I am new to grml and I hope someone would be able to help me on this topic.
I am running grml off a USB stick with a persistent home. I am using a number of packages not available in grml so I put these in a "debs" directory on the root of my live partition (showing up under /live/image/debs) and use the debs boot option. This works fine and all these packages gets installed when I boot.
Problem 1: Adding another package to the "debs" directory Since the /live/image tree is mounted read-only I cannot add/remove any .deb files in the "debs" directory. What I do now is that I boot some other system than by USB booted grml system; mounts the USB stick and copy/remove files to/from the "debs" directory; boot from the USB stick. I would like to be able to do this without having to start some other system, but do this in the system booted from the USB stick. Is there a method that would allow me to do that.
Problem 2: Avoid installation at boot The above method (putting .deb files in the "debs" directory) is very useful for finding out the packages you need to have. Once you know what packages you would need than you would be better off with a method that would not require you to install the packages on each boot, but that these packages came pre-installed. A natural way would be to either add these packages to the live system package set somehow. As I can see the live system consist of a squashfs file and a file that points out the name of this file. Is there a way to either extend the existing squashfs file or to add some additional squashfs (or other fs-type) file that will be mounted along the original squashfs file?
Kind Regards
/Lars
* Lars-Erik Helander lehswe@gmail.com [20090308 12:40]:
Problem 1: Adding another package to the "debs" directory Since the /live/image tree is mounted read-only I cannot add/remove any .deb files in the "debs" directory.
[...]
Is there a method that would allow me to do that.
mount -o remount,rw /live/image
:)
Problem 2: Avoid installation at boot The above method (putting .deb files in the "debs" directory) is very useful for finding out the packages you need to have. Once you know what packages you would need than you would be better off with a method that would not require you to install the packages on each boot, but that these packages came pre-installed. A natural way would be to either add these packages to the live system package set somehow. As I can see the live system consist of a squashfs file and a file that points out the name of this file. Is there a way to either extend the existing squashfs file or to add some additional squashfs (or other fs-type) file that will be mounted along the original squashfs file?
Persistent-root is a feature on our current roadmap. You can play with it already using live-snapshot (which is part of the 2008.11 release): http://live.debian.net/manual/html/persistence.html
regards, -mika-
Hi Mika and thank you very much for your response.
The remount method looks like a nice and simple solution :)
Regarding the persistence solution, I think I would rather like to have a solution where the installed packages are not forced to be loaded into main memory - as I understand that the live-snapshot would do, or ...? Do grml have some toolchain that will allow me to either add stuff to an existing squashfs or have the system "union mount" additional squashfs files?
While I am asking, here is another question: I would like to add a few lines to the file /etc/security/limits.conf in a way that these lines are part of the file at the point in time when the file is first accessed during boot. Shall I produce a config (config.tbz) that contains my version of the file or should I add a script that gets executed during boogt and that will add the lines to the file? Any details on how to do this in the preferred way are most welcome :)
Kind regards
/Lars
2009/3/8 Michael Prokop mika@grml.org:
- Lars-Erik Helander lehswe@gmail.com [20090308 12:40]:
Problem 1: Adding another package to the "debs" directory Since the /live/image tree is mounted read-only I cannot add/remove any .deb files in the "debs" directory.
[...]
Is there a method that would allow me to do that.
mount -o remount,rw /live/image
:)
Problem 2: Avoid installation at boot The above method (putting .deb files in the "debs" directory) is very useful for finding out the packages you need to have. Once you know what packages you would need than you would be better off with a method that would not require you to install the packages on each boot, but that these packages came pre-installed. A natural way would be to either add these packages to the live system package set somehow. As I can see the live system consist of a squashfs file and a file that points out the name of this file. Is there a way to either extend the existing squashfs file or to add some additional squashfs (or other fs-type) file that will be mounted along the original squashfs file?
Persistent-root is a feature on our current roadmap. You can play with it already using live-snapshot (which is part of the 2008.11 release): http://live.debian.net/manual/html/persistence.html
regards,
-mika-
http://grml.org/ # Linux for texttool-users and sysadmins http://wiki.grml.org/ # share your knowledge http://grml.supersized.org/ # the grml development weblog #grml @ irc.freenode.org # meet us on irc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFJs8d92N9T+zficugRAlDTAJwKEqQzJKBmSYXgbKJXrA8rY6ceygCggPk1 ZP2zagJkYEHjKZeME56S8Xg= =gYBz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Grml mailing list - Grml@mur.at http://lists.mur.at/mailman/listinfo/grml join #grml on irc.freenode.org grml-devel-blog: http://grml.supersized.org/
On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:32:01 +0100, Lars-Erik Helander wrote:
Regarding the persistence solution, I think I would rather like to have a solution where the installed packages are not forced to be loaded into main memory - as I understand that the live-snapshot would do, or ...? Do grml have some toolchain that will allow me to either add stuff to an existing squashfs or have the system "union mount" additional squashfs files?
Yes, the "layered module architecture" feature is actually provided by live-initramfs itself. Check out it man pages, it is trivial to add layered module as you wish.
So far, I have just been putting the modules that I build for slax on top of grml, about 7 layered modules on top of grml. It works perfectly, but they are all my home, text or script files though. I.e., no debian packages involved in the layered modules yet. Ref http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue523
Moreover, I've build a standalone script (by patching live-initramfs) to give users the ability to insert modules into live system on the fly, and/ or remove them as well. I.e., anding/removing layered modules does not have to be on boot only, but can also happen any time. Ref: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.live/4464/focus=4579
I've send the patches to mika, but hasn't get around to check the latest availability status yet. Ref: http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue650
cheers
Teilnehmer (3)
-
Lars-Erik Helander -
Michael Prokop -
T o n g