• Registered: 2009-09-07
  • Posts: 84

Topic: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Hi
  I'm loving Statler  - Alpha 2. But in order to be able to seriously consider it for an alternative to my crunch 9.04 setup, I need to be able to make a remastered backup. I've been spoiled by remastersys on crunch9. Because not only does it allow you to back up your entire rig, but it also allows you to re-install your customized remaster to a different computer with different hardware. So it's more than just a static clone, it's actually a re-install of your own personalized distro.

  I've tried now to get remastersys to work on Statler, but with a debian base, it's not so simple. According to remastersys's page, you need access to squashfs and aufs or unionfs modules. He says if you don't have a kernel that allows those modules, remastersys won't work. http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/debian.html

There are some pre-requisites for the debian version that aren't there for the Ubuntu version.

  You should install squashfs-modules for your kernel and either aufs-modules or unionfs-modules before you install remastersys.  On initial testing from a net-inst lenny cd I had not installed these prior and something very bad happened to my install - it was unable to boot and the livecd created was also unusable.  I feel it had something to do with building the initramfs.  As another safeguard, its recommended to reboot your system after the modules are installed just to ensure it boots properly.  If all that goes well, you are fully prepared to install and run remastersys for debian.

  If your kernel doesn't have the squashfs-modules and either the aufs-modules or unionfs-modules, you MUST use a different kernel.  No ifs ands or buts about it.

Has anyone gotten this to work WITHOUT having to recompile the kernel, or creating an out of tree module? Is there an EASY way to make remastersys work with this kernel of debian? I know some have mentioned Debian's live project. But when I look at it, it only allows you to created a custom package, but NOT backup up all your ENTIRE configuration. Unless I'm misunderstanding.

  I also looked @ dream linux's Mklive utility. But from what I can tell, it doesn't even work in it's own distro. So, from all of the above, does anyone have any workarounds or solutions you've used that work reasonably well. If so, please share. I'm not attached to remastersys particularly, just what it can do (and it does it so well).

  Thanks

         Peace

  • jcris
  • #! Member
  • Offline
  • From: midwest
  • Registered: 2010-04-25
  • Posts: 73

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

I used remastersys, from that page you're looking at, about a week ago and made a back up of my statler alpha 2 Xfce version with no problems. I made a bootable USB using unetbootin, and then burned a DVD. I did the complete backup including my .home fiolders. I didnt read that there was spose to be any problems, I just added the repo, and backed up.

Off Like A Prom Dress...

jcris's Website

  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

....I didnt read that there was spose to be any problems....

There's been a few times I did something not knowing I couldn't but this was one time when I was happy to hear of someone else doing it, too.  big_smile 

All kidding aside though: remastersys does seem to work with Statler alpha-2 just like jcris said.  I am typing from it now as a live-CD.  wink  There were a few minor glitches: one referenced the network connection which I ignored and the keyboard reverted to GB even though I'd previously changed it  -- no problem.

I'm going to play with this for the remainder of the weekend and if it feels OK I'll make a fresh copy and keep it.  Anyone else up to trying this??  wink

  • From: Minnesota, USA
  • Registered: 2009-10-03
  • Posts: 83

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Wow, did you guys stumble into a *good* one or what?!! big_smile lol cool

If this tests out OK, I'm snipping the last strand that's been keeping me from completely breaking with the 'buntus. Until tonight, I've been really missing remastersys...it pulled my fat out of the fire more than once when I (often) waltzed beyond my knowledge level with #! 9.04. I'd bet that Greg over at geekmind would like to hear about this one...

Anyway, I'm writing this from a livecd of my entire #! OB/XFCE partition (I log back and forth between OB and XFC depending on the mood...thanks for that install option, Philip!) except for my music folder. Winotree, I experienced the exact same "minor glitches" as you...my wifi popped right back on once I got inside and the GB thing is lightweight...

