Re-mastering Proof-of-Principle Effort

[Capricorny]

For serious daily Knoppix use, a good persistent store is mandatory, and that means >2 GB for me. Just upgrading/book-keeping stuff easily reaches 1 GB, and I normally go for 4 GB at once. The CD is stripped down, to the point that something important for some uses is usually lacking, therefore, I start with the DVD version whenever I can. Total system size therefore becomes ca 8 GB. But that also means I can't place the remastered version on a CD/DVD. And why should I?

I run Knoppix from internal HDD, USB HDD, (fast) memory sticks, SD cards, smartphone - seldom CD/DVD. These have the space I need, and the KNOPPIX directory (including persistent store(s)) is easily copied.

Booting? Thus far, I still prefer legacy GRUB (not the "new" thing) installed on its own partition, where I can add boot alternatives just by adding kernels and initrds and editing /boot/grub/menu.lst. Only limitation is with Win7 - I don't need it enough to chase the workarounds needed to Linux boot it, relying instead on virtual machines. I may turn to GRUB4DOS later.

[utu]

Greetings, Capricorny.

Nice to hear from you. Welcome back.

As you can see, prior to your post,
this thread was not a success.

Werner has made things a little simpler.
You might want to catch up on his approach to remastering.

http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html

Best Regards.

[Capricorny]

This approach and Werner's are almost diametrically opposite approaches to remastering, and suitable for very different purposes. And if "remastering" means creating a new ISO image for CD/DVD, this is of course not remastering at all.

But, in my understanding, remastering means essentially recompressing a modified UNIONFS, possibly together with other modifications. That's what I and a few other users need, and provided the necessary boot files are present, copy/backup by the built-in Install Knoppix to flash disk can be used.

As for virtual machines, I have found qemu very useful for checking the remastering, but personally, I don't really need them when I don't modify minirt.gz. Nor have I ever needed a hard disk install for remastering. That was necessary to build a pure 64 bits Knoppix version in a straightforward way, but that's a different story.

[Werner P. Schulz]

But, in my understanding, remastering means essentially recompressing a modified UNIONFS, possibly together with other modifications.

You'll get all of this while using a remastered CD by my way with "Install KNOPPIX to flash disk"

The other method is "recombine"; but I don't like it and I tested it not very well. Modifing Knoppix in a real HD-installation is more versatile.

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD (Knoppix V6.7.1 remaster)

[Capricorny]

You'll get all of this while using a remastered CD by my way with "Install KNOPPIX to flash disk"

The other method is "recombine"; but I don't like it and I tested it not very well. Modifing Knoppix in a real HD-installation is more versatile.

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD (Knoppix V6.7.1 remaster)

That just points back to entirely different use situations. For my needs, I have yet to discover one single way modifying Knoppix in real HD install is more versatile than using Poor Man's Install (PMI) - my experience is rather to the contrary, which is also why I hesitate to create a 64-bits 6.7.1-version - I'll rather wait for the next release, to see if a pure 64-bits version can be made more easily from a PMI then.. I can't speak for you, and you clearly don't speak for me.

My major Knoppix use is not for testing, experimenting or rescue purposes, but as a workstation OS. Since 6.0, Knoppix has been the main OS version in my daily work. Therefore, CD versions are of little or no interest to me, and I don't really have to comply with the 4 GB limits either - I just find it practical to do that for now.

Normally I use at least 16 GB USB sticks, and I can hardly see any way syslinux/isolinux serves me better than legacy GRUB on those devices - on the contrary, I usually set up 3-4 partitions, and tailor different boot options for different Knoppix packages on the partitions. Which is very handy with legacy GRUB, and at the very least, I don't have to learn another booting tool well.

[vkrishn]

I may not be bit clear here, but does remastering mean considerable removal of installed application and install of new/other application, or just addition of few new applications onto existing knoppix system?

Knoppix does provide means to extend the existing system by adding additional cloop files in /KNOPPIX dir. I have used this method effectively (several updates) over existing 6.7.1 and in previous versions.
Some benefits of this method (only in case of USB installs):
1. Any new cloop file, example, compilation of forensic/networking applications can be shared separately, removing the hassle to download full DVD.
2. Even if a minor update is performed it can be added as cloop (though it would take more disk space), eg LibreOffice update.

The idea here is to build a set of downloadable/shareable cloop files, thus making Knoppix easy to update.
Example:
1. Cloop file for 6.7 to 6.7.1
2. Cloop extra networking tools for 6.7+ and so on...

Later, if needed it would not be very difficult for users to make a DVD version.

[Capricorny]

Yes, with the present DVD image size, in order to stick to the 4GB limit for cloop KNOPPIX, we have to remove programs to make room for substantial additions. (In my case, R, VMware Workstation and Oracle XE are the most important ones.) Instead of doing this, which is getting harder and harder to achieve while still keeping functionality intact, using the ability to chain cloop files can be very useful. I think that the main reason it has not been exploited more, is that it is kind of "third level" extension: First, the persistent store caters for most needs, second, creating a new primary cloop image suffices for most of the rest. I'm rather doubtful as to the usefulness of implementing version upgrades this way. Even within one release, it quickly becomes an hassle to keep it upgraded, and I guess this will be even worse across versions.