On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 06:57:41PM +0000, T o n g wrote: > On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:34:56 -0500, Rob Owens wrote: > > >> . . . My ideal is of > >> course Debian and apt-get/deb. The Debian/xfce live cd is ok @ 400mb > >> but > >> I'd like to shrink it or keep it same size with my preferred > apps. . . . > >> > > I currently use Debian Live. I create my own images for USB using the > > live-helper scripts. > > @Rob, I'm interested in how you do that. I found that the Debian Live/ > live-helper manpage, web, & wiki are just way too unfriendly for me to > digest. > I also found the manual to be a little tough to follow sometimes. It's actually pretty straightforward.
Here's what you have to do. All of this is done as root. 1) aptitude install live-helper 1a) optional, but recommended: Get the latest live-helper from testing. The boot menu is improved in this version. http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/live-helper/download 2) You will now have a directory called /usr/share/live-helper/lists. These are pre-configured package lists. You can create your own customized one and put it in this directory (I'll pretend you've called it "mylist"). 3) mkdir live1 4) cd live1 5) lh_clean 6) Do either 6a or 6b: 6a) Configure live-helper to make an image suitable for USB on an i386 type machine, using the "lxde" package list: lh_config -a i386 -b usb-hdd -p lxde 6b) Configure live-helper to make an image suitable for USB on an i386 type machine, using the "mylist" package list, which will not automatically log in a user (it will stop at GDM or whatever login manager you have installed), is persistent by default, and has a hostname of "mylivedebian": lh_config -a i386 -b usb-hdd -p mylist --bootappend-live "noautologin noxautologin persistent" --hostname mylivedebian 7) lh_build 8) wait a while 9) With your USB drive inserted and not mounted: (replace "X" with the proper letter for your device) dd if=binary.img of=/dev/sdX 10) Create a partition for persistence in the extra space on your USB drive: fdisk /dev/sdX p (print the existing partition layout) n (new partition) p (primary partition) 2 (partition #2) enter (accept default start of partition) enter (accept default to use all remaining space on the device) w (write the partition table) 11) Create a filesystem for the peristence partition: mkfs.ext2 -L live-rw /dev/sdX2 (the label of "live-rw" is important!) 12) Boot from your USB stick! 13) Add users, customize the system, install software, etc. I like to give myself sudo rights and take sudo rights away from the user "live". -Rob -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org