its easier to use a pre-installed Arch system as a base or does it not really matter which distro you build from? (I've read the docs for 5.3 but I wasn't clear on this point).

It hasn't been tested much on non-Arch systems, but I hope it works. Generally things like this are easier on Arch, but that is just my own biased opinion ...

MoonSwan · 2009-03-12 21:16:37

I might have gotten the CD from another community member's website for all I know. It was long ago and I honestly don't remember where I got it but I thought it was yours.

Thank you for the aid, I shall endeavour to make my own live dvd then & see where things go.

yvonney · 2009-03-12 22:42:59

Fabulous gradgrind, larch is really the coolest and is making many people happier.

So, after a quick scan of your email I did this:

cd /root/larch/larch/run [to where I manually installed larch - this time around. And, I have been running as root lately.]

Then:
./usbboot /home/larchroot [passing arguement as advised]

This recreated the USB stick and failed to create the boot iso automatically saying it needed the arguement still. I could try again and will later.

YET then:

from where i was still:
cd /root/larch/larch/run

I did:

./usb2bootiso /home/larchroot

And a small 5 meg iso is created which I burned to CD and it works GREAT!

I believe I could puzzle out the answer to this though thought to ask:

[QUESTION]
This 5 meg bootiso CD that is created will only work with the usb stick I created? OR, it will work with any other sticks I create? Perhaps it will work with other sticks created though the cd's boot screen list will not necessarily reflect the correct list of options to boot? My guess, bootiso is best created for exactly the larch usb stick it will be used on.

QUESTIONS / OBJECTIVE / PUZZLES below:

I am thinking the following may be a bit off-topic [below], and will be brief as logical.

[OBJECTIVE]
My objective is to be able to get 3 windows friends ARCH aware. One of them definiately has an older machine which needs the boot CD [bootiso] or even a floppy would be fine. I am aware that, SuperGrub, PloP and even maybe a grub boot floppy/cd could take the place 'maybe' of the bootiso larch creates. I have a few considerations in other areas.

[REMOTELY DOING THEIR SETUPS]
As all 3 of my windows friends would give up quickly, I so am looking to learn/benefit from my LARCH learning/knowledge and eventually give them a simple experience with me being able to remote in and create a USB stick remotely. Taking the hardest one, the older PC, as the main experiment. I think is is essential that they all end up with a USB stick, though initially perhaps a CD with vncserver etc. on it would kep them from giving up (ie. I do the tech stuff) and so be the logical first step.

[I can do SSH due to studying and testing last couple of weeks and know that I would need to put public key etc. in whatever the 3 friends used to boot from - or I could just do regular VNC which would be good too and really slow sometimes!]

[PUZZLING OUT BEST METHOD]

1) So, I create a boot CD, they take this ISO on their windows PC and burn the CD and boot from it. I wish them to end up with a USB stick to boot from. And in one case, a bootiso or similar is needed. [old PC - non-usb-boot] So...

2) They have booted LARCH Live CD ... and I am now looking to VNC/remote in to their machine and create the USB stick for them remotely. I have a few concerns.

a) I have to have all the needed utils etc. that my host machine needed ON the live CD cdrkit, vfat, etc, etc, ... is this right? Most of these need to be on Larch Live CD they are booting from, that I have remoted into I guess? AS I will be creating a USB stick on their machine while running their machine remotely via vnc using basic larch live CD running their end?

I cannot think of a more logical way to keep it simple for them.

b) to have a CD burning util on this Larch LIVE CD they are booting as well, 'graveman' I guess, if I want a GUI, so I can burn their bootiso after USB stick creation. [maybe I will learn the command line for cdrkit - so much fun to do :--)]

MAYBE there is something simple I have missed. Maybe larchify (which I have not directly used yet I think) would allow me to create the USB stick easier during first remote in vnc session? I am having lots of thoughts... so..

I'm going to think further about this, and hopefully test a couple of things. THANK YOU for everything.

yes, I guess it seems:
1) I remote into the LIVE cd they boot from.
2) I hope that all is there on their larch live cd I made them so i can remotely create both USB stick AND bootiso.

All they have to do is put CD in drive, boot from it with their older PC. So, does larch need to be running in ram to remove boot CD I think? This point can be overcome in other ways so not a big concern.

thanks for everything again!

