larch-5.3 released

gradgrind · 2009-08-22 10:05:16

REN wrote:

Is it possible to use saving sessions using an image? (.iso or .img)
I ask that because I want to create an usb image (I dont want to use my flash disk for this pourpouse).
Thanks

I'm afraid I don't understand what you are asking, could you try to explain in a bit more detail?

gradgrind · 2009-08-22 10:11:25

bwh1969 wrote:

I copied and edited then renamed the merge_overlay file: I modified it and ran it while running (backed up overlay.ovl and mods.sqf to another device).
Regarding your statement about this not being a good idea, I only supply this for someone to perhaps problem solve where the error is occuring. It seems as if some file is not mounting property and therefore is creating a blank mods.sqf and then assuming it 'thinks" the process was completed, wipes out stuff to be saved in overlay.ovl
I am getting this running Chakra alpha3
[root@chakra live]# /opt/larch-live/session-save/merge_overlay_x
/opt/larch-live/session-save/merge_overlay_x: line 62: auplink: command not found
Mounting merge union
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on aufs,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
(for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
I checked in the ./livesys directory and
# Make a directory for a merged union
merge_union=/.livesys/merge_union
rm -rf ${merge_union}
mkdir -p ${merge_union}
merge_union=/.livesys/merge_union does not seem to appear during the process. If I create it, other things show up as errors.
As awlays, thanks for all of your work on this. I know it is time consuming.

It looks to me like the chakra kernel/aufs doesn't support the aufs shwh option that is needed for merge_overlay to work. That auplink is not found suggests that aufs2-util is not installed, but that shouldn't stop the script from working (I think it is only there to tidy up hard-links).

Last edited by gradgrind (2009-08-22 10:11:56)

bwh1969 · 2009-08-22 14:27:33

I will let them know over there after I investigate to see if aufs2-utils is installed. I also know they had a few issues with the init scripts so maybe this can help them sort it out.

Last edited by bwh1969 (2009-08-22 14:28:04)

bwh1969 · 2009-08-23 15:28:01

Gradgrind: Just more FYI info for you: trying to test where the mount/merge is going wrong:

I installed aufs2-util, saved my overlay and rebooted then ran this script:

I copied/pasted/modified the merge_overlays script such that it does not overwrite anything and skips some of the checks for fs types:

#!/bin/bash
utype="$( cat /.livesys/utype )"
sqfmnt="rr"
ovlmnt="rr+wh"
ovl2mnt="ro+wh"
bropt="br:"
opq=".wh..wh..opq"
whlink=".wh..wh.aufs .wh..wh.plink"

# Make a directory for a merged union
merge_union=/.livesys/merge_union
rm -rf ${merge_union}
mkdir -p ${merge_union}

echo "Mounting merge union"
# This is using a new feature of aufs, to show whiteouts.
layers="/.livesys/overlay=${ovl2mnt}:/.livesys/mods=${ovlmnt}"
mount -t ${utype} -o ro,shwh,${bropt}${layers} ${utype} ${merge_union}
res=$?
#+++
mods2=/.livesys/mods2
rm -rf ${mods2}
mkdir -p ${mods2}
# root directories which are included in mods.sqf
includedirs=""
for d in bin boot home lib mnt opt root sbin srv usr var; do
    if [ -d ${merge_union}/${d} ]; then
        includedirs="${includedirs} ${d}"
        mkdir ${mods2}/${d}
        mount --bind ${merge_union}/${d} ${mods2}/${d}
    fi
done

# non-included /var directories
vardirs="var/log var/tmp var/cache/pacman/pkg"
echo 'test complete'
exit 0

I get

Mounting merge union
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on aufs,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
       need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

Rebuilding 'mods' overlay to /.livesys/medium/mods.tmp
test complete

gradgrind · 2009-08-23 18:29:32

Here is quite a simple test for the shwh option. Just run this code as root (well, check what it does first!)