Question is, how would I actually reinstall? I didn't see anything in the unetbootin menu and there's certainly nothing inside the livecd. I'm noobin' on this one...anyone got the answer?

Cheers!

-D&F

eeepc 1005PEB dual-boot Win7/Crunchified Mint 10.04 LTS
Sometimes it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
  • Val_B
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: SE United States
  • Registered: 2010-01-25
  • Posts: 238

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

I was under the impression that remastersys had their own experimental installer for debian that was not ready for mass use, and that was the reason not to use it. After all there is no ubiquity in debian.

I am very curious about this as well, as I use remastersys alot but my recent expirences with Gentoo and Debian have me giving up on Ubuntu, but I really want to be able to make Live CDs quickly and easily, that install quickly and easily. As I understand the Debian live project is a better choice but doesn't it still lack a live installer?

  • Registered: 2009-10-08
  • Posts: 91

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

If I remember correctly, it is as simple as opening a terminal and typing 'remastersys-installer" as root. It may be remastersys-install. It has been a little while.

"I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone."
AMD PhenomII x4 955be, MSI 785GT-E63, 8GB DDR2, Radeon hd5570, Unity Gnomemini x64
  • Registered: 2009-09-07
  • Posts: 84

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Well,
   I'm glad to hear it works for some folks. I'm running Crunchy Xfce x32. I ran it again, and got the same result. Remastersys goes through all it's stuff, and I end up with a 32 k Iso image - useless.

I suspect it has something to do with this error that comes up in the beginning windows of remastersys:

http://www.box.net/shared/3febqyus3k

I'm not sure if this is why I get a remaster that is a dud. But I suspect it is related to no casper, nor squashfs modules or aufs modules. But I don't know. I can't understand how others can get it to work given they obviously have the same statler and the same remasterysys.

Does anyone have any insight into why it works w/o problems for some, and why for others it doesn't. Or more specifically, does the error message I'm getting above show some clue that someone knows how to resolve?

  Any insight appreciated.

    Peace

P.S. I have already used chown to give permissions to write in the directory: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/live-bottom. I've tested it and I can create a file there. So it's NOT  a permissions issue.

  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

http://omploader.org/tNTB4eg

I'll download this and try again -- maybe it isn't quite ready yet?

  • jcris
  • #! Member
  • Offline
  • From: midwest
  • Registered: 2010-04-25
  • Posts: 73

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

I am on the remaster copy I put on a USB VIA unetbootin right now. Everything works just like it was my regular desktop with the addition of in the system tab there are options to Install to hard drive, backup, and restore grub. All of my programs are intact with no problems at all. Im gonna make a copy without all my /home files to play with here in a few.

If it helps anyone all I did was use this repo...
deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository squeeze/
and went into synaptic and installed like any other program.
Im using Statler 10 Alpha 2 Xfce

Last edited by jcris (2010-07-24 00:54:44)

Off Like A Prom Dress...

jcris's Website

  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Yes.  I saw that, but when I tried to install from the disk to my SSD the program took me through [and I mean no offense] a manual, if not primitive partition editor that caused me some concern.  Apparently nothing happened.  I mean, I didn't get my system backed up but it didn't hurt my system either, the partition editor just kept going through its motions apparently doing something.

After fifteen minutes of it going through its motions apparently doing something I installed a netinst of Debian Squeeze, something I'd been meaning to do since it's matured.  I really liked, really used, really depended on remastersys in the past.  With that thought in mind I'll try one more time.