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-13 02:32:43)

utak3r · 2009-03-13 00:36:08

I started experimenting with larch-5.3... and for now I have one big problem - I'm running x86_64, changed the architecture in pacman.conf.conf to i686 and started building... and I can see it downloads some of the packages from i686 and some from x86_64 - probably those from normal repos, as I think.
So, my question is - how to properly do it on x86_64 host machine?

gradgrind · 2009-03-13 13:55:42

utak3r wrote:

I started experimenting with larch-5.3... and for now I have one big problem - I'm running x86_64, changed the architecture in pacman.conf.conf to i686 and started building... and I can see it downloads some of the packages from i686 and some from x86_64 - probably those from normal repos, as I think.
So, my question is - how to properly do it on x86_64 host machine?

Do you mean how to build a 64-bit larch system or do you mean how to build a 32-bit system on a 64-bit OS?
If you mean the former, you need to build all the larch packages yourself, because I am not running a 64-bit system, so that you have your own larch repository (it's not difficult, there is a script to do it for you). If you mean the latter I have no idea, because I have never run a 64-bit system - maybe you need a 32-bit chroot system, or maybe it can be done some other way. Try asking on the 64-bit forum.

gradgrind · 2009-03-13 14:04:58

yvonney wrote:

[QUESTION]
This 5 meg bootiso CD that is created will only work with the usb stick I created? OR, it will work with any other sticks I create? Perhaps it will work with other sticks created though the cd's boot screen list will not necessarily reflect the correct list of options to boot? My guess, bootiso is best created for exactly the larch usb stick it will be used on.

It has little more than kernel and initcpio on it, so it should work with any USB stick with the same kernel and initcpio (i.e. if you don't change anything in mkinitcpio.conf).

yvonney wrote:

a) I have to have all the needed utils etc. that my host machine needed ON the live CD cdrkit, vfat, etc, etc, ... is this right? Most of these need to be on Larch Live CD they are booting from, that I have remoted into I guess? AS I will be creating a USB stick on their machine while running their machine remotely via vnc using basic larch live CD running their end?
I cannot think of a more logical way to keep it simple for them.
b) to have a CD burning util on this Larch LIVE CD they are booting as well, 'graveman' I guess, if I want a GUI, so I can burn their bootiso after USB stick creation. [maybe I will learn the command line for cdrkit - so much fun to do :--)]

Yes, of course all this stuff will need to be on the larch system - but most of it needs to be there anyway, either because it's a base package or because larch needs it to build.

It's not really clear to me why you need to do all these things remotely, though. Why can't you build the USB stick and boot iso on your machine?

yvonney wrote:

So, does larch need to be running in ram to remove boot CD I think? This point can be overcome in other ways so not a big concern.

No, if it's just a boot CD you can take it out as soon as the system has booted.

yvonney · 2009-03-13 17:17:06

Fantastic.
And the second and third sections of your reply has me writing a bit of info on why. I'll be short as poss. You've been great to write so much. thanks.

[SOLUTION TO SIMPLIFY IF POSSIBLE: >> IF I COULD SEND THEM 'AN IMAGE FILE or ISO?' OF MY CUSTOMIZED USB STICK AND IF THEY COULD COPY IT BOOTABLE TO THEIR USB STICK! oops! >> ON WINDOWS? I do not think this is possible 'easily' for them being totally-non-technical - so I plan to do whole process remotely UNLESS I've missed way to send them USB stick image they can make their own USB stick FROM.]

All of what's below is me clarifying though basically, other than looking for something I've missed or a better way, is about making sure I have everything ON the live larch CD that they will boot so I'm not stopped in the process as it's a live cd. [cdrkit, vfat etc. etc. etc. etc.] Then I remote in via VNC to THEIR machine and go through the process of creating a USB stick on their machines. They are not technical at all.

1) I cannot think of a better way to set up 3 friends other than:

- getting them a basic larch CD live boot with a view to making them a USB stick though ALL to be done on thier machines remotely by me.

[FILES/APPS NEEDED ON BASIC LARCH LIVE CD - no usb stick yet]

If the most basic 'xmini' larch CD - with a few xtras I put on, already has some OR all? or the utilities I kept finding needed to be installed on my host system to get this far. (vfat, cdrkit, aufs, etc. etc. can't recall all of them at this moment] THEN it would be an error? to ADD to the packages during remote build if it already existed on basic live CD that they boot initiall to allow me to remote in via vnc. As I will be doing ALL the processes remotely after they boot the basic larch iso they've created on a windows machine.

[TAKING LIVE CD OUT]

MAIN thought: I can use an image of my existing bootiso to send them initially!!! thanks for info that it will work with any usb stick.

