Knoppix Documentation Wiki - User contributions [en]

Remastering Hacks

2006-01-06T23:37:56Z

Dosboss: /* Useful packages for install packages and cleaning up locales */

There are so many howtos cropping up, each with individual tips and customization examples for Knoppix remasters, that it seems good to have a place to put generic tips, no matter how you go about remastering, be it using scripts, completely by hand, or via a HD install, Morphix, etc... Please add your tips and example "hacks" here.

= Remastering Process Tips =
== Saving space while running chroot environment ==
* If you booted from CD, even on a HD install (example: Pivot Install) instead of copying the original CD and KNOPPIX directory to the HD, you can use them directly from their mount points.
* Another alternative is to mount an ISO image of the original CD as a loop device and mount the KNOPPIX image as a '''cloop''' device. You will save close to 2GB of space. Script to mount from an ISO image:

#!/bin/bash
# Assumes that the current directory is the working space
# original.iso is an image of the CD we will be using as master
mount -t iso9660 original.iso ./oldcd -o ro,loop
# initialize the compressed loop device
losetup /dev/cloop1 ./oldcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cloop1 ./KNOPPIX -o ro,loop

= Installing software and clearing up space with Apt =

== Get the best apt mirror ==

* Get '''apt-spy''' and use it to modify the sources.list file with the best mirrors for your particular region. This will speed up the downloading. Backup the original '''sources.list''' just in case.
* Another technique is to modify '''sources.list'''. Replace the string '''.de.''' in the ftp addresses (ftp.de.debian.org) with the code corresponding to your country. Examples: USA -> .us. (ftp.us.debian.org), Brazil -> .br. (ftp.br.debian.org). Check the Debian site for debian.org mirrors in your country.
* Remember to uncomment the '''linuxtag''' ftp addresses to get the latest and greatest from Knoppix

== Update all packages ==

* Use '''apt-get update''' to get the lists with the latest releases and patches. Do not update a package if you don't need to, it may lead to the use of additional disk space (precious commodity when you want to keep everything below 700MB) and you may brake something else without knowing. Abuse the '''-s''' option to simulate the installation.
* Before doing the update, I modified my default releases to '''testing''', that means that the software I'll be using will have a good balance of stability and features. Knoppix uses '''unstable''' by default, which is too risky for my personal taste.

== Configuring locale settings ==

* Get '''[apt-get install] locale''' and configure it with the locales you are going to use. It will save lots of space when downloading applications with plenty of locale modules and localized manual pages.

*NOTE: Knoppix 4.0.2 (possibly other 4.x and 3.9 versions too) already has the 'locales' package installed. In this case it is easy to get the right locale set. Just run the command '''dpkg-reconfigure locales''' as the '''root''' user. This will allow you to select/de-select the locales that you will use, and choose a default locale for your system.

== Character based pkg mgt w/Aptitude ==

* I use '''aptitude''' to get/remove applications, it is character based so it works with init 2. As you mark packages for install/update/removal, it will tell you how much disk space you will save/use, try to solve depencies problems and give you plenty control to fix them manually when possible.
* After you are done, '''aptitude''' may leave some files behind. Here's a clean up script I use:

# !/bin/bash
# Clean package files generated by aptitude
rm /var/log/aptitude
rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*debian*
rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*knoppix*

== Cleaning up space when removing apps ==

* When removing/purging applications, they may leave behind non-empty directories. Usually this is announced by aptitude, apt-get or any other installation utilty. Make sure to check the messages and manually remove those directories.

== Removing a bunch of Internationalization support to save space`using Apt and grep ==

The following command returns a listing of all packages installed.

dpkg-query -l | less

While that command is useful, you can use grep to sort out which packages you to remove. The following command shows me packages that kde uses for internationalization support and strips off all the other extraneous information.

dpkg-query -l | grep i18n | grep kde | cut -d' ' -f3

I can feed this to apt-get so that it will remove those packages.

apt-get remove `dpkg-query -l | grep i18n | grep kde | cut -d' ' -f3`

You could remove openoffice and other German tools as follows:

apt-get remove openoffice-de-en manpages-de trans-de-en

== Other packages commonly removed for custom images ==

Remove enigma and bacula as follows:

apt-get remove enigma bacula-common

Remove emacs as follows:

apt-get remove emacs21 emacs21-bin-common emacs21-common emacsen-common gettext-el zile

German Language user package

apt-get remove user-de

This results in a reasonable base to begin updating and adding packages to this system. First configure /etc/apt/sources.list and add the appropriate entries for a local Debian mirror.

