Master the Remaster

by Texstar

http://mypclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=2529

Requirements:

• PCLinuxOS LiveCD
• Empty hard drive partition. This can be done in VirtualBox as well.
• A large swap file (2 gig recommended)

Getting Started:

1. Boot the LiveCD
2. Log in as root
3. Edit /usr/share/draklive-install/drakelive-install and comment (#) out the following lines:

   
   # enable back some disabled services
   require services;
   services::start_service_on_boot($_) foreach qw(dkms anacron atd crond syslog);
   sync_logs();
   
   # Automatically delete the guest account on first boot
   system("chroot $::prefix touch /etc/delete-guest-account");
   # Setup for root password and create new user at 1st boot
   system("rm -f $::prefix/etc/sysconfig/finish-install");
   system("touch $::prefix/etc/sysconfig/finish-install");
   open FINISH, '>', "$::prefix/etc/sysconfig/finish-install";
      print FINISH "FINISH_INSTALL=yes\n";
      print FINISH "LICENSE=no\n";
      print FINISH "LANGUAGE=no\n";
      print FINISH "KEYBOARD=no\n";
      print FINISH "TIMEZONE=no\n";
      print FINISH "NETWORK=no\n";
      print FINISH "AUTHENTICATION=no\n";
      print FINISH "USERS=with_root\n";
      print FINISH "USER_AUTOLOGIN_FIRST=no\n";
      print FINISH "GLX=no\n";
   close FINISH;

4. Save the file.

Installation:

1. Click install pclinuxos button on the desktop. When the video driver removal screen appears press cancel. It will then proceed to the installer leaving the fglrx and nvidia drivers installed.
2. I usually select custom partitions and make one / partition to do my install.
3. This will install an exact duplicate of the livecd preserving the guest account and leaving the disabled services from being started.
4. Log into your new partition as root. Go back and restore the commented out sections in draklive-install (dont forget).
5. If you want to save space on your livecd, edit /etc/rpm/macros and add the line %_excludedocs 1 This will exclude any doc files from installing when doing a synaptic update or adding new applications. After installing, removing or updating your applications go back and change the line to %_excludedocs 0 or remove it.
6. After doing your updates to save even more space you can delete the following:
   
   
   • /usr/share/man folder (most desktop users will never use these).
   • Extra wallpaper in /usr/share/wallpapers.
   • Delete pkgcache.bin srcpkgcache.bin located in the /var/cache/apt folder.
   • Delete the package lists (main, extra, nonfree, kde, gnome) in /var/lib/apt/lists.
   • Delete everything in the usr/share/doc folder except for the HTML folder.

Customizations:

1. One area of interest is /etc/skel folder. When a new user is created, everything in /etc/skel is copied to the users home folder. If you decide to do any changes to your kde settings be sure to copy the .kde file from root into /etc/skel so the new user created on install will get your customizations. Gnome users would want to copy .gconf .gconfd .gnome2 .gnome2_private to /etc/skel folder.
2. There are 3 areas that can affect your ability to remaster. Make sure the partition that you are remastering is not over 4 gigs of installed applications. Make sure no other partitions are mounted when running your remasterme or mklivecd command. Remove any entries in fstab that contain the line tmpfs. After removing the entries reboot so that no ramdrive is created.
3. Example items in /etc/fstab to remove:

none /tmp/jack tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

Now that you have your install tweaked you can run remasterme in the console and create a new compressed iso.

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