McWeeney/SU-OpenCD3

SU-OpenCD3 here

Remastering

Update before the meeting...

• I found a HOWTO on the Ubuntu;" https://wiki.ubuntu.com//LiveCDCustomizationHowTo" site that I hope to follow to add the installer packages.

• Gnoppix show Morphix-Installer;" http://source.rfc822.org/pub/local/gnoppix/gnoppix/installer/" is on their site for download to do the job. The tarballs looks to have all the requirements in one place, just getting time to try it out. Failing that...

• I notice that SkoleLinux;" http://www.skolelinux.org/" do a UnionFS kernel on a small bootCD which I could use to merge the CLOOPs with a stripped down 'Beatrix' possibly, giving preference to files on the Open CD. That's what UnionFS;" http://www.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/project-unionfs.html" is for.

• I did a test mount using UnionFS;" http://www.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/project-unionfs.html" and it should make the remastering job much easier than otherwise would be possible.

In my travels I found...

• A list of LiveCDs;" http://www.livedistro.org/node?from=200&PHPSESSID=1a5220fb1db0a2e1d590f49df1212f9a"

All of a sudden, it seems a much smaller task than I previously thought.

Feedback and testing is still needed

Just so we can show off TheOpenCD3 properly, (that IS the consensus, isn't it?) I'm suggesting we concentrate on these areas.

* === Hard Disk Installer ===

* === Tweak Locale ===

* === Shove organisationally beneficial bookmarks into Firefox ===

* === Make the default Firefox page, our CD instructions ===

Hard Disk Installer

Let's face it, it's much easier to impress people with software running on proper hardware. CD Demos always cause apologies and explanations. Let's show them how cool it really is.

Here's where I've gotten to and what it means...

First set of instructions was

First, get the following files from a Gnoppix Mirror

* gengrubmenu2_0.1-3_all.deb

* os-prober_0.1-1_all.deb

* morphixinstaller_0.2-13.1_i386.deb

Next, install them (It's ok to 'force' because the objection is to 'pivot_root', but pivot_root is already in /sbin. Nice! So, boot the CD, make these downloads available on the filesystem, go to that place and...

$ sudo dpkg -i --force-all ls *.deb

$ sudo chmod g+x which morphixinstaller

I suspect this is an unnecessary step because we sudo it anyway in the launcherearly there, I put a launcher on the Desktop with the Synaptic pixmap. 'Cat'ting the result of the "Hard Disk Installation" icon shows what's below.

Doubleclicking on it will install to hard disk.

== But it didn't do GRUB properly, so... ===

corrections:

Revised instructions (see problem below)

* morphixinstaller_0.5-6_i386.deb

* os-prober

* gengrubmenu2 (Got off net, probably on HoaryCD as well

* grub (Hoary CD)

* grub-installer (HoaryCD)

* pivotroot (can't remember where I got it, net I think, probably Hoary)

OK -what I THOUGHT was causing the installer to segfault with the last instructions was permissions on some file or other (Or the absense of pivot_root). Interestingly with all of the above, I STILL segfaulted on the partitioning stage. I THINK the reason was that no partition had been created. I created a 2gb ntfs and left the rest free. This confused morphixinstaller under both sets of instructions.

The spare PC is loading fine now (Oh, just finished, loading, congratulating, rebooting). Looks like instructions set one MAY have worked only for my disk layout. Dammit, grub didn't setup right...

Outstanding tasks

Help would be gratefully appreciated. What I THINK is wrong is that there is no GRUB CONFIG script included, what on earth is gengrubmenu2 thinking of. Debugging help welcome, maybe one of the other versions get's off it's cakehole and does the job properly. Maybe someone could tweak the repositories and apt-get the REAL Morphix installer which looks like it will work. We're agonisingly close.

Tweak Locale

We know where we live. It would be nice to have the CD boot into en_IE@EURO with ga_IE (if that's what they call it, available). I know we're not using Slackware, but Slax website has a very useful 'editiso.sh' script that's worth a whirl.

Shove organisationally beneficial bookmarks into Firefox

If someone has far too much time on their hands, maybe we should use our IFSO bookmarks as a template and tweak it to make it IFSO-friendly!

The time is in compiling the bookmarks.html file. Dropping it where firefox will pick it up is simple.

Make the default Firefox page, our CD instructions

If I knew the CD would have these modifications sorted out, I'd happily put together something by way of documentation (including a printable version), because people will want something by way of paper based instructions. I know this from last year's SFD.

The format being something along the lines of:

* What IS this anyway?

* Why should I care?

* What makes it useful?

* How do I use it?

* Where is the documentation?

In the case of this, the Gnome site has user guides, there's also an 'Unofficial Ubuntu User Guide' (search Google) and whatever content we want to add ourselves.

Finally

Hope this focuses our attention. Let's outdo what they're already using and show then WHY they should use our CD.