== What to do when behind a proxy ==

If you are behind a proxy and must authenticate against it to access the internet, then use the following command.
export http_proxy="http://username:passwd@yourproxy.company.com:portnumber/"

== Useful packages for install packages and cleaning up locales ==

Add three useful packages:

apt-get install localepurge aptitude

Localepurge will only keep the locales that are marked. This means that it will free up additional space. After running through the configuration removing locales you don't need, you must run it from the command line:

localepurge

NOTE: localepurge may not be able to be installed by the '''apt-get install''' command (ie. you get the error "Couldn't find package localepurge" when you try to install), but you can install it with the '''aptitude''' interface.

Aptitude is a console menu front end to apt and dpkg.

=== Package updates within the GUI ===

apt-get install synaptic

Synaptic is a graphical front end to apt & dpkg.

= Boot =

== Boot logo ==

The boot logo : The boot image is logo.16 and is a lss16 format image. To start make a 16 color image (in Gimp, create the image and use the Image -> Mode -> Indexed menu to export to 16 colors) you want to use. The image must be 640x480 or less. 640x400 leaves room at the bottom for the boot prompt. Save the image as a bmp format (in gimp you can save as ppm as well to skip the first conversion). Then run:

bmptoppm mylogo.bmp > logo16.ppm
ppmtolss16 < logo16.ppm > logo.16

When using the script method [[Knoppix Remastering with Menu Based Scripts]], the logo file will be located somewhere like:

<path-to-remaster dir>KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/boot/isolinux

There are also some files in KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/KNOPPIX/images that might be interesting to look at.

== Desktop ==

=== To keep certain desktop settings persistent ===

I must now mention the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession. This script controls how knoppix behaves & how knoppix creates the knoppix user's home directory.

Edit the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession and look for the ninth occurence of rsync in the script and it is found at or around line 128:

126: if [ -z "$DONTCHANGE" ]; then
127: # No persistent homedir, copy everything
128: rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /etc/skel/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null
129: [ "$USER" = "knoppix" ] && rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /usr/share/knoppix/profile/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null

It is line 128 which populates the /home/knoppix folder. So In line 128, I delete from & including the { to the }. It is changed as follows.

126: if [ -z "$DONTCHANGE" ]; then
127: # No persistent homedir, copy everything
128: rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /etc/skel/ $HOME/ 2>/dev/null
129: [ "$USER" = "knoppix" ] && rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /usr/share/knoppix/profile/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null

Make the change and save the 45xsession file.

=== Making a permanent desktop background change ===

Replace the <path to chroot env>/KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/KNOPPIX/background.png from outside the chroot env to be the one you would like for the default desktop background.

=== Changing the desktop splash screen ===

Replace /usr/share/apps/ksplash/Themes/Default/splash_top.png

(400X248 px is the normal size of this image)

== Adding Icons ==

Plonk them into /etc/skel/Desktop or if you are working under a knoppix home directory, plonk them there. Under any KDE or GNOME system you can find examples of the format for these files.

= Startup =
== Adding init scripts that should run ==

Say you need to make sure certain services are started up at boot time. You would think you could put them in the proper /etc/rc<num>.d/ directory and they would just work eh. Ha. Ha. To get something to always start, you have to actually modify the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script and have it start the services. The init scripts will always be in the /etc/init.d/ directory, but they won't stay in the /etc/rc<num>.d directories, even if you put them there. It will make you sad.

For example, to add a custom vpn script and turn on some of the NFS client utils, one could add some lines after the automounty stuff:

<pre>
# Start automounter now
/etc/init.d/autofs start >/dev/null && echo "${GREEN}Automounter started for: ${MAGENTA}${AUTOMOUNTS}${GREEN}.${NORMAL}"
fi
#
# CUSTOM SCRIPTY STUFF
#
if [ -f /etc/init.d/portmap ] ; then
/etc/init.d/portmap start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}Portmapper started"
fi
if [ -f /etc/init.d/nfs-common ] ; then
/etc/init.d/nfs-common start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}NFS Common Services started"
fi
# Start VPN
if [ -f /etc/init.d/vtundvpn ] ; then
/etc/init.d/vtundvpn start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}VPN started"
fi
#
# END CUSTOM SCRIPTY STUFF
#
</pre>

== Making the CD fallback default language not German ==

Again, you want to modify the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script and find where the LANGUAGE variable gets set. Change it to the desired default language (for example, from 'de' to 'us'.)

