CrunchBang Linux

brokenpike

#! Member

Registered: 2010-03-21

Posts: 55

How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

Hello all,

Statler is my favorite wrapper for all the packages I love to use from the debian repositories, however getting from statler A2 to my preferred end state involve the download of over a G of packages. and waiting for them to install.

My goal is to make an installable iso for friends and family  that will fit on a dvd that is more or less statler A2 after running the  cb-welcome.

and

apt-get update

and my math, science, dvd back-up and office suite

apt-get install openoffice.org kile geany jabref  ipython pyhton-scipy python-matplotlib  gfortran octave3.2 k3b eclipse

This pulls over a Gig of  java, LaTeX, kde and math libraries.

My /usr with all of my desired tools is 6.4G and will compress to 1/2(tgz or squashfs) to 1/3 (lzma) of that.

As best I can tell the statler (and aptosid) install disk contains a mountable compressed image of all the installed packages averting the need to individually decompress individual *.deb's which is why the installing statler takes five minutes to install and squeeze-disk-1 take more than 20 minutes to install.
The debian cd's are a more or less a tar ball of .deb's .

livcd=compress( archive of binaries)
debian cd=archive(compressed binaries)

How can I make an installable iso with my custom collection 6 G of binaries and the statler making it look nice?

Would a custom jigdo file work well for making a targeted update disk?
How about removing many of the binaries from the statler install disk and installing them from a fresh jigsaw download of targeted packages? 

Is debian live studio right for this or is a ghosting tool more appropriate?

V/R

Brokenpike

pvsage

Internal Affairs

From: North Carolina

Registered: 2009-10-18

Posts: 8,991

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

Have you taken a look at live.debian.net?  It's all there in the manual.

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brokenpike

#! Member

Registered: 2010-03-21

Posts: 55

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

pvsage

Thanks for the pointer to debian live.  I already found debiancustomcd, simple-cdd and aptoncd.

I am not yet sure which of them is the best fit  for my goal of installing statler, updating and adding my gig'o'cruft with a minimum of bandwidth.  Installing statler in a virtual box, updating, adding cruft and then backing up the  aptcache with apt2cd of aptmove is likely the simplest approach.

Deconstructing , modifying and reconstructing my favorite distro would be an interesting exercise.

mynis01

#! Die Hard

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2010-07-02

Posts: 1,714

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

You could always try remastersys too, although I've never tried using it to make a CD to boot on another machine it should work in theory, and allow you to try everything out in a live environment before installing.

RickWeber

#! Member

From: Somerville, Taxachusetts

Registered: 2009-09-14

Posts: 50

Website

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

I would definitely like to do the same (as well as have a custom live USB drive for using at school). Hopefully I'll get around to it around Christmas, but I'd appreciate any updates on the attempts of others!

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Just Rick... Thanks.

brokenpike

#! Member

Registered: 2010-03-21

Posts: 55

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

Remastersys claims to do that wish I wish to accomplish.  I am giving it a go as I write.  With a bit of luck it may fit on my 2G usb drive.

Update:
Remastersys creates a 3.1 G livecd from my 6.2G home directory.  I did not yet try to install from it.

Cheers

Last edited by brokenpike (2010-11-24 05:31:54)

brokenpike

#! Member

Registered: 2010-03-21

Posts: 55

Re: How to make a statler 're-spin' or achieve the same end?

Remastersys foiled me by locking me out with a mysterious default user id and password. 
Off to work the learning curve on the debian live project.