live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

raymano · 2007-06-27 07:28:17

gradgrind wrote:

Is there any particular reason for wanting this?
I guess it might work, but you'd need to be a bit careful about what you try to save. Taking the merge_overlay script just as it is might not be a good idea - it might try to save things like lock-files and temporary files that would have a bad effect on a restarted session. I would suggest having a look at the aufs write branches while the system is running to see what sort of things are lurking in there, and also having a look through the merge_overlay script to see what it tries to do.

I have something working. I had to change a few things in merge_overlay and also I changed larch1 hook to mount the boot device read/write. This way, in merge_overlay, there is no need to unmount and remount the boot device r/w in order to save the newly created overlay files. Seems to work. After booting into my live usb I installed jdk and eclipse, which combined are about 160 megs with lots of files and the merge on the live system takes about 1.5-2 minutes to complete. I'm planning on including this as an experimental feature in the next FaunOS.

Thanks!

Last edited by raymano (2007-06-27 07:32:26)

Flying Saxman · 2007-06-27 16:23:36

gradgrind wrote:

Do you mean that the username should be different in each case, or would it always be, say, 'user'?

The second one.

And to what extent will the user accounts be customized/configured? Will that always be the same?

Always the same configuration. The user-account will only be configured to look nice (KDE-eyecandy-configuration) and for my uncle I want to additionally include an installed StarMoney. But probably I will use jameica with hibiscus instead (I like StarMoney more, but jameica with hibiscus could be installed without the user-account).

In any case I think using a saved session will be the easiest way to go. You can unpack the new overlay and take out the bits you need for your new profile. Just be careful with file and directory permissions/owners.

Ah, ok. I'll try this one and will report later!

Flying Saxman · 2007-07-01 10:44:14

I tried it an I run into a permissions-error. I did not change the permissions and included all files I thought would be important (home-directory, /etc/group, /etc/gshadow, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow) into the overlay-directory of my profile. Did I forget anything or was this not what you meant?

gradgrind · 2007-07-01 11:43:16

Flying Saxman wrote:

I tried it an I run into a permissions-error. I did not change the permissions and included all files I thought would be important (home-directory, /etc/group, /etc/gshadow, /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow) into the overlay-directory of my profile. Did I forget anything or was this not what you meant?

I think that should do it, but check ownership and permissions on your overlay files. You should do everything as root and use 'cp -a' for copying.

Flying Saxman · 2007-07-01 13:43:15

gradgrind wrote:

use 'cp -a' for copying.

That made it, thank you! I think, for the moment I got no more questions. I like your scripts really very much!

miko · 2007-07-04 01:52:49

Hello,
I am using archlinux, and cannot use larch to create any livecd - I get /dev/null: Permission error. The solution which works for me:
$ mount --bind /dev/null /path/to/ArchImage/dev/null
I can do it in the second terminal, or after mklarch -i and before mklarch -b.
Is it known problem? What is the right solution?
Regards,
miko

gradgrind · 2007-07-04 04:10:36

miko wrote:

Hello,
I am using archlinux, and cannot use larch to create any livecd - I get /dev/null: Permission error. The solution which works for me:
$ mount --bind /dev/null /path/to/ArchImage/dev/null
I can do it in the second terminal, or after mklarch -i and before mklarch -b.
Is it known problem? What is the right solution?
Regards,
miko

No, this is not a known problem. Could you give a bit more information, like when this error occurs (what is output before it happens), for example?

miko · 2007-07-04 09:38:57

gradgrind wrote:

miko wrote:
Hello,
I am using archlinux, and cannot use larch to create any livecd - I get /dev/null: Permission error. The solution which works for me:
$ mount --bind /dev/null /path/to/ArchImage/dev/null
I can do it in the second terminal, or after mklarch -i and before mklarch -b.
Is it known problem? What is the right solution?
Regards,
miko
No, this is not a known problem. Could you give a bit more information, like when this error occurs (what is output before it happens), for example?

Sorry, my fault I had my partition mounted with -o nodev, which prevented larch/pacin from creating device files. I hope it will help somebody - I spent whole day tracking this issue...