[[Category: Remastering Knoppix]]

Remastering Hacks

2006-01-06T22:25:49Z

Dosboss: /* Configuring locale settings */

There are so many howtos cropping up, each with individual tips and customization examples for Knoppix remasters, that it seems good to have a place to put generic tips, no matter how you go about remastering, be it using scripts, completely by hand, or via a HD install, Morphix, etc... Please add your tips and example "hacks" here.

= Remastering Process Tips =
== Saving space while running chroot environment ==
* If you booted from CD, even on a HD install (example: Pivot Install) instead of copying the original CD and KNOPPIX directory to the HD, you can use them directly from their mount points.
* Another alternative is to mount an ISO image of the original CD as a loop device and mount the KNOPPIX image as a '''cloop''' device. You will save close to 2GB of space. Script to mount from an ISO image:

#!/bin/bash
# Assumes that the current directory is the working space
# original.iso is an image of the CD we will be using as master
mount -t iso9660 original.iso ./oldcd -o ro,loop
# initialize the compressed loop device
losetup /dev/cloop1 ./oldcd/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cloop1 ./KNOPPIX -o ro,loop

= Installing software and clearing up space with Apt =

== Get the best apt mirror ==

* Get '''apt-spy''' and use it to modify the sources.list file with the best mirrors for your particular region. This will speed up the downloading. Backup the original '''sources.list''' just in case.
* Another technique is to modify '''sources.list'''. Replace the string '''.de.''' in the ftp addresses (ftp.de.debian.org) with the code corresponding to your country. Examples: USA -> .us. (ftp.us.debian.org), Brazil -> .br. (ftp.br.debian.org). Check the Debian site for debian.org mirrors in your country.
* Remember to uncomment the '''linuxtag''' ftp addresses to get the latest and greatest from Knoppix

== Update all packages ==

* Use '''apt-get update''' to get the lists with the latest releases and patches. Do not update a package if you don't need to, it may lead to the use of additional disk space (precious commodity when you want to keep everything below 700MB) and you may brake something else without knowing. Abuse the '''-s''' option to simulate the installation.
* Before doing the update, I modified my default releases to '''testing''', that means that the software I'll be using will have a good balance of stability and features. Knoppix uses '''unstable''' by default, which is too risky for my personal taste.

== Configuring locale settings ==

* Get '''[apt-get install] locale''' and configure it with the locales you are going to use. It will save lots of space when downloading applications with plenty of locale modules and localized manual pages.

*NOTE: Knoppix 4.0.2 (possibly other 4.x and 3.9 versions too) already has the 'locales' package installed. In this case it is easy to get the right locale set. Just run the command '''dpkg-reconfigure locales''' as the '''root''' user. This will allow you to select/de-select the locales that you will use, and choose a default locale for your system.

== Character based pkg mgt w/Aptitude ==

* I use '''aptitude''' to get/remove applications, it is character based so it works with init 2. As you mark packages for install/update/removal, it will tell you how much disk space you will save/use, try to solve depencies problems and give you plenty control to fix them manually when possible.
* After you are done, '''aptitude''' may leave some files behind. Here's a clean up script I use:

# !/bin/bash
# Clean package files generated by aptitude
rm /var/log/aptitude
rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*debian*
rm /var/lib/apt/lists/*knoppix*

== Cleaning up space when removing apps ==

* When removing/purging applications, they may leave behind non-empty directories. Usually this is announced by aptitude, apt-get or any other installation utilty. Make sure to check the messages and manually remove those directories.

== Removing a bunch of Internationalization support to save space`using Apt and grep ==

The following command returns a listing of all packages installed.

dpkg-query -l | less

While that command is useful, you can use grep to sort out which packages you to remove. The following command shows me packages that kde uses for internationalization support and strips off all the other extraneous information.

dpkg-query -l | grep i18n | grep kde | cut -d' ' -f3

I can feed this to apt-get so that it will remove those packages.

apt-get remove `dpkg-query -l | grep i18n | grep kde | cut -d' ' -f3`

You could remove openoffice and other German tools as follows:

apt-get remove openoffice-de-en manpages-de trans-de-en

== Other packages commonly removed for custom images ==

Remove enigma and bacula as follows:

apt-get remove enigma bacula-common

Remove emacs as follows:

apt-get remove emacs21 emacs21-bin-common emacs21-common emacsen-common gettext-el zile

German Language user package

apt-get remove user-de

This results in a reasonable base to begin updating and adding packages to this system. First configure /etc/apt/sources.list and add the appropriate entries for a local Debian mirror.