  • From: Minnesota, USA
  • Registered: 2009-10-03
  • Posts: 83

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Winotree (and all),
By sheer dumb luck I managed to take a step further into the deep woods...
1) Like you guys, I added geekmind's repo to my repo list and installed debian remastersys.
2) I made a remastersys backup iso (1.6G) of the Statler OB/XFCE A2 combo logged into XFCE on my eeepc 1005PEB. I then installed the iso on a thumbdrive with unetbootin linux-356. (I ignored the network error and noticed that US had reverted to GB in the tray...wifi came right up in the livecd.)
3) I ran the livecd successfully on the 1005, and noticed the remastersys selections (backup, install, grub) in the XFCE menu.
4) I booted #! 9.04 on my eeepc 701 and successfully loaded the statler livecd.
5) Per Greg's caution, I ran gparted and set up the SSD drive as an ext3 drive with a small swap.
6) Using the System menu remastersys install selection, I apparently installed the livecd on the SSD.
7) After the install, I removed the thumbie, rebooted, and it looks like grub was the show-stopper:

GRUB loading stage1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 15

And that' where I'm at. Anyone get any further? hmm

PS: A system-only iso would be much less than my 1.6G iso...most of my /home is in my iso...

Cheers!

-D&F

Last edited by dippedandfried (2010-07-24 16:52:09)

eeepc 1005PEB dual-boot Win7/Crunchified Mint 10.04 LTS
Sometimes it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

I tried another time or two while still in Debian Squeeze but no luck.  It copied my files but would not recognize my password so in effect my device was in a worse spot than while using Statler Alpha-2 Xfce, which BTW I've switched back to but think I'll wait for a fix -- I can rebuild my system in about an hour with no backup so it's not that important to me -- but I'm sure there's eleventy-seven other users just itching for this to work.  neutral

It gave me something to do at the beginning of the weekend though.  It's at times like this I wish I had a second computer so I could remain on-line and continue to diddle with the other.  big_smile

  • Val_B
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: SE United States
  • Registered: 2010-01-25
  • Posts: 238

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Wow, I tried it and it just wiped out my Debian system. causing a kernel panic at boot along with a cryptic message about initramfs. I did at least make a working live CD before I rebooted, so I tried to reinstall using the remastersys-installer since I wanted to see how it worked anyway. I must say the installer is terrible, as it won't let you set whatever drive you want, and more importantly when it tries to install grub it comes up with all kinds of errors. This is definitely not the installer to use, the Debian Live project is much better...

Possibly these problems were caused by the fact that I used Lilo on my system, in any case now I have to figure out how to get one of them (lilo or grub) to install and actually work (They both keep on spitting errors at me). In any case, the livecd itself works flawlessly. I am sure I'll figure out the problem and get my system back up.

Last edited by Val_B (2010-07-25 15:11:36)

  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

....In any case, the livecd itself works flawlessly....

I'll agree with that!

  • Val_B
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: SE United States
  • Registered: 2010-01-25
  • Posts: 238

Re: Remastersys & Statler - possible without MAJOR fix?

Ok, I got my Live CD installed and made my system work again. Here is what I did:

1. I used fdisk to partition, I am not too familiar with cfdisk that comes the remastersys installer uses, but you can use whatever application and just click quit when cfdisk comes up. The installer seems to support a sepearate /home but that didn´t work for me, so I just partitioned with / and swap.

2. I used mke2fs to write the ext3 filesystem.

3. I used the remastersys-installer to copy the files to the new paritions. I select to install grub to the root drive rather than the MBR, after it copies the files it spits out all kinds of grub errors, I have yet to see it ever succsessfully install grub.

4. don´t reboot at the prompt, continue running.

5. mkdir a new directory to mount your drive you just copied your files to

6. mount the drive, and change directory to it.

7. then chrooted to the new drive. (running bash as the command obviously)

8.  I then rewrote the fstab file as the one remastersys wrote uses uuid and I don´t know much about that, I just replaced the names with the /dev names of my drives.

9. once uuid is gone I used Liloconfig to make myself a new lilo.conf and wrote that to the MBR.

10. I rebooted and Lilo greets me and my system boots from the hard drive as well as the live CD.   

Note: I could have manually wrote my Lilo.conf but, the I wouldn´t get the debian bmp files, and I wanted a pretty menu. Grub users could probably write their grub setup (Which IIRC does support uuid, so I don´t think they would have to edit their fstab) directly to the MBR manually rather than in the installer and it should work.