Regards,
miko

miko · 2007-07-06 09:58:43

How do I modify mkinitcpio.conf to include additional modules? Should I copy it to overlay/etc/mkinitcpio.conf and make changes there? I would like to have modules in initial ramdisk. Or do I have to make changes in files from larch package?

There is another problem I am experiencing with local repository, but it seems to be a bug in pacman.
When adding files from local repository (#PACINOPTS="-p /usr/share/larch/custompacks") pacman cannot find files (it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.pkg.tar.gz), but when I add remote repository to /etc/pacman.conf it is OK (because it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.i686.pkg.tar.gz). So it looks like pacman 3.0.5 misses i686 part when installing from local repository.

Regards,
miko

Flying Saxman · 2007-07-06 10:39:49

miko wrote:

There is another problem I am experiencing with local repository, but it seems to be a bug in pacman.
When adding files from local repository (#PACINOPTS="-p /usr/share/larch/custompacks") pacman cannot find files (it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.pkg.tar.gz), but when I add remote repository to /etc/pacman.conf it is OK (because it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.i686.pkg.tar.gz). So it looks like pacman 3.0.5 misses i686 part when installing from local repository.

Can confirm this one!

gradgrind · 2007-07-06 16:34:40

miko wrote:

How do I modify mkinitcpio.conf to include additional modules? Should I copy it to overlay/etc/mkinitcpio.conf and make changes there? I would like to have modules in initial ramdisk. Or do I have to make changes in files from larch package?

You need to change it in the initcpio_larch package (or whichever variant of it you are using). It is in /usr/share/larch/initcpio.

Actually it's on my TODO list to make this configurable (in the profile), but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it. Maybe in the next few days, otherwise it will take a while.

miko wrote:

There is another problem I am experiencing with local repository, but it seems to be a bug in pacman.
When adding files from local repository (#PACINOPTS="-p /usr/share/larch/custompacks") pacman cannot find files (it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.pkg.tar.gz), but when I add remote repository to /etc/pacman.conf it is OK (because it looks for packagename-1.0.0-1.i686.pkg.tar.gz). So it looks like pacman 3.0.5 misses i686 part when installing from local repository.

That's also on my list. It's because my repository builder (genrepo) can't yet handle the new package names.

gradgrind · 2007-07-07 09:46:12

@miko:

I've just uploaded new packages which should fix your problems. Please try them and let me know if there are still any issues.

miko · 2007-07-09 12:56:41

gradgrind wrote:

@miko:
I've just uploaded new packages which should fix your problems. Please try them and let me know if there are still any issues.

I have different issues now I cannot build iso images anymore:
# cd /mnt/hdb/hdb3/
# mkdir larchtest
# cp /usr/share/larch/config_larch .
# sed -i -e 's|^LARCHBUILD.*|LARCHBUILD=/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout|' config_larch
# mklarch -p mini
[...]
// *** pacin finished! Archlinux has been installed to /mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage ***
// It is, however, pretty unconfigured ...
//

********** Generating locales **********

execve: No such file or directory

************** Generating ssh keys to /mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/etc/ssh **************

execve: No such file or directory
// mklarch finished
[...]
and then when creating LiveCD:
[...]
:: Parsing hook [larch3]
:: Generating module dependencies
/sbin/mkinitcpio: line 226: depmod: command not found
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.dep' does not exist
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.alias' does not exist
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.symbols' does not exist
:: Generating image 'larch.img'.../sbin/mkinitcpio: line 235: gen_init_cpio: command not found
SUCCESS
mv: cannot stat `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/larch.img': No such file or directory
// removing superfluous initrd/initramfs images from /boot
... /mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/boot/diag1.img
... /mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/boot/kernel26.img
// extracting 'base' initial boot system
execve: No such file or directory
execve: No such file or directory
dirname: missing operand
Try `dirname --help' for more information.
cp: cannot copy a directory, `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage', into itself, `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage'
execve: No such file or directory
!
execve: No such file or directory
execve: No such file or directory
dirname: missing operand
Try `dirname --help' for more information.
cp: cannot create special file `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage/dev/null': File exists
cp: cannot create special file `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage/dev/zero': File exists
cp: cannot create special file `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage/dev/console': File exists
[...]
and last 10 lines keeps repeating, the program creates inifinite loop, my partitions grows and the process never ends (I have to cancel it with ^C).
It creates directories like:
/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ArchImage/.tmp/base/ ...

