[Solved] Create custom live USB?

[CoryD]

Hello all.

Just wondering if I can create a live USB from my current setup of mint 11. Basically all my settings and basic programs moved to a live usb so I can take my PC with me wherever I go (and I believe I can make changes to this such as add programs etc. right?). I've tried to find remastersys to create the iso but it dosent look like its available anymore. Is it even possable to do this? How would you go about it?

Thanks,
-Cory

[xenopeek]

Remastersys has been abandoned? That is quite newsworthy in itself, as people keep recommending it on the forums almost daily.

Quick search shows it has been forked as relinux / "re-linux": http://re-linux.sourceforge.net/

A list of other remastering software for Linux: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _utilities

[CoryD]

Yeah I cant seem to find it anywhere... Ill try relinux and see what happens...

[Elisa]

As for remastersys, look here !

[CoryD]

Nice, thanks!

[CoryD]

It worked but I cant install any software after I created the live usb... is there any way around this? Sorry Im a linux newb.

[istrandi]

Have you run out of room on the memory stick? (had to ask)

Also, did you enable persistance, through unetbootin (or whatever program you used) when you installed it?

[CoryD]

Plenty of room on the USB drive... but Im not seeing an option for persistence. I did find this on another forum tho:

Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyCee
Very smooth, very cool.

Is there any way to make it persistent?
Go to http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/diskimg/ and download one of the files (128mb.zip, 256mb.zip, or 512mb.zip) corresponding to the amount of persistent space you want (make sure the size of the persistent disk image is smaller than the free space you have on your USB drive).

Now extract the file "casper.rw" from the zip file to your USB drive.

Now edit D:\syslinux.cfg (assuming D:\ is where your USB drive is) and add in "persistent" at the end of the line that begins with "append", and save the file, so your syslinux.cfg should look something like this:

Code:
default unetbootin
label unetbootin
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash persistent --
For more info see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence

Is that what you're talking about?

[istrandi]

what you quoted should do the trick... but it should be an option by default?

at least... it is on the mac version. I'll go check the linux one now

Edit: It is not an option on linux... wow xD

but it is on windows if you have a copy lying around.

[CoryD]

K, sorry Ive been away for a while... I was able to create the live USB but software manager dosent show packages that are not installed and when I try to run apt-get update (or anything like that) it says unable to resolve host (then a localhost name). Also chrome will no longer work and gives a similar message. Any ideas?

[istrandi]

Cory - I'd open a new thread about that problem. And mark this thread as solved.

[CoryD]

I dont think it is solved... I still cant remove programs from the live USB and this user confusion... something went wrong, Ill try it again and see what happens... maybe I missed an error message or something.

[istrandi]

sounds like the live usb's having problems connecting to the net... does firefox work?

[sagirfahmid3]

I dont think it is solved... I still cant remove programs from the live USB and this user confusion... something went wrong, Ill try it again and see what happens... maybe I missed an error message or something.

I see that a clarification is in need.
First, the "casper-rw" file is fully re-writable (that's why its called casper-{re-writable}) meaning that you can install and un-install any programs that you STORE ON THE CASPER-RW FILE. However, the "squashfs" file is a READ-ONLY file (it's called squash=compressed and fs=filesystem), therefore you cannot un-install any programs STORED ON THE SQUASHFS FILE. The squashfs file is where your custom Mint is stored--when you boot it from a flashdrive, that's the image that it loads on the computer, and casper-rw is the file (or partition) where programs that get installed manually go into.

Note: When you un-install or delete anything from squashfs, it really doesn't get deleted, it just looks like it did but it saves that in your casper-rw file. Therefore, it's not a good idea to un-install or delete anything that is already on your custom Mint since it wont make a difference--actually making things worse because the casper-rw file will store the information that you want the computer to "hide" (it will not delete programs on the squashfs file) the deleted files. It is fine to delete programs which you have installed on the persistence (casper-rw) file though.

There are ways to edit the squashfs file but believe me, its difficult for a Linux noob to do this without having trouble (I am a noob myself, and I tried editing it, but failed).
Instead of downloading these ridiculous 512mb persistence files, there is a much faster way.

1.Go to Computer>Your flashdrive>delete the "casper-rw" file
2.Open GParted from your main computer, NOT THE USB! (if you don't have it installed, download it from software manager)
3.On the top right corner, click on the drop down menu, select your USB flash drive (look at the sizes)
4.Right click on the partition and click "un-mount"
5.Right click on the un-mounted partition and click "resize/move"
6.Resize it so that the first partition has no extra space; it is for containing the Mint image
7.Do you see the gray space? Right click on it and select "new partition" or "new"
8.Make the new partition an "ext2" partition, and label it "casper-rw" and click ok
9.Click on "apply" at the top of GParted (it looks like a checkmark)
10.Wait patiently for it to finish, and you are done! Easy peasy

The partitions should look something like the image below (minus the one extra partition which I made for my windows applications). You should have 2 partitions in total, but you can make some more if you want to separate your files from one another, or want windows to recognize a partition.

Screenshot.png

Sooo, yeah....hope that helps you out.

[istrandi]

Another option if you *do* want to strip programs out, is to strip them off a live cd, produce an iso using relinux or remasterys, and then burn the new image to a USB...

BTW, thats great that there's a gui method for producing casper-rw files... never knew that.

[sagirfahmid3]

BTW, thats great that there's a gui method for producing casper-rw files... never knew that.

Huh? You're talking about GParted?

Yeah, partitioning is much better than making a persistence "file" using USB-creator; much faster and better using GParted. Good because Windows cannot recognize ext2 partitions by default, and also because its less likely to be deleted if it's on a separate partition. Delete the casper-rw "file", and WHAM! there goes all your programs and files down the drain; so you see, partition is better than file.

[istrandi]

And yeah - I am talking about using gparted - never knew you could do that instead...

Then again, i do prefer the command line mostly...

[CoryD]

Cool, some nice tips and tricks for my next attempt. And yes, clarification was needed on my part ... thanks again guys. I think I just needed to be more selective about which programs I put into the squashfs... If/when I give this another go ill post results... for now Ill call it solved.