Arch Linux

Nazgulled

Member

Registered: 2009-03-08

Posts: 102

How to mount arch filesystem in read only and use zeroconf

I'm running Arch as a guest in VirtualBox and to compact the vdi image file I need to mount the arch filesystem as read only and use a tool named zerofree.

1) How can I mount the Arch filesystem as read only? I believe this will probably be achieved only with a LiveCD, but if there's any possible way to configure GRUB and add to it one more menu item that would start Arch in a read only state, it would be nice. If not, I simply need to use a LiveCD to have some OS to work with right? How do I mount the filesystem in read only then?

2) The zerofree tool seems to not be available in pacman... Is it, maybe, located on a different package or it really isn't there?

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: How to mount arch filesystem in read only and use zeroconf

Compacting VDIs isn't possible in current versions of VirtualBox anyway. It's broken, so it's been disabled.

Just thought I'd mention this, before you spent a bunch of time on this.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: How to mount arch filesystem in read only and use zeroconf

1) You can start by looking at /etc/rc.sysinit, The root filesystem is initially mounted read-only, and subsequently remounted read-write. You can remove that command, but you will need to evaluate the affect of doing so in later init stages.

2) It seems it is not available as an Arch package, either in the binary repos or in the AUR. You can create your own package for it - if you do, you should consider submitting it to the AUR. The wiki has everything you need to know about Arch packaging.