I have kernel 2.6.19-beyond on this machine, but I dont know if it matters - it did work before I have upgraded larch.

Regards,
miko

PS. I just checked it on another machine,l it works fine there, so it has something to do with my setup...

gradgrind · 2007-07-10 04:31:59

miko wrote:

********** Generating locales **********
execve: No such file or directory

Was that really the first error message? It sounds like something didn't get installed properly.

miko wrote:

:: Parsing hook [larch3]
:: Generating module dependencies
/sbin/mkinitcpio: line 226: depmod: command not found
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.dep' does not exist
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.alias' does not exist
ERROR: file '/tmp/lib/modules/2.6.21-ARCH/modules.symbols' does not exist
:: Generating image 'larch.img'.../sbin/mkinitcpio: line 235: gen_init_cpio: command not found
SUCCESS
mv: cannot stat `/mnt/hdb/hdb3/larchout/ArchImage/larch.img': No such file or directory

You've got some mighty strange paths there. Maybe you could investigate that a bit further. Where were you trying to use for building?

miko wrote:

PS. I just checked it on another machine,l it works fine there, so it has something to do with my setup...

Did you try exactly the same build configuration on the other machine?

markc · 2007-07-23 09:47:02

I'm using the larch repo so I have larch 3.10-1 and I am running "mklarch -p mini" to test the system on a mostly "testing" AL system. I'm at a bit of a loss to understand why I'd be seeing errors like this when I am running the larch script as root. Any pointers ?

chroot: cannot run command `usr/sbin/locale-gen': Permission denied

chroot: cannot run command `/usr/sbin/gen_larch_init': Permission denied
mv: cannot stat `/home/admin/Desktop/Backup/Devel/larchbuild/ArchImage/larch.img': No such file or directory
// removing superfluous initrd/initramfs images from /boot
  ... /home/admin/Desktop/Backup/Devel/larchbuild/ArchImage/boot/diag1.img
// extracting 'base' initial boot system
chroot: cannot run command `which': Permission denied
chroot: cannot run command `ldd': Permission denied

Forgot to mention the only thing I've changed is "LARCHBUILD=/home/admin/Desktop/Backup/Devel/larchbuild" in /usr/share/larch/config_larch.

SOLVED: Sorry, I had a partition mounted at /home/admin/Desktop/Backup with noexec,nodev,nosuid etc!

Last edited by markc (2007-07-23 09:57:31)

Flying Saxman · 2007-07-24 10:51:05

I can't boot from my usb-stick with the new kernel 2.6.22 anymore. The system just dies with

INIT: version 2.86 booting
Mounting system from boot device

No Errors are shown.

rdmelin · 2007-08-27 02:57:38

This is just a quick note to say thanks for developing this tool kit. I thought you might like to hear that it is woking well for me.

I have thus far been using it from my Mandriva2007.1 system. The docs say this has not been extensively tested, but I have found no problems so far.

I have for several years created and maintained the ZMLiveCD, a testdrive and install system for ZoneMinder surveillance software. I have used the mklivecd scripts and Mandrake/Mandriva. Having been attracted to arch by the rolling release and i686 optimization I was delighted to find your tool kit for livecd / installer creation.

It seems that the one thing arch and larch need is more publicity.
Please keep up the good work.

Best regards,
Ross Melin

lilsirecho · 2007-08-27 05:43:30

Flying Saxman:

It might be mkinitcpio has changed your HOOKS ?

Flying Saxman · 2007-08-27 18:59:56

I dunno, I changed to kernel26suspend2. Probably it works with the new larch-version again! ^^

gradgrind · 2007-08-27 19:32:16

Hi rdmelin,

Thanks for the report. I hardly ever touch anything non-Arch these days, so it's nice to hear of successes on other systems.

Hi Flying Saxman,

Yes, larch should work with the latest kernel - please let me know if it doesn't! The main problem with changing kernels is aufs (should you be using it) because this is not an Arch package, and you need to wait for me to notice and compile it, or do it yourself. unionfs is an official Arch package and should get updated soon after the kernel.
I actually only offered aufs as an experimental alternative, but it does seem to work well.

