remastersys backup ?

[sam111]

I am on wattos right now.
And I am using the remastersys backup utility to create live linux iso cd/dvd distro's

What I am wondering about is a few things.

question 1)
I am having a hard time understanding the difference between the 3 options and when you would use these Dist, Distcdfs, Distiso?
I know Dist does the equivalent of both Distcdfs and Distiso options.
I know to use Distiso you must have used Distcdfs.
When would one only want to use Distcdfs and not Distiso?

question 2)
When using the Backup option I get an warning/error telling me that the file-system exceeded the iso9960 file-system capability? Note this is only when I use the backup option instead of dist options. How can I fix this

question 3)
I have noticed when I created a watt4.iso livecd I have a user guest when logging in. I am wondering how I can have my original users / passwords for them also put into the livecd. So I can log on with my same username instead of guest and have the same desktop configurations as I did no my original os?

[yancek]

Can't help on the first two questions and it's been a while since I've used remastersys. It used to be "custom" as the default user and I recall under the Dist option there were several tabs and the default user could be changed to whatever. Don't know about the password?

I have noticed when I created a watt4.iso livecd I have a user guest when logging in.

If you want the same Desktop with icons etc. you currently have, copy the Desktop folder and its contents to the /etc/skel directory before running remastersys.

[sam111]

Well I found that the Modify option allows you to change the user guest , custom ,...etc to something else
(a is for username)
(b for livecd title change)
(c for filename for isochange)
(d for working directory for remastersys )
(e for exclude files)
(f for usb creater website name )
and thats all.

So I can change the user to whatever I want and copy the desktop so I have everything the same except the password is by default nothing. How can I make the password for the user the same as the one I use in the main os. As well is their away to create other default users for the livecd so that the person using my live cd doesn't have to manual use adduser they will already have a couple of default users?

[yancek]

I've not used remastersys with a multiple user machine so I don't know if you can remaster and have multiple users. Have you tried it? I would expect not. I also don't think there is any way to have your current password.

Maybe what you need is a cloned image. Have you checked clonezilla out?

[sam111]

well , correct me if I am wrong but isn't clonezilla just equivalent to using dd command on a particular partition or partitions to backup the code. It is like a front end for dd. Because dd allows you to send the data over the network as well as compress ...etc using | gzip or | ssh ...etc
(like norton ghost for linux)

What I was really looking for is a way to make a live cd /dvd /usb distro that was an exact copy of what I had on this hard drive.
Is that possible?

Or at least an exact copy of the software I have installed as well as all the users and their desktop settings...etc
I had on the original os installation if that is possible?

[yancek]

What I was really looking for is a way to make a live cd /dvd /usb distro that was an exact copy of what I had on this hard drive

Then remastersys is what you need, not clonezilla. I don't have remastersys installed now but as I recall it excludes some directories/files by default and /home I believe is one. I've not done it where I wanted to save user settings so I'm not sure but you might try just copying your user(s) /home directory(s) to the /etc/skel directory before running remastersys.

[sam111]

well , I am using both the gui remastersys backups utility and the command line remastersys.
The gui tool has an option to modify settings like I have stated above...
The e exclude file /directory option is blank so I am assuming that no directories/files will be excluded by default. (could be wrong though)

If I copy my /home directory won't I also have to copy the /etc/passwd and shadow files to?

Also is their any software equivalent to remastersys for non-debian based linux distro's.
Such as redhat , or slackware distro's ? (i.e if you are on redhat or a slackware based os and you wanted to use remastersys )

[yancek]

I've only used the Dist option but, according to this post at ubuntu forums the backup method would include the /home directory which seems logical enough.

Remastersys Guide - Create Your Own Ubuntu-based Distro - Ubuntu Forums

Here's a link to a good tutorial:

Remastersys - Create custom Ubuntu (live) CD - Tutorial

Fedora has a program and I've used the PCLinuxOS program which keeps changing name. It's referred to in the above tutorial and I think it was just called LiveCD when I used it.

[sam111]

well , the only problem with that is when I use backup method it throws an error/warning telling me that I have exceeded the iso9660 format.
So I guess my /home directory is to big to be compressed .

It is total size on disk for /home is 65.8 GB (65,787,866,112 bytes) and total size of files for home is 10GB thats what the properties box say's for my home.

Don't know if that is a problem for using backup?
Don't really know what backup is doing different then dist ?

[yancek]

file-system exceeded the iso9960 file-system capability

If you are getting that error I would investigate the limits of the iso960 filesystem. I've never tried to create something the size you apparently are. I'm not sure now what your intentions are? Obviously you are not going to be able to put this on a CD/DVD or probably a flash drive.

Do you want this system to be read-only?