[as bootiso works well enough with other usb sticks the following one paragraph is just detail - not important I guess]

On one of the 3 friends has an old non-usb boot machine. This will be the system I learn most by setting up. It's not a problem as they're other options. I thought that to actually burn the bootiso it would be good to be able to remove the running larch live cd, put in a blank cd and run the ./usbboot script. This would occur after I had remotely created the USB stick all ON their machine, and having done so to boot from this usb I need a bootiso CD. Actually forget this one unless it's obvious what I've missed. thanks! I can get around this by asking them to copy the little bootiso image to their windwos machine and create the iso there. so no problem. I will try running in ram anyways.

[THE PROCESS TO MAKE USB STICK ON THE REMOTE PC WHILE RUNNING BASIC LARCH CD]

So far I haven't improved on the following which is currently my first choice only on this non-boot usb older machine:

- I send them iso file that is a working basic xmini that has added to the add packages things like, vncserver, cdrkit, vfat, etc. etc..
- They are very non-technical: they manage to burn this iso and boot into larch live.
- I vnc remote in and HOPEFULLY all will be there to start the process of creating a USB stick for them.

[BETTER WAY??? QUESTION]

If I could somehow create an image that on a WINDOWS machine they were able to create the USB stick with that would be good.
I haven't puzzled that out yet. Would I create a USB stick myself and then make an image file of it somehow, send it to them, and then they'd have to get it working back on a USB stick their end.

Don't know how many problems that would create for them. As mentioned, they will give up, or even get angry which I would like to help them avoid. hehehe

all great!

Last edited by yvonney (2009-03-14 16:49:14)

l3thal · 2009-03-13 22:37:29

some silly question

i want to put my own rc.sysinit in the overlay file

utak3r · 2009-03-14 10:07:47

gradgrind wrote:

utak3r wrote:
So, my question is - how to properly do it on x86_64 host machine?
Do you mean how to build a 64-bit larch system or do you mean how to build a 32-bit system on a 64-bit OS?

Well, I mean building 32b OS on 64b one
Ok, I'll play with this, if I find something I tell you.

gradgrind · 2009-03-14 12:56:13

l3thal wrote:

some silly question
i want to put my own rc.sysinit in the overlay file

Yes, that's a very silly question.

Now, seriously, to do that you will probably need to understand the changes to rc.sysinit that larch makes. Have a look at the larch-live package: /etc/rc.sysinit.larch and /etc/larch-sysinit. The normal rc.sysinit is replaced by rc.sysinit.larch. An rc.sysinit in the overlay will only be used (I think) if the larch system is then installed to hard disk as a normal Arch system.

Arch Linux

#101 2009-03-08 10:03:34

Re: larch-5.3 released

#102 2009-03-08 11:48:06

Re: larch-5.3 released

#103 2009-03-09 09:06:17

Re: larch-5.3 released

#104 2009-03-09 14:46:05

Re: larch-5.3 released

#105 2009-03-09 18:10:55

Re: larch-5.3 released

#106 2009-03-10 08:43:44

Re: larch-5.3 released

#107 2009-03-10 17:35:19

Re: larch-5.3 released

#108 2009-03-10 22:11:58

Re: larch-5.3 released

#109 2009-03-10 23:00:51

Re: larch-5.3 released

#110 2009-03-11 08:29:37

Re: larch-5.3 released

#111 2009-03-11 09:22:34

Re: larch-5.3 released

#112 2009-03-11 14:25:17

Re: larch-5.3 released

#113 2009-03-11 17:11:25

Re: larch-5.3 released

#114 2009-03-11 23:54:32

Re: larch-5.3 released

#115 2009-03-12 14:35:10

Re: larch-5.3 released

#116 2009-03-12 14:42:09

Re: larch-5.3 released

#117 2009-03-12 21:16:37

Re: larch-5.3 released

#118 2009-03-12 22:42:59

Re: larch-5.3 released

#119 2009-03-13 00:36:08

Re: larch-5.3 released

#120 2009-03-13 13:55:42

Re: larch-5.3 released

#121 2009-03-13 14:04:58

Re: larch-5.3 released

#122 2009-03-13 17:17:06

Re: larch-5.3 released

#123 2009-03-13 22:37:29

Re: larch-5.3 released

#124 2009-03-14 10:07:47

Re: larch-5.3 released

#125 2009-03-14 12:56:13

Re: larch-5.3 released

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