== What to do when behind a proxy ==

If you are behind a proxy and must authenticate against it to access the internet, then use the following command.
export http_proxy="http://username:passwd@yourproxy.company.com:portnumber/"

== Useful packages for install packages and cleaning up locales ==

Add three useful packages:

apt-get install localepurge aptitude

Localepurge will only keep the locales that are marked. This means that it will free up additional space. After running through the configuration removing locales you don't need, you must run it from the command line:

localepurge

Aptitude is a console menu front end to apt and dpkg.

=== Package updates within the GUI ===

apt-get install synaptic

Synaptic is a graphical front end to apt & dpkg.

= Boot =

== Boot logo ==

The boot logo : The boot image is logo.16 and is a lss16 format image. To start make a 16 color image (in Gimp, create the image and use the Image -> Mode -> Indexed menu to export to 16 colors) you want to use. The image must be 640x480 or less. 640x400 leaves room at the bottom for the boot prompt. Save the image as a bmp format (in gimp you can save as ppm as well to skip the first conversion). Then run:

bmptoppm mylogo.bmp > logo16.ppm
ppmtolss16 < logo16.ppm > logo.16

When using the script method [[Knoppix Remastering with Menu Based Scripts]], the logo file will be located somewhere like:

<path-to-remaster dir>KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/boot/isolinux

There are also some files in KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/KNOPPIX/images that might be interesting to look at.

== Desktop ==

=== To keep certain desktop settings persistent ===

I must now mention the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession. This script controls how knoppix behaves & how knoppix creates the knoppix user's home directory.

Edit the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession and look for the ninth occurence of rsync in the script and it is found at or around line 128:

126: if [ -z "$DONTCHANGE" ]; then
127: # No persistent homedir, copy everything
128: rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /etc/skel/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null
129: [ "$USER" = "knoppix" ] && rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /usr/share/knoppix/profile/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null

It is line 128 which populates the /home/knoppix folder. So In line 128, I delete from & including the { to the }. It is changed as follows.

126: if [ -z "$DONTCHANGE" ]; then
127: # No persistent homedir, copy everything
128: rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /etc/skel/ $HOME/ 2>/dev/null
129: [ "$USER" = "knoppix" ] && rsync -Ha --ignore-existing /usr/share/knoppix/profile/{.kde*,Desktop} $HOME/ 2>/dev/null

Make the change and save the 45xsession file.

=== Making a permanent desktop background change ===

Replace the <path to chroot env>/KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUSTOM/KNOPPIX/background.png from outside the chroot env to be the one you would like for the default desktop background.

=== Changing the desktop splash screen ===

Replace /usr/share/apps/ksplash/Themes/Default/splash_top.png

(400X248 px is the normal size of this image)

== Adding Icons ==

Plonk them into /etc/skel/Desktop or if you are working under a knoppix home directory, plonk them there. Under any KDE or GNOME system you can find examples of the format for these files.

= Startup =
== Adding init scripts that should run ==

Say you need to make sure certain services are started up at boot time. You would think you could put them in the proper /etc/rc<num>.d/ directory and they would just work eh. Ha. Ha. To get something to always start, you have to actually modify the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script and have it start the services. The init scripts will always be in the /etc/init.d/ directory, but they won't stay in the /etc/rc<num>.d directories, even if you put them there. It will make you sad.

For example, to add a custom vpn script and turn on some of the NFS client utils, one could add some lines after the automounty stuff:

<pre>
# Start automounter now
/etc/init.d/autofs start >/dev/null && echo "${GREEN}Automounter started for: ${MAGENTA}${AUTOMOUNTS}${GREEN}.${NORMAL}"
fi
#
# CUSTOM SCRIPTY STUFF
#
if [ -f /etc/init.d/portmap ] ; then
/etc/init.d/portmap start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}Portmapper started"
fi
if [ -f /etc/init.d/nfs-common ] ; then
/etc/init.d/nfs-common start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}NFS Common Services started"
fi
# Start VPN
if [ -f /etc/init.d/vtundvpn ] ; then
/etc/init.d/vtundvpn start >/dev/null && \
echo "${GREEN}VPN started"
fi
#
# END CUSTOM SCRIPTY STUFF
#
</pre>

== Making the CD fallback default language not German ==

Again, you want to modify the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script and find where the LANGUAGE variable gets set. Change it to the desired default language (for example, from 'de' to 'us'.)

[[Category: Remastering Knoppix]]

Bugs/4.0.2CD

2005-12-30T15:21:36Z

Dosboss: added 3a "toram" problem

1)The 4.0.2 CD at boot says: Welcome to the KNOPPIX live Linux-on-DVD!

THIS IS THE CD AND NOT THE DVD AS IT DISPLAYS!