#!/bin/sh

mkdir -p m
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs m
cd m
mkdir -p {u1,u2,l1,l2,l3}

touch l1/{l1a,l1b}
touch l2/{l2a,l2b}
touch l3/{l3a,l3b}

mkdir l1/l1d1
mkdir l1/l1d2
touch l1/l1d1/x
touch l1/l1d2/y

mount -t aufs -o br:l2:l1=ro aufs u1
rm -rf u1/l1d1
mkdir u1/l1d1
touch u1/l1d1/x2
umount u1

mount -t aufs -o br:l3:l2=ro+wh:l1=ro aufs u1
rm u1/{l1a,l2a,l3a}

mount -t aufs -o ro,shwh,br:l3=ro+wh:l2=ro+wh aufs u2

read -p "Inspect the result and then press Enter to unmount the file-systems" n

umount u2
umount u1

cd ..
umount m

REN · 2009-08-23 23:40:12

gradgrind wrote:

REN wrote:
Is it possible to use saving sessions using an image? (.iso or .img)
I ask that because I want to create an usb image (I dont want to use my flash disk for this pourpouse).
Thanks
I'm afraid I don't understand what you are asking, could you try to explain in a bit more detail?

When you use the command, for example:

./mklarch -p larch/profiles/xmini

It creates an image (.iso) that you can burn it into a CD or a DVD. In this case there is no possibility to use session saving, since you cannot write to a CD/DVD.

I want to create an image and run with virtualbox/vmware to use the session saving feature. Is that possible?

gradgrind · 2009-08-24 15:58:02

REN wrote:

...
It creates an image (.iso) that you can burn it into a CD or a DVD. In this case there is no possibility to use session saving, since you cannot write to a CD/DVD.
I want to create an image and run with virtualbox/vmware to use the session saving feature. Is that possible?

There are various possibilities. Firstly virtualbox (the non-free version) and - I think - vmware can boot from USB devices so you can use normal larch on USB with them, and I think that is the easiest way (except that the current version of virtualbox can't boot Arch). qemu can also do this. Probably the next easiest way is to put larch on a partition of one of the virtual machine's disks. The most difficult is to add little scripts to your larch system so that it uses some device other than the boot device to fetch the overlays.

I hope that helps a bit.

rhune · 2009-10-22 22:39:55

Getting an error retrieving file larch5.db.tar.gz from ftp.berlios.de! Hopefully this project is still up?

wantilles · 2009-10-23 07:16:47

rhune wrote:

Getting an error retrieving file larch5.db.tar.gz from ftp.berlios.de! Hopefully this project is still up?

The project is still up.

Berlios servers have the unfortunate habit of failing frequently.

gradgrind · 2009-10-23 11:14:56

Yes, with berlios you sometimes just need to come back a day or two later.

Please bear in mind, though that I am not really keeping version 5 properly maintained any more, so there may be (some time there certainly will be) problems due to changes in Arch. I am now concentrating on version 7, which is working pretty well at the moment (at least for me it is!).

rhune · 2009-10-27 02:00:47

Ya sorry, realized that just after i posted! Got it working sort of...It is having trouble finding the boot device (using a usb drive). I've tried all the boot options (partition, uuid, label, and search). After searching it just dumps me into ramfs, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to create the device in there.

After figuring out why it wasnt working, I tried some troubleshooting. It even seems to find it every once in a while.. I tried "burning" the image twice with the exact same config, one time it went through, and the other times it didnt. Though, when it does work i get an error "c1 respawning too fast, wait 5 minutes" or some such. Any ideas whats going on here?

Last edited by rhune (2009-10-27 02:01:33)

gradgrind · 2009-10-27 12:16:19

rhune wrote:

Ya sorry, realized that just after i posted! Got it working sort of...It is having trouble finding the boot device (using a usb drive). I've tried all the boot options (partition, uuid, label, and search). After searching it just dumps me into ramfs, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to create the device in there.
After figuring out why it wasnt working, I tried some troubleshooting. It even seems to find it every once in a while.. I tried "burning" the image twice with the exact same config, one time it went through, and the other times it didnt. Though, when it does work i get an error "c1 respawning too fast, wait 5 minutes" or some such. Any ideas whats going on here?

