Need help!!

[cory40]

I had a rematersys "custom distributable ISO" burnt to dvd of my Xubuntu 11.10 system. I had a nicely set up cairo dock and all my installed programs. Last night I screwed something up I couldn't fix so i popped the disc in. At boot it gave me several options. One was to run the installer directly. Thats what I did. It installed a bare bones Xubuntu 11.10 system on my computer!! I am pretty upset. I thought that all I would have to do is pop this disc in in the event of an emergency, and reinstall my custom iso to get everything back to the way it was before. It even said Custom install in the install box. So why when it was done did I have a system from scratch? I had many hours in getting this setup the way I had it now it is all lost. Help please!

[fragadelic]

Did you copy your settings to be default with the gui?  Sounds like you didn't and if that is the case you have lost it all.  You should have also created a backup which would have saved your user and settings too.

dist mode does not save any user info and if you didn't put your customised changes into /etc/skel manually or by using remastersys to do it for you then it is gone.

Just because you set your individual user up with certain settings means absolutely nothing in terms of the system itself.  Those are personal settings that are only on that 1 user.  You must then copy those to /etc/skel in order to be able to have those used for new users that are created.

As far as the custom wording, that is exactly what it is, a custom iso of your system setup.  Your system setup did not include your users personal settings.

[cory40]

So please help me understand this....If I run "sudo remastersys backup" to create a backup, then when I use that disc to run an install in the future, it will have all my custom personal setting reinstalled as well? But you are saying that by doing a distributable iso ("sudo remastersys dist") of my system, it did not save any of my personal settings? I thought both commands would net me the same results.

"Copying to be default by gui" and "copying to etc/skel"mean nothing to me sorry. I am not that smart to understand what any of that means. I know enough to install programs and  open terminals and execute commands that I find via google searches. I just need a simple working mans way to make an iso of my personal created linux system so in the event of a screw up I can get it all back to my same configuration without having to reinstall every single program, dock, ect. Maybe remastersys is to techy for a guy like me? If so is there any more user friendly programs a guy can use out there to simplify this backup process? Thanks a bunch.

[cory40]

Basically I made a dist iso then when it was done I opened up xfburn and burned the iso to dvd that I found in home/remastersys/remastersys folder. It was over 1 gig and I thought it was as simple as that. Guess not.

[fragadelic]

It is but you have to have some understanding of how linux works.  If you thought your changes you made for your individual user changed for anything other than your personal user then this is a lesson in Unix/Linux user folders.

Why would I have 2 different modes if they did the exact same thing?

dist mode that you can share means it won't have your settings unless you would like to share you browser settings including passwords with everyone you know.

I realise you are upset but it isn't the end of the world.  You made those settings once and you can do them again.  If you are using remastersys 3.0.0-1 then the second from bottom option of the main window allows you to copy your personal settings to make them the default for the system.  Use this before you remaster and to make sure your settings have taken, create a test user.  Check this thread http://www.remastersys.com/forums/index.php?topic=1859.0

It explains it more in depth so I don't have to repeat myself.

If you are using an older version of remastersys, please upgrade to the newest one.

[fragadelic]

I would use the iso you made and start from there since it has all the extra apps you installed.  The only thing you'll have to do is your personal customization.

If you still have access to the original one, try and tell me what you screwed up and I'll try and guide you in the right direction.

[cory40]

I figured it out guys thanks! I redone my computer to what I wanted and then ran "sudo remastersys backup" and bit the bullet and tried it out. Same system as I had so I am thrilled to now have a mirror image of what took me a while to setup. Thanks for the help and sorry to sound so angry. I was just frustrated but all is well now. Merry Christmas guys!