SOLVED Need "how to" video how to create respin

thriftee · posted: 2016-09-12 12:17

Is there a"how to" video of some sort showing how to use virtualbox to manage creating your own flavor of antiX?

I'm trying to understand the sequence that I would need to do things, Not sure I have this right, but starting from

1. booting the antiX16 cd
2. install anitix16 to hard drive
3.. download and install jessie version of virtualbox on antix16
4. booting the iso under virtualbox selecting persistence
5. making changes
6. save changes
7. remaster? or snapshot?
8. boot from new system

I guess I need the ability to save my user info if the respin is for me to use, or not, if its for me to give someone

If no such video exists, maybe its better to ask what the developers use if no how to is available.?

I learn a lot here... Thanks for helping...

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2016-09-12 13:04

1. booting the antiX16 cd
2. install anitix16 to hard drive
3.. download and install jessie version of virtualbox on antix16

looks ok so far

4. booting the iso under virtualbox selecting persistence

booting the iso is still readonly, like a CD. personally if I was making a custom setup in VB (and I do, several in fact), I would do a full install in VB, then make changes, then use iso-snapshot to make a new iso.

There are advantages. If you keep the VB, you can then keep changes up to date and run a new snapshot periodically.

skidoo · posted: 2016-09-12 19:57

thriftee, you may not"need" to involve virtualbox in the process.
Have you checked out /usr/bin/isosnapshot yet?
If not, you should. It leads you by the hand, walks you through the process, lets you decide"include my personal stuff (or not)".

You can, optionally, specify granular rules governing which paths will be excluded (ignored) by isosnapshot.
Even if you don't wish to add to, or change, the default rules it will be enlightening for you to inspect
sudo leafpad /usr/local/share/excludes/iso-snapshot-exclude.list
sudo leafpad /usr/local/share/excludes/general-remaster-exclude.list
sudo leafpad /etc/iso-snapshot.conf
A separate tool,"antix2usb" ( /usr/local/bin/antix2usb.sh ( or /usr/local/bin/antix2usb.py )
creates a bootable pendrive using the iso generated by isosnapshot.

I guess I need the ability to save my user info if the respin is for me to use, or not, if its for me to give someone

virtualbox could be useful in the scenario where you intend to perform additional customization, like
"I want deadbeef, quiterss, qupzilla etc. to be present in the respin, but those aren't currently installed on my system".
Personally, to achieve that result, I would probably boot a fresh antix pendrive and add/remove stuffs, then run"live-remaster".

maybe its better to ask what the developers use

AFAIK, the devs are using their custom tool called"build-iso"
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://github.com/antiX-Linux/Build-iso"
linktext was:"https://github.com/antiX-Linux/Build-iso"
====================================

For your goal, using that (learning howto install and configure it) is probably overkill.
I'm only mentioning it here because you expressed an interest in"learning about the process".

As for this specific question:

Is there a"how to" video of some sort showing how to use virtualbox to manage creating your own flavor of antiX?

The end-user tools (live-remaster, isosnapshot) don't require use of virtualbox.
Idunno, offhand, whether a video walkthrough exists for these tools. Try 'em ~~ they're GUI apps, pretty straightforward, self-explanatory.

BitJam · posted: 2016-09-13 00:06

It is usually much easier to use a live-usb to create your own customized system. Create a live-usb with a tool like unetbootin or antix2usb. Boot the live-usb and customize the system however you want and then run live-remaster. The remaster will be completed when you reboot the live-usb. Done. You can run this live-usb or install from it. If you want to distribute your customized systems to others then use isosnapshot.

I suggest you start out using live-remaster because it is so easy to check if the system is just what you want it to be. Then when you are sure it is what you want, use isosnapshot to make an iso file (if needed).

thriftee · posted: 2016-09-16 12:56

Thanks for the replies....

One other small question. How do I add an icon to the desktop to run a program, like Ceni, for example?

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2016-09-16 13:56

thriftee wrote:Thanks for the replies....

One other small question. How do I add an icon to the desktop to run a program, like Ceni, for example?

if you are using rox-desktop, drag the .desktop file of choice from /usr/share/applications onto the desktop. A link will be created.

If you are using spacefm-desktop, its the same, but make sure to COPY the .desktop file to the desktop instead of move it (I think copy is the default if you are doing the copying as a regular user).

BitJam · posted: 2016-09-16 14:03

thriftee wrote:One other small question. How do I add an icon to the desktop to run a program, like Ceni, for example?

The answer differs depending on whether you are using rox or spacefm to deal with the icons. IMO adding icons is easier with spacefm. So make sure your desktop code starts with"space-" (as seen in the conky window, for example). Use the desktop -->"other desktops" menu to switch to one that starts with"space-".

Then just copy the .desktop file you want to add to your ~/Desktop/ directory as in:

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cp /usr/share/applications/ceni.desktop ~/Desktop

thriftee · posted: 2016-09-24 08:32

I'm doing reasonably well with this. So I created a USB to boot from and booted it with persistence-all, Spacefm-Icewm, which is my fav combo for antiX. I do have some good news, in that my employer said it would be ok to boot their machine from the flashdrive if I'm careful not to access the hard disk. I'll get it working on my junker pcs first...

