Remaster ISO does not work

[jep]

I am trying to follow the instructions at :

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/918

But when I selcect the chroot window, it opens a terminal and goes through a bunch of processes, and ends up with a new ISO the same as the one I tried to modify. Am I missing something ? I dont' see where I can remove any packages to reduce the image size to fit on a CD

[thegreatgazoo]

That tutorial is not the best, but you can trial and error your way through it eventually.

This really isn't a guide, just my notes I use to make my own remaster.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SyfVq7e5nw9BqOhzQ8piB9jK43ieubkFFOOY-4DGuv8/edit

let me know if I can assist with anything.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Now to answer your question
when you start the program, you are presented with a GUI where you select the original .iso file you want to work with.
You create a new project, then open a chroot winndow
In this terminal window you can install and remove programs just like you would on your installed linux system.
So for examaple, if you wanted to remove libreoffice to save space, you would type "apt-get remove libreoffice-base"
And to install, lets say gpodder, you would type " apt-get install gpodder"
If you do nothing at all in the chroot terminal and make a new .iso from your project, it will be exactly the same as it was when you started.
When you are done making your changes, type "exit" to get out of the chroot terminal and finish your project.

If you want, try out my remaster. I'm always eager to see what people think about it.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y79exkhs2m1gnyw/7qqmibXwKB

[chiefjim]

Are you really trying to fit all on a CD?

[thegreatgazoo]

Oh noooo. I'm trying to make a live.iso that is almost exactly to how I like my own computer (about 1.1Gb cd image). I don't like burning cd's anymore, and only burn them if I have to.
If you want to shrink down your own remaster following my notes, just ignore all the stuff about installing extra software and add/remove programs as you see fit.
I think removing Libreoffice and gimp will get you most of the way there. And also starting out with Mint XFCE edition would probably help too.
These are probably the only parts you need

1. Decompress the ISO:
Download Linux Mint 13 mate (this is what i used, so some of my instructions are mate specific)
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=103
Install the package "mintconstructor" from the repositories
Open a terminal and type:
sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintConstructor/mintConstructor.py
A mintconstructor window will open:
In the "Directory" field, choose a directory for the ISO.
Type the name of a new directory and the program will create it.
For example: /home/your_user_name/remaster/
Make sure to select the "New project" radio option
Click the browse button on the right of the "ISO file" field and point it to your ISO file
Click "Next" and then "Yes" to confirm.

2. Modify the system
All modifications are done via the mintconstructor chroot terminal. To access the content of the ISO and modify it, click on the "Open a chroot terminal" button.
In this chroot terminal, you can type commands, install and remove packages and this will have a direct impact on the ISO, its content and the content of the system which installs itself from the ISO to the Hard drive during the installation.

in the chrooted terminal perform “apt-get update” then “apt-get upgrade”

reboot (this is necessary, or the build will fail), then get back into the chrooted terminal.

note: I find it easier to do the following edits by opening a root file manager instead of using nano in the chroot terminal (but you can use nano in the chroot terminal if you wish). In mate, press “alt+f2” for the run command and run “gksu caja” So I’m typing the path that you would see in the file manager.

and

3. clean up
Once you're finished making modifications, make sure to clean up with the following commands in the mintconstructor chroot terminal:

aptitude purge ~c
aptitude unmarkauto ~M
apt-get clean
rm -rf /var/cache/debconf/*.dat-old
rm -rf /var/lib/aptitude/*.old
rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/*-old
rm -rf /var/cache/apt/*.bin
updatedb
history -c
rm /root/.bash_history
rm /root/.nano_history
history -c

4. Rebuild a new ISO
Close the chroot terminal
Click Next
Give your ISO a description (which will be embedded as the name of the CD or USB stick onto which the ISO is burnt)
Click Next
You can see the progress of the image being built in the terminal that you used to start mintconstructor.py. On my eeepc, it takes a little over an hour to finish.

note1: You can now burn the .iso to a disk or use unetbootin to run it from a usb drive.
note2: If the build fails, for example your .iso should be around 1GB in size.
If it is much smaller (like 200MB) then it failed.
Reboot your machine, then try the build again.

Just for fun, I'll try shrinking down Linux mint 13 Mate 32bit down to 700MB to see how it goes.
I think for sure starting out with the XFCE edition would be easier, but I just don't like XFCE that much.

Good Luck

[chiefjim]

I dont' see where I can remove any packages to reduce the image size to fit on a CD

Are you really trying to fit that on a CD?

[Detonate]

I have found ubuntu-builder to be much more user friendly and it works on Mint. It includes Synaptic to allow you choose what programs you want to remove or add from a familiar interface.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-builder

[thegreatgazoo]

I found a guide for ubuntu builder http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5450581/help/help.html#Step%201
It definitely looks interesting.
I picked mintconstructor because it's what the dev's use, and because I wanted to get more comfortable doing things in the terminal. Also, I was doing this an a eeepc, so the terminal just a better fit for me.
Whatever you pick, here is some more info

I ran a test remaster using mate and XFCE edition
On both I removed the following:
libreoffice*
openjdk*
icedtea*
gimp*
thunderbird*
banshe*

so on mate I went from 941MB down to 787MB
on XFCE I went from 850MB to 715MB

so with just a little bit more work, you can probably get it down to 700MB

[jep]

None of the methods listed I have found so far works. Here is the issue with the mint tool: It briefly flashes an xterm(I think) for chroot, but disappears. The message in the terminal has to do with /etc/resolv.conf and such. I manually created the file and ran dns-fix but no luck. I never get a proper chroot window.

None of the other tools (ubuntu-bulider, etc) works properly. When I run ubuntu builder and selec t the mint 13 64 bit iso, it says I need to run it on an amd 64 bit machine, which still does not work. I looked at the grub iso options and none of those work under ubuntu 10.04. what a mess, can this be so friggin hard?