Systemback (Stevo for President!)

[qtech]

I just pulled Stevo's backport of Systemback. Installation required some dependency fiddling to run Systemback from GUI (needed at least, I believe, gambas3-gb-gui) on M12 but that may have been an issue with my own Synaptic config.

The program itself is fairly straight forward, bordering on simplistic. It allowed me to have a fully functional, bootable .iso clone of my own system in under an hour. It took a few tries to get it under 4GB which is required for .iso creation (I opted to remove all personal data, private keys, etc.). Now that I understand how it works, I could create a new .iso, start to finish, in under 20 minutes. You also have the choice of creating a bootable flash drive or (non-bootable) full system backups.

As I am using a proprietary ATI driver, I have to boot the .iso with the "Boot live without the xorg.conf file" option.

Everything works.

Really, truly freakin' awesome. I am utterly blown away. I never would have believed it could be that easy.

Go get it!

[BitJam]

ISO-9660/JOLIET/UDF filesystems are limited to a maximum size of 8 TB. The maximum size of a single file is 8 TB (single files in UDF are currently limited to aprox. 200 GB). If you like to have files larger than 2 GB, you need to specify -iso-level 3 or above.

The genisoimage program also has the -iso-level option.

[joany]

Question: Would it be possible to create a bootable .iso with an installer? I was thinking it might be possible to boot a Live DVD (with installer) in the aufs mode, make some major customizations and tweaks, install Systemback, and make a copy of your customized version that will have the installer in the final .iso copy. Or am I dreaming?

[Stevo]

I have to confess I haven't used my own package yet, I was planning to try some respins of MX myself with it when it went final, but francofait has been doing his respins using it. I think it uses its own installer on the respins, so your dream may be a reality.

Let me see if it's missing that gambas3-gb-gui package as a dependency.

Edit--yup, it is. I'll add that to the Depends for the relevant packages & rebuild.

[qtech]

ISO-9660/JOLIET/UDF filesystems are limited to a maximum size of 8 TB. The maximum size of a single file is 8 TB (single files in UDF are currently limited to aprox. 200 GB). If you like to have files larger than 2 GB, you need to specify -iso-level 3 or above.

The genisoimage program also has the -iso-level option.

The 4GB limitation is inherent to Systemback.

Question: Would it be possible to create a bootable .iso with an installer?

I suspect it's possible but that is outside my realm of experience.

[qtech]

@Joany

According to the Systemback dev, you can install live from the .iso (run systemback while live and choose install).

It does not work, for me, on a VM. I'll try installing to hardware in the next few days.

[joany]

@Joany

According to the Systemback dev, you can install live from the .iso (run systemback while live and choose install).

It does not work, for me, on a VM. I'll try installing to hardware in the next few days.

That would be so cool if it works; then it would be just like a remastering tool. I wonder what kind of install Systemback would do. The MEPIS and Antix installers are so beautifully simple and powerful. It would be nice to be able to slipstream them into the live .iso somehow.

[Stevo]

@Joany

According to the Systemback dev, you can install live from the .iso (run systemback while live and choose install).

It does not work, for me, on a VM. I'll try installing to hardware in the next few days.

That would be so cool if it works; then it would be just like a remastering tool. I wonder what kind of install Systemback would do. The MEPIS and Antix installers are so beautifully simple and powerful. It would be nice to be able to slipstream them into the live .iso somehow.

Doesn't the remastering tool included in MX and AntiX do this already, though? Maybe someone running francofait's MX respins created with systemback would have the answer, too. The revamped installer in MX is pretty slick, though.

[BitJam]

Question: Would it be possible to create a bootable .iso with an installer? I was thinking it might be possible to boot a Live DVD (with installer) in the aufs mode, make some major customizations and tweaks, install Systemback, and make a copy of your customized version that will have the installer in the final .iso copy. Or am I dreaming?

This might already exist OOTB in MX and antiX with the snapshot tool. I am not certain the snapshot tool runs correctly in Live mode but if it doesn't, it should be easy to modify it so it does. ISTM the snapshot tool is very similar to systemback, but I have not used either of them. Just like snapshot, it should be easy to modify systemback to work on the MX and antiX live systems with these two changes:

1. Exclude the /live directory when you make the squashfs file
2. Make sure you write the iso (and large temporary files) to a hard drive (or usb, ssd, etc)***

We are planning to modify the antx2usb tool (or create a new tool) that makes a .iso file or a new LiveUSB directly from a running Live system.

On an MX or antiX LiveUSB you can use the remaster-live command (in the RemasterCC) to remaster the LiveUSB. This is an easy way to make your own customized LiveUSB (assuming you have enough RAM to hold all your filesystem changes before you remaster. If not, then first enable static root persistence).

*** You should be able to determine the type of device with the following command:

Code: Select all

stat -c %t $(df $ISO_FILE | tail -n1 | cut -d" " -f1) 

This will print out the major device number. You want it to be either an 8 or a 3. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/devices.txt

[GuiGuy]

I had not realised that "snapshot" was actually a remastering tool (unfortunate choice of title?).
What is the difference between refracta-snapshot and snapshot tool ?
And does anybody know whether systemback is better than snapshot tool ?