A couple minor problems

On one laptop I need to do a modprobe b43 to get wifi running. I'm guessing I could control it based on some kind of grep against the output of lspci looking at network cards? Does anyone have any sample script code I could use as a basis? Where would I put that code?

How do I add something to the menu correctly?: I installed xdemineur which is a version of the minesweeper game that takes less than 100k of space, but when I installed it, the install didn't add it on the menu. I went to the menu manager.program and changed it to"show" but it still doesn't appear.

Is there a"File Find" that would allow me to search for files and display the results in a window like a spacefm or rox-filer tab that would display an icon thumbnail instead of text?

Again, thanks, its doing pretty well...

Shay · posted: 2016-09-24 13:55

On one laptop I need to do a modprobe b43 to get wifi running.

Make a new stick and use that laptop as the initial persistent computer.

Where I learned that.
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6377&hilit=b43

thriftee

Shay, I think I created it on this machine, but I'm not entirely sure. I have 3 different models of laptops I plan to use it for as well as 3 different desktops, so my intent was to come up with a way that it could boot up and run from any of them by having a script that would identify which setup to use, and having it set a variable that other programs could check and use to decide what to do. That was why I asked how to control it in a script, and where to put that script code.

I see that I have a file called / etc /modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf that was created last year, way before my install,and it contains:

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# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b44
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist ssb

I'm not sure why that code is there, as I don't know what wl is, but know that as soon as I do a modprobe b43 on this machine, that wireless starts working. Again, I ask, how can I control it to not run that blacklist b43 line based on looking at the output of a program like lspci, or some other kosher method if a better one exists, that I could use to handle wifi differently on each of the 6 machines if necessary.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2016-09-24 19:33

thriftee wrote:Shay, I think I created it on this machine, but I'm not entirely sure. I have 3 different models of laptops I plan to use it for as well as 3 different desktops, so my intent was to come up with a way that it could boot up and run from any of them by having a script that would identify which setup to use, and having it set a variable that other programs could check and use to decide what to do. That was why I asked how to control it in a script, and where to put that script code.

I see that I have a file called / etc /modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf that was created last year, way before my install,and it contains:
Code: Select all
# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b44
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist ssb
I'm not sure why that code is there, as I don't know what wl is, but know that as soon as I do a modprobe b43 on this machine, that wireless starts working. Again, I ask, how can I control it to not run that blacklist b43 line based on looking at the output of a program like lspci, or some other kosher method if a better one exists, that I could use to handle wifi differently on each of the 6 machines if necessary.

that file, / etc /modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf, is created by the broadcom-sta-dkms package, which now ships with antiX-16 and creates the wl proprietary broadcom driver. We have a detection script that runs at boot on the live system which determines which broadcom driver to use. Its not perfect, but its pretty good.

THe main issue is that on a live-persistence system, the script only actually runs one, and a checkfile is generated in / etc called bcm-ckd.

You could exclude / etc/bcm-ckd from the persistence save system, so that the script will run every boot and try to guess the appropriate broadcom driver to use for the hardware given. I think a link to the excludes files is available in the control center.

However, if you wish to always use the opensource b43 driver, you can just comment out all those blacklist entries, add an entry to blacklist wl, and reboot. You should then be good to go. If a broadcom part is detected, the opensource drivers will be used.

Shay · posted: 2016-09-24 21:07

As this laptop is the only one that uses Broadcom.
This D 630 is the one I used to make it persistent

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# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
#blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b44
#blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
#blacklist ssb
blacklist wl

And I have been able to boot the persistent stick in all other laptops/computers.

thriftee · posted: 2016-09-25 18:27

I changed the file to as shay has it just above, but still can't connect without going to termial, su to root, and modprobe b43.

If I could at least automate that, it would be good enough

Anyone know how I can automate it?

thriftee · posted: 2016-10-22 18:57

Bitjam's answer worked. I made a USB and run it with full persistance live from the USB and have it so it works from 4 different laptops.

I never did figure out how to get the network running without manually doing the modprobe b43 as root from terminal on that laptop, but it works fine after that.

BitJam · posted: 2016-10-22 19:26

thriftee wrote:I never did figure out how to get the network running without manually doing the modprobe b43 as root from terminal on that laptop, but it works fine after that.

On that laptop, as root, edit the file /etc/modules and add a line that contains"b43".

If that module should only be loaded on that laptop and not on the others then as root edit the file /live/boot-dev/antiX/state/machine-state-files and add a line that contains"/etc/modules". This should allow that file to be different on every machine you run on. This feature has not be extensively tested so there may be some hiccups.

In antiX-16, normal users no longer have read access to files under /live. What I do is open a terminal window then become root and then edit the file. Something like:

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sudo su -
leafpad /live/boot-dev/antiX/state/machine-state-files

That way I can use tab completion.

I will add /etc/modules to the default list of machine-state-files.