Flying Saxman · 2007-08-28 14:52:22

I use sqf. Dunno if it makes problems, too...

Currently I cannot report any misfunctions, because the stick for my uncle is ready and sent to him. And I don't want to format my stick just to check this (never change a runnning system! ^^ ).

Last edited by Flying Saxman (2007-08-28 14:53:14)

tolsis · 2007-09-09 17:47:07

Archie server ( archie.dotsrc.org ) seems to be down at the moment
Since larch packages ( larchin , initcpio_larch_aufs etc ) are stored there, it is not possible to build a live image.
Does anyone have access to the packages?

us3r · 2007-09-13 11:56:13

Hi
I have some problem with larch. When "udev uevent" starting i have some error (i think this is squashfs or unionfs problem). When new larch version was available i upgrade only few files but i forgot upgrade hook files (maybe this is problem?). Anybody have hook files for new larch (3.10-1).. archie is down and i cant download package. I upgrade packages on my iso (ex. kernel -> 2.6.22).

Sorry for english.

EDIT
Uff i find error. Under the "Udev events" i get:

unable to handle paging request<7>unionfs: do delay copyup "i2c-algo-bit.ko"

EDIT2:
Everything is ok on kernel < 2.6.22 or kerne 2.6.22 with aufs

Last edited by us3r (2007-09-17 19:50:53)

chicha · 2007-09-21 12:09:44

Hello !

I have a quick question about larch :

larch wrote:

Warning
Before we get started I should point out that most of the scripts need to be run by the 'root' user. That is quite normal for an installer, but it is somewhat risky - a slight slip and all sorts of damage could be done. Ideally you would have a machine specially set aside for this sort of thing, i.e. one without any important data on it. You have been warned!

Can I use fakeroot to by-pass this drawback ?
Sorry if this is a stupid idea , I just want to understand why it is so important to run larch as root, and why fakeroot cannot help.

Thank you very much for your help !

gradgrind · 2007-09-21 17:37:29

chicha wrote:

Hello !
I have a quick question about larch :
larch wrote:
Warning
Before we get started I should point out that most of the scripts need to be run by the 'root' user. That is quite normal for an installer, but it is somewhat risky - a slight slip and all sorts of damage could be done. Ideally you would have a machine specially set aside for this sort of thing, i.e. one without any important data on it. You have been warned!
Can I use fakeroot to by-pass this drawback ?
Sorry if this is a stupid idea , I just want to understand why it is so important to run larch as root, and why fakeroot cannot help.
Thank you very much for your help !

Certain parts certainly could - in principle (!) - be run using fakeroot. Indeed I believe phrakture was working on something like that. In practice I am afraid it won't work with larch (as it is at the moment). To be honest I can't remember all the details any more, but there are several bits that need real root access and not just the sly manipulation of file system access that fakeroot does. larch uses all the genuine Arch installation utilities (pacman, mkinitcpio, ...) and mounts things and ... . In the end I think it's probably simplest just to accept that it must be done as root and be a bit careful (not that I have had any trouble with it, yet).

Of course I don't want to put you off considering whether it really couldn't be done without root ...

Arch Linux

#201 2007-06-27 07:28:17

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#202 2007-06-27 16:23:36

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#203 2007-07-01 10:44:14

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#204 2007-07-01 11:43:16

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#205 2007-07-01 13:43:15

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#206 2007-07-04 01:52:49

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#207 2007-07-04 04:10:36

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#208 2007-07-04 09:38:57

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#209 2007-07-06 09:58:43

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#210 2007-07-06 10:39:49

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#211 2007-07-06 16:34:40

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#212 2007-07-07 09:46:12

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#213 2007-07-09 12:56:41

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#214 2007-07-10 04:31:59

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#215 2007-07-23 09:47:02

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#216 2007-07-24 10:51:05

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#217 2007-08-27 02:57:38

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#218 2007-08-27 05:43:30

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#219 2007-08-27 18:59:56

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#220 2007-08-27 19:32:16

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#221 2007-08-28 14:52:22

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#222 2007-09-09 17:47:07

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#223 2007-09-13 11:56:13

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#224 2007-09-21 12:09:44

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

#225 2007-09-21 17:37:29

Re: live Arch CD construction kit (larch)

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