Maybe if you could explain in more detail how you built it and exactly what is happening, with messages, etc. I might get some idea, but the booting is always the most difficult to troubleshoot. Which version of larch are you using? It's always helpful to me if you can use the latest version.

rhune · 2009-10-27 21:59:55

Using the larch7 gui. I basically tried to do a default install, only took out some unneeded base pkgs. I havent messed with any of the other configs too much yet.
This is the error im getting:

:: Running Hook [larch1]
:: Creating writeable filesystem (tmpfs)
loop: module loaded
:: Looking for LABEL EEELIVE
!! Sorry, couldn't find boot medium ...
!! If the larch system is on a partition you should specify
!! its UUID with 'uuid=xxxxxx' or its LABEL with 'label=xxxxxx'
!! as a boot paramater. 'root=/dev/sdXY' is another possibility.
:: Running hook [larch2_aufs]
aufs 2 standalone.tree-200907
:: Running Hook [larch3]
:: Break requested. type 'exit' to resume operation
    NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead
ramfs&

I can see /dev/sdc1 (the usb drive on my laptop) and /boot. Same error message with all the other boot types too. Except 'search' which keeps looking for a cd-rom which doesnt exist! Gonna keep messing around with it.

edit:

hooks

HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb larch1 larch2___aufs___ larch3"

Also using standard arch kernel

Last edited by rhune (2009-10-27 22:12:58)

gradgrind · 2009-10-28 08:30:04

Where did you get that mkinitcpio.conf from? The first thing I would try is to remove the autodetect hook. This is a bad idea in a live system. You can use the default mkinitcpio.conf supplied with larch-live, you normally don't need to roll your own.

wantilles · 2009-10-29 23:26:15

A maybe somewhat stupid question:

I am attempting to build a live DVD with an X DE.

Is it possible, and how, to do specific actions after startup but before X starts (possibly in the rc.local), depending on selections made in the ISOlinux boot menu?

For example choose VGA vendor (nVidia, ATi, Intel) and have an appropriate xorg.conf ready.

These actions will be specific bash commands (mainly creating some symlinks, doing some modprobes, etc.).

gradgrind · 2009-10-30 08:39:28

wantilles wrote:

A maybe somewhat stupid question:
I am attempting to build a live DVD with an X DE.
Is it possible, and how, to do specific actions after startup but before X starts (possibly in the rc.local), depending on selections made in the ISOlinux boot menu?
For example choose VGA vendor (nVidia, ATi, Intel) and have an appropriate xorg.conf ready.
These actions will be specific bash commands (mainly creating some symlinks, doing some modprobes, etc.).

Yes, rc.local is probably a good place. Use 'cat /proc/cmdline' to get the boot line.

matthewbauer · 2009-10-30 22:15:49

I get:

// Kernel version: 2.6.31-ARCH
// -> regenerating kernel dependencies

ERROR: No aufs or unionfs module found

When running mklarch and a profile similar to mini2.

wantilles · 2009-10-30 22:25:34

matthewbauer wrote:

I get:
// Kernel version: 2.6.31-ARCH
// -> regenerating kernel dependencies
ERROR: No aufs or unionfs module found
When running mklarch and a profile similar to mini2.

Include the following packages in the addedpacks file:

- aufs2
- aufs2-util

matthewbauer · 2009-10-31 01:56:25

Get the same problem with this:

# These are needed to build a live CD
larch-live
squashfs-tools
lzop

syslinux

# In case necessary (depends on kernel)
aufs2
aufs2-util

# To eject a cd
eject

# generally useful tools which don't require X
grep
openssh
dosfstools
lynx
mc
unzip
zip
vim
grep

gradgrind · 2009-10-31 10:16:26

That's puzzling. I think I'd ask you to try again and make a note of any output messages (and say exactly what you did).

matthewbauer · 2009-10-31 17:11:12

Ok, I think I fixed it by changing the addedpacks line:

aufs2
aufs2-util

to

extra/aufs2
extra/aufs2-util

wantilles · 2009-10-31 18:48:07

matthewbauer wrote:

Ok, I think I fixed it by changing the addedpacks line:
aufs2
aufs2-util
to
extra/aufs2
extra/aufs2-util

This is something gradgrind should have done months ago.

