Correct Steps To Re-Master

[ff103]

Like some others. I know just enough about remaster to get myself into trouble, such as I did here,  http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,101580.0.html ,  but my question is what was the correct way to exclude my 17 gigs of home files (pictures, videos, documents, etc) and still get a remaster of my original system? I read all the remaster threads but just got more confused the more I read. So I ended up with a remaster that I had to work on before it was back to normal(thank you As). How should have I excluded all the files in /home/ray and still had a /home/ray  after my remaster was done. I know this is old stuff for most of you, but I am missing something in my understanding of the process. Point me to a good tutorial or draw me a picture so I can connect the dots. Thanks for any help/advice.

[OldGuy]

I have one directory I don't want on the remaster.  So I use this command line:

mylivecd --gzip  --nodir /home/rose/"VirtualBox VMs" b010812.iso

The --gzip is the method I use to remaster as it's quick tho not efficient as other compression.
The b010112.iso is my way of letting me know it's my backup (remaster) done on Jan 8th, 2012.

It's the --nodir command you wish to use, to make it simple you could create a directory, say call it NotOnRemaster,
and place the folders of musice, pixs, whatever there and your command would be:

mylivecd --gzip  --nodir /home/rose/NotOnRemaster b010812.iso

Please understand my home name is rose, you would change that to your home name, and the quotes around the directory name is needed if you have spaces in the directory name like "VirtualBox VMs" as in my first example.

I'm not an expert, but I hope this helps you on your way to a good remaster.

[ff103]

So , I guess my question is, If I exclude /home/ray and all of it's 17 gigs of files, do I have the opportunity when I install the remaster to make user "ray" again so he will have a /home folder? I think that is where the confusion for me is. Thanks.

[OldGuy]

So , I guess my question is, If I exclude /home/ray and all of it's 17 gigs of files, do I have the opportunity when I install the remaster to make user "ray" again so he will have a /home folder? I think that is where the confusion for me is. Thanks.

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong.  It is my understanding you have to have a home directory for the remaster.
But by using a series of --ndir entries you could still get the basics of your home.

For example:  mylivecd --gzip  --nodir /home/ray/Pictures /home/ray/Music /home/ray/Documents new.iso

Another thing that cropped up is backing up the entire home to an external source.

My backup scheme is:  I use luckybackup to backup my entire home directory.
                                    I use remaster to save all but my --nodir (in my case the /home/rose/"VirtualBox VMs"  dir)

Using this scheme, I can reload my remaster.  And then use luckybackup to fill in the directory(s) from the external
storage unit.  For me that's a usb external disk.

Hope this helps.

[Just17]

Never had occasion to try it but would

--nodir /home/ray/   --nofile /home/ray/ 

or

--nodir /home/ray/*   --nofile /home/ray/*

(not sure if the '*' is needed)

not give a clean 'ray' account on the remaster?

[ff103]

thanks OldGuy, yeah that seems to be the way to go, I just thought there would be an easier way to exclude /home/ray without typing --nodir /home/ray/Pictures, etc. for 50 or 60 folders. I thought I could exclude the entire /home/ray and then re-create it, but that seems to be where I ran into trouble last time. I did back up my entire /home/ray using Lucky backup to an external drive but had to put it all back on the new install to /home/guest.

[AS]

For example:  mylivecd --gzip  --nodir /home/ray/Pictures /home/ray/Music /home/ray/Documents new.iso

That one look nearly correct, for added precision i would write it as follow:

mylivecd  --gzip   --nodir  ^/home/ray/Pictures ,^/home/ray/Music ,^/home/ray/Documents   new.iso

note the added 'caret' and 'comma' characters, where 'comma' is a separator and the 'caret' meaning is "beginning with"
if, by any chance, you would have a directory like: /somewhere/backups/2011/home/ray/Pictures,
this would be excluded from the backup using Old_Guy command, and will be included using mine modification.

Never had occasion to try it but would

--nodir /home/ray/

I have tested this and it is fully equivalent to --nodir /home/ray (without the final slash), one important things is that --nodir option expect as argument a directory (or a perl regular expression expanding to a list of directoryies), you are going to have undocumented behavior when using file-names as arguments.

--nofile /home/ray/  

This is incorrect, not allowed from mylivecd help page, which state arguments must be a file name (or a perl regular expression that expand to a list of file-name)

--nodir /home/ray/*   --nofile /home/ray/*

Because using these expression, there are great chances to include both file-names and directories names in addition to each other, this would lead to unexpected results.

IMHO the above limitations should be highlighted on "mylivecd --help" page.

AS

[OldGuy]

thanks OldGuy, yeah that seems to be the way to go, I just thought there would be an easier way to exclude /home/ray without typing --nodir /home/ray/Pictures, etc. for 50 or 60 folders. I thought I could exclude the entire /home/ray and then re-create it, but that seems to be where I ran into trouble last time. I did back up my entire /home/ray using Lucky backup to an external drive but had to put it all back on the new install to /home/guest.

If you have 50-60 folders (eek), I would suggest you move them all to a unique folder under home, named like "offline",
or another name that might be ideal.  That way you could use one --nodir /home/ray/offine instead of lot's of --nodir's.

I have my mylivecd line written in a text file, which I open, and copy to the command line.  I'm an old guy and hate typing!
luckybackup is an easy tool to use and with the remaster I think creates the perfect team for backup.  Good luck.

And, I would suggest using the corrected form as AS suggested (some folks are in the know!)
     mylivecd  --gzip   --nodir ^/home/ray/offline new.iso

[Neal ManBear]

The command mylivecd --help will show you the available options.    
Example:    
mylivecd --nodir ^/home/ray/ ray.iso --- will create an iso completely without user ray. To avoid an iso without a user account, create a new user before remastering.    

[ff103]

If you have 50-60 folders (eek), I would suggest you move them all to a unique folder under home, named like "offline",
or another name that might be ideal.  That way you could use one --nodir /home/ray/offine instead of lot's of --nodir's.

I have my mylivecd line written in a text file, which I open, and copy to the command line.  I'm an old guy and hate typing!
luckybackup is an easy tool to use and with the remaster I think creates the perfect team for backup.  Good luck.

And, I would suggest using the corrected form as AS suggested (some folks are in the know!)
     mylivecd  --gzip   --