Distro hopping

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samriggs

Re: Distro hopping

Post by samriggs »

Lucap wrote:Can both Arch and Manjaro be converted to an ISO or is it Manjaro only?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Re ... nstall_ISO
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/archiso
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fu ... with_rsync

might help
Sam
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Lucap
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Lucap »

BAH! :(

So there isn't a simple 1 click option like Refracta tools.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Lucap »

How To use ManjaroISO to Create your Own Linux Distro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89TsITpY3h0

The tutorial alone is 30mins. :shock:
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Arch_Enemy
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Lucap wrote:Can both Arch and Manjaro be converted to an ISO or is it Manjaro only?

You can do Arch, but it is a long, convoluted process. There is a utility to help you, but it's more like a Futility. (an FU-tility???) You can't just covert Arch-based installations. You have to basically build a new system in a chroot, and then a package utility reads what you want for packages, and then downloads them and installs them into the new chroot. IF that completes then it starts building the ISO. I have yet to have one or the other complete successfully, but I also load my system up with old, familiar software, so usually it bombs out on package installation. I actually got through that the other day,for the very first time, but it bombed making the ISO.

This: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=688872 works on Mint, but I did have a couple issues with Mint 18. Nothing too drastic, but it works great with 17.x. Once you've done it it takes less than a half an hour.
I always wanted to see if I could get Arch to heel. I'm the one doing the heeling... :?
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Lucap wrote:How To use ManjaroISO to Create your Own Linux Distro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89TsITpY3h0

The tutorial alone is 30mins. :shock:
Ya, tried that, too...

There was a guy that made an Arch installer called Evo/Lution that made installing Arch as easy as installing Mint, but the Arch admins and community ganged up on him and he's removed all copies everywhere. He came up with a set of scripts that I used the other day. They are set up for Arch, and Manjaro is slightly different, but after a couple teething problems it built the system and installed ALL my packages, even the ones from AUR! But it puked making the ISO.

The latest Manjaro tools has a bug in grub, it builds a directory called ...../grub/themes/-live but the script is looking for /Manjaro-live so it bombs. I can't find the script so I sat there and waited for it to build the directory and then rename it. It all went well until building the ISO.

I am in the process of rebuilding the system to what I had so I can try again. I guess just to say I did it...really, I have a Mint 17.x ISO that works great.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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samriggs

Re: Distro hopping

Post by samriggs »

Arch_Enemy wrote: There was a guy that made an Arch installer called Evo/Lution that made installing Arch as easy as installing Mint, but the Arch admins and community ganged up on him and he's removed all copies everywhere. He came up with a set of scripts that I used the other day.
here is the link for this one: https://sourceforge.net/projects/evolutionlinux/

not like the original at all, haven't tried it but I did use the orginal one when it was out once.

Also here is Jeff's way of backing up the system with how to and his script he uses.
https://sites.google.com/site/evolution ... up-w-rsync
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Lucap »

Well that sucks........

I can't understand why they have to make it so complex , with anything debian based you just install Refracta Tools and with a couple of clicks it spits out a hybrid ISO of your install exactly as it is on your drive including anything you might have forgot to remove like junk in the temp folder.

Thanks Both.
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Faust

Re: Distro hopping

Post by Faust »

I do most of my "road-testing" of distros on a multiboot USB stick .
I was using YUMI until I discovered the great Linux MultiSystem tool , thanks to this forum :)
https://www.unixmen.com/create-multiboo ... ltisystem/

Anything that looks worth longer testing , I install in VirtualBox

I just checked my current collection , and I've got Manjaro , Subgraph , Bodhi , Zorin and Archbang ,
on a 16 GB USB stick , and they all boot and run fine .

I can't understand why Manjaro live would be problematic , but I can see that Arch could be a real headache .
I added Archbang as a way of checking out that Arch "flavor " , and it also runs well live on USB .
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

samriggs wrote:
Arch_Enemy wrote: There was a guy that made an Arch installer called Evo/Lution that made installing Arch as easy as installing Mint, but the Arch admins and community ganged up on him and he's removed all copies everywhere. He came up with a set of scripts that I used the other day.
here is the link for this one: https://sourceforge.net/projects/evolutionlinux/

not like the original at all, haven't tried it but I did use the orginal one when it was out once.

Also here is Jeff's way of backing up the system with how to and his script he uses.
https://sites.google.com/site/evolution ... up-w-rsync
Thanks for the links. Evo/Lution installer is gone, but I have copy. It didn't work, but I may have not upgraded everything before I started.

THe new site is an ISO builder. I was running Manjaro and had issues, never got it to complete. It even started building the ISO and bombed.
I've tried Arch Anywhere. Nice, smooth installation! Mouse would not click on anything. Everything was there, command line worked, X worked but without a mouse X is a brick. Even tabbing around didn't work. Tried reinstallin X and xinput...NG. Also would not load the default kernel (LTS). Regular kernel worked, but no joy. :(
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Faust wrote:I do most of my "road-testing" of distros on a multiboot USB stick .
I was using YUMI until I discovered the great Linux MultiSystem tool , thanks to this forum :)
https://www.unixmen.com/create-multiboo ... ltisystem/

I can't understand why Manjaro live would be problematic , but I can see that Arch could be a real headache .
I added Archbang as a way of checking out that Arch "flavor " , and it also runs well live on USB .