Remove the aufs2 packages since they are old.

Do what I do.

Copy the repo and maintain it locally, all the packages except the aufs2 ones.

That is why I did not have that problem.

gradgrind · 2009-11-01 09:14:27

wantilles wrote:

matthewbauer wrote:
Ok, I think I fixed it by changing the addedpacks line:
aufs2
aufs2-util
to
extra/aufs2
extra/aufs2-util
This is something gradgrind should have done months ago.
Remove the aufs2 packages since they are old.

Oops. Sorry about that - I hardly look at larch5 these days, so I rely on reports to know if something's not working.
Anyway it's fixed now, I've removed the old aufs package, so you shouldn't need the extra/ prefix.

matthewbauer · 2009-11-05 00:43:33

Also is there a way to preserve permissions on files?

I'd like to have a user with predefined settings such as a .xinitrc and .config. Is there a better way to do this.

gradgrind · 2009-11-05 08:47:28

matthewbauer wrote:

Also is there a way to preserve permissions on files?
I'd like to have a user with predefined settings such as a .xinitrc and .config. Is there a better way to do this.

Doing it at build time is a bit complicated. On larch5 you can use this: http://larch.berlios.de/doc/larch_profiles.html#xpack, but because I can't imagine anyone would really want to do this I dropped it from larch7. My recommended way is to do it via session saving, i.e. build a system without the extra users, then create them - and any settings that go along wioth them - in the running live system, then save the session. This doesn't work on a CD of course, but if that's really important it shouldn't be too difficult to build a CD from a USB-stick version.

An alternative would be to build the system how you want it on its own partition, so that it can be booted. Then boot this partition, set up your users, and larchify the result (preferably while not running this partition, but in theory that would work too).

Arch Linux

#226 2009-08-22 10:05:16

Re: larch-5.3 released

#227 2009-08-22 10:11:25

Re: larch-5.3 released

#228 2009-08-22 14:27:33

Re: larch-5.3 released

#229 2009-08-23 15:28:01

Re: larch-5.3 released

#230 2009-08-23 18:29:32

Re: larch-5.3 released

#231 2009-08-23 23:40:12

Re: larch-5.3 released

#232 2009-08-24 15:58:02

Re: larch-5.3 released

#233 2009-10-22 22:39:55

Re: larch-5.3 released

#234 2009-10-23 07:16:47

Re: larch-5.3 released

#235 2009-10-23 11:14:56

Re: larch-5.3 released

#236 2009-10-27 02:00:47

Re: larch-5.3 released

#237 2009-10-27 12:16:19

Re: larch-5.3 released

#238 2009-10-27 21:59:55

Re: larch-5.3 released

#239 2009-10-28 08:30:04

Re: larch-5.3 released

#240 2009-10-29 23:26:15

Re: larch-5.3 released

#241 2009-10-30 08:39:28

Re: larch-5.3 released

#242 2009-10-30 22:15:49

Re: larch-5.3 released

#243 2009-10-30 22:25:34

Re: larch-5.3 released

#244 2009-10-31 01:56:25

Re: larch-5.3 released

#245 2009-10-31 10:16:26

Re: larch-5.3 released

#246 2009-10-31 17:11:12

Re: larch-5.3 released

#247 2009-10-31 18:48:07

Re: larch-5.3 released

#248 2009-11-01 09:14:27

Re: larch-5.3 released

#249 2009-11-05 00:43:33

Re: larch-5.3 released

#250 2009-11-05 08:47:28

Re: larch-5.3 released

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