Peculiar Source Ubuntu Installation

[s4brains]

Greetings gentlemen:

I think I would like to use Remastersys to create an install disk image of Ubuntu 10.04 that I can then install in VirtualBox virtual machines running on Windows hosts.

However the existing source Ubuntu installation which I would like to use is unusual in that it is part of a dual boot system where WinXP chainloads grub to boot the 10 GB (4.6 GB used, 5.4 GB free) Ubuntu partition.  I am using original grub and cannot update to Grub V2 or it will destroy my boot setup.

To make the situation even more complicated a 60 GB NTFS partition also exists which is shared between the Windows and Ubuntu O/S's.  In Ubuntu this partition is automatically mounted at boot (read/write) as well as another automatic mount of the 15 GB Windows boot partition (read only).

I suspect that it would be necessary to unmount both of these partitions before beginning activity with Remastersys.  If necessary, I can unmount these partitions.  Is it necessary to unmount them?

Would I be able to use Remastersys without updating grub as I don't think I am willing to update to Grub V2?


Best Regards,

s4

[fragadelic]

The Ubuntu Ubiquity installer won't work with grub-legacy.

If your drives are mounted under /media or /mnt then they get excluded anyway.  10GB is not enough to properly remaster either.

You can always try and see but I doubt it will work out for you.

I would upgrade to grub2 and increase the linux partition to at least 15GB.  If you did that then it would work fine.

[s4brains]

fragadelic,

Thank you for the reply.

I am mulling over your response and thinking about possible options.

Both the Windows boot partition and the shared NTFS partition are mounted under /mnt so that elininates that potential problem.

However, if I remember correctly it is not possible to use the WinXP NT boot loader to chainload Grub V2.  I even vaguely remember marking Grub as "not upgradeable" so that Synaptics would not try to update Grub and ruin my booting mechanism.

Also, the desired Ubuntu partition is on a laptop without available space to expand the Ubuntu partition.

However, I might be able to copy the Ubuntu partition to another hard drive on a desktop machine using GParted Live and make the partition active so I could boot from it.  On a different machine, I could expand the partition size and update Grub to V2.

To most people this would be almost as difficult as a clean Ubuntu install into a VirtualBox virtual drive.  However, I am not adept at installing Ubuntu and a clean install would not provide the customization and programs which I have added over time to Ubuntu without significant effort.  A clean install also would not provide an installation disk nor the possiblity of creating a "Live" disk.

I am not certain if I understand the 15 GB minimum limitation.  I read through several forum postings here and the instructions and tips at the Remastersys home site.  From my understanding, I thought the 15 GB limit applied to source images which were hosted virtual machines and to the minimum size of a destination virtual machine.

If the source Ubuntu installation is on a discrete physical partition, why does size matter other than to ensure that there is sufficient space within the filesystem to create the *.iso file?

Please share your thoughts and suggestions once again.

Regards,

s4  

[fragadelic]

What I'm saying is that you will probably run out of space trying to remaster when you have over 4GB used of a 10GB partition.  You can try but it may fail.  Even if that isn't an issue, your image will not be installable due to the fact that the installer will only setup grub2.

[s4brains]

O.K., if I understand correctly sufficient freespace to create the *.iso is a potential issue and the 15 GB recommendation is to ensure sufficient freespace exists in the filesystem to create the file.  As I said, I can expand the size of the partition if I copy the partition to another hard drive on a different PC.

If I update Grub to Grub V2 on the copied partition (which I will expand to 15 GB), why would the Ubiquity installer fail?

[fragadelic]

Ubiquity only works with grub 2 now.  Having only grub-legacy will mean the install will not complete and will not be bootable.

[s4brains]

I don't give up easily, so I pursued the idea of using remastersys even though fragadelic predicted that it might not work in my situation.  I found a discussion on upgrading grub legacy to grub v2 here:  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2.  I followed the instructions and sucessfully upgraded to grub v2.

 I stumbled quite a bit with remastersys because I knew that I wanted to customize the "isolinux.cfg" file but I wasn't clear on how to accomplish this.  I was using the GUI and first tried to simply put a modified isolinux.cfg file in the /etc/remastersys/customisolinux folder.  I did not realize that it was necessary to copy all of the files required for the isolinux folder into the customisolinux folder.  Ultimately, this resulted in an error and a failure to build the *.iso.

I have since learned that for my purposes it is better to execute remastersys from the command line within a terminal because then remastersys can be separated into a two-stage process with the first stage building just the "ISOTMP" folder if invoked with "sudo remastersys backup cdfs".  Remastersys can then be invoked again with "sudo remastersys backup iso" which will calculate the "md5sum.txt" file and create the *.iso file.

Inbetween these two invocations, the contents of the /home/remastersys/remastersys/ISOTMP/isolinux folder can be freely modified to change the isolinux.cfg and splash.png files and to add other files to the isolinux folder, such as reboot.c32, poweroff.com, etc.  When the command is invoked the second time to build the *.iso, the modified contents are carried forward into the *.iso which is being built.

After considerable experimentation, I suceeded in creating a backup image that I'm pleased with.  I have attached a crude screen capture of my menu to this message.

Remastersys is a truly remarkable script even if initially it seems rather complicated for novices like myself. I applaud fragadelic on his extraordinary work.

Best Regards,

s4