I have a directory called ISOs LOADED with different new, shiny things. Notice I am posting using Mint...:)

I have a few on USB, and Manjaro works. I'm trying to copy my installation with all my installed stuff to a new remasterd ISO People have done it, I know... :cry:
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Lucap
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Lucap »

Have you asked on the Arch/Manjaro forums if there is a more simplistic way of making a Snapshot ISO as it seems overly complex.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Lucap wrote:Have you asked on the Arch/Manjaro forums if there is a more simplistic way of making a Snapshot ISO as it seems overly complex.

I follow the Wiki (try to) and when I run into issues I peruse the forums. A lot of people are having issues as well. Ievery time it bombs I look at the error and edit the script and get about 5 steps further. It created the directory structure, loaded the "official" software and even the AUR (PPA) stuff, but bombs making the ISO.

I loaded Arch Arch and will try again. At this point it's just to see if I can do it.

Making a Mint ISO is SOOOOO much easier!
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Faust

Re: Distro hopping

Post by Faust »

@Arch_Enemy

When you succeed ( and I'm sure you will ) please post back and let us know what steps you took .

I'd like to have a go myself ..... thanks !
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Lucap »

That should take him awhile to type out unless he does a video tutorial. :)
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Lucap wrote:That should take him awhile to type out unless he does a video tutorial. :)
<SNERK!>

It's been...four days? I have a working ISO...no gui. I found the magic bullet to make a GUI and now it blows up creating the ISO... :(

No video. I have barely the patience to make the ISO, let alone a video of it. But I borrowed Jeff's (the guy who came up with the EVO installer) scripts and massaged them so they work, and was able to get a couple good ISOs...command line only.

It took ~4 hours the first time I made a Mint ISO, and once I understood it it now takes ~40 minutes, and most of that is building the squashfs, creating the ISO and putting it on a USB...

After all this, I reall AM becoming an "Arch enemy". Whew...

BTW, I was a Dell Factory Rep, but that was hardware only. I can rip a laptop apart and put it back together in 40 mins...20 minutes if it's a D600...

programming...ugh. Gives me headaches and then your computer will never be the same...:D
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Faust wrote:@Arch_Enemy

When you succeed ( and I'm sure you will ) please post back and let us know what steps you took .

I'd like to have a go myself ..... thanks !
If I ever get a GUI copy working I'll posts the scripts I'm using. Nearly there...

I'm like a pitbull with a chew toy. Don't try to take it away from me, but when I'm done with it, you can have it. Keep it...;)

Now it's to the point I just want to do it to do it. I dunno what the guys at Arch have done, but I run MATE and the menu bar/panel crashes, GDM doesn't like a mouse (after installing the nVidia drivers) and a few other quirks. I used to install it, cutomized the look and feel and have a sweet OS...until that 5th update...;)
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Faust

Re: Distro hopping

Post by Faust »

Arch_Enemy wrote: It took ~4 hours the first time I made a Mint ISO, and once I understood it it now takes ~40 minutes, and most of that is building the squashfs, creating the ISO and putting it on a USB...
That still seems like a whole heap of work just to get a working bootable Mint ISO !!
Arch_Enemy wrote: I'm like a pitbull with a chew toy. Don't try to take it away from me, but when I'm done with it, you can have it. Keep it...;)
I know that feeling , all too well !

But I'm still keen to see the results , once you're done chewing of course :)
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Faust wrote: That still seems like a whole heap of work just to get a working bootable Mint ISO !!
I know that feeling , all too well !
But I'm still keen to see the results , once you're done chewing of course :)
It's on Ubuntu's forum, you basically copy and paste and you have an ISO of your complete installation. Good thing if you ever blow out the installation on your hard drive.
Just copy and paste the commands into a terminal and it's all done as if by magic.

That does not work with Arch. And Arch is the one you REALLY need to be able to copy so that when it DOES blow it's brains out you can reinstall quickly! ;)

I'm not impressed with the latest Arch release. Buggy as all get out.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

Faust wrote:
But I'm still keen to see the results , once you're done chewing of course :)
Oops...I did an update. :(

No more login manager, no more GUI...I love Arch.

Aha....but I took my MINT USB/ISO and booted that (main reason I made it), got all my package files and config files from the hard drive and put them on another USB stick, used Revenge installer and reloaded, did some quick reading in the Arch wiki, used my pkglist.txts and pacman -U - <pkglist.txt and had everything installed, copied my .config files from the USB to my home directory, and in a little over an hour and a half had my whole system reinstalled. :D I also saved all the scripts used to create the ISO so we'll have another go at it later.

At least now I know when Arch blows it's brains out I can have everything reinstalled quickly. A couple things had 'teething' issues but reinstalling them using pacman returned everything to normal. Still not very pleased with Arch overall, though. Harder to build a stable system than it was before.
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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Re: Distro hopping

Post by Arch_Enemy »

https://youtu.be/jt6FVgyJFTg?t=2786

It's all fun and games until someone loses his mind...
I have travelled 37629424162.9 miles in my lifetime

One thing I would suggest, create a partition as a 50G partition as /. Partition the rest as /Home. IF the system fails, reinstall and use the exact same username and all your 'stuff' comes back to you.
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