2) Boot Option "knoppix no{swap}" is getting ignored (at least on an SATA Harddrive with Linux Swap partition). !!! Knoppix will still use the swap partition !!!

3) if toram boot option is used, shutdown does not work. After X-windows exit, shell prompt appears, but system does not do shutdown. Also poweroff or shutdown commands have no effect at all.

3a) if toram boot option is used, "knoppix-terminalserver" NFS does not work. The client side will say "Permission denied by server" when trying to mount the exported "/cdrom" dir. Have attempted modifying/blanking hosts.allow and hosts.deny, fiddling with export options, flushing iptables, and changing permissions/owners on the exported directory. This function works flawlessly when booted from CD.

4) not sure this is new, but while customizing 4.0.2CD I encountered a problem involving hotplugging multiple usb-storage devices. If one is mounted, and another is plugged in, the first device often seems to move to a new device but the old mount remains. There seems to be some explanation of this behavior in /sbin/hotplug-knoppix. Comments therein suggests the problem goes back to 2002. It would be the nice and expected behavior if plugging new storage doesn't booger up existing mounts. Any explanation of the issues involved would be helpful as well.

5) Starting knoppix with boot option "knoppix desktop=xfce" initiates successfully xsession, sound can be heard but when loading xfce desktop computer returns to shell screen with message X Window xsession terminated with errors.
Tried on x40, within vmware. all other options boot up correctly (in regard to xsession...)
no errors in xfreelogs:
(WW) VMWARE(0): Failed to set up write-combining range (0xfa000000,0x1000000)
(WW) VMWARE(0): Option "DPMS" is not used
(WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/truetype".
Entry deleted from font path.
(Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/truetype").
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/CID" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/TrueType" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such device)

just tried this on a quite typical desktop machine. same behaviour. desktop xfce seems to be broken.

6) /usr/share/knoppix/profile contains files and directories (e.g. .gnupg .mozilla .nessus.keys .netscape) which are copied into /home/knoppix when the X session is started (see rsync commands in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession). However, these files are '''owned by root''', not knoppix! So files which knoppix does not have permission to read '''fail to get copied''' (e.g. .nessus.keys). Only found this out because I was trying to add a .ssh directory in there and wondered why it failed to get copied across at boot time ... a swift ''chown -R knoppix.knoppix /usr/share/knoppix'' before re-mastering the Knoppix CD fixes this.

If you follow the instructions on the [[Knoppix_Remastering_Howto]], the equivalent command would be ''chown -R 1000.1000 /mnt/hda1/knx/source/KNOPPIX/usr/share/knoppix''.

7) Knoppix 4.02 CD won't boot on an IBM Thinkpad I Series 1161-43u. It only
displays "Disabling IRQ 15" over and over. Knoppix 3.8 CD works fine.
* Have you tried any of the cheatcodes? Have you cross posted this issue to the forum? --[[User:Rwcitek|Rwcitek]] 22:16, 5 Nov 2005 (GMT)

8) Change read/write mode not working with bootfrom-cheat ---
If I start knoppix with "knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hdb1/KNOPPIX.iso", and then right-click "Hard Disk [hdb1]" on Desktop and choose Actions->Change read/write mode, I get this error after confirming the action: "The remount command failed. Maybe there is another process accessing the filesystem currently."
I can still remount this manually with "sudo mount -o remount,rw /cdrom2.loop"
This bug is also present in 4.0.2-DVD
* Possible workaround: create a swapfile /mnt/hdb1/knoppix.swp. Have you cross posted this issue in a forum? --[[User:Rwcitek|Rwcitek]] 22:16, 5 Nov 2005 (GMT)

9) Knoppix-terminalserver
* clients/hosts booting with etherboot ROM's fail, because of some bug in the etherboot.nbi, but I'm not sure. can't find miniroot.gz, ... and than vmlinuz
* /etc/resolv.conf which is symlink to /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf is not updated even for the hosts which boot with a PXE ROM, running netcardconfig with dhcp yes does the trick. --[[User:bsd|bsd]] Mon Nov 7 05:30:02 UTC 2005

10) CD 4.02 do not use the USB 2.0 full speed mode.
The error is in the linuxrc in /boot/isolinux/minirt.gz The line
USB2="ehci_hcd.ko"
should be
USB2="ehci_hcd"

11) There seems to be something wrong with the hardware detection of several versions of knoppix (all Knoppix versions with kernel 2.6.x that I tried, including the latest (4.0.2)):
I've written a forum entry describing the problem: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22343
To be more specific, the wrong driver for a family of network cards is being loaded (or that's what I think), causing knoppix to crash on boot, while trying to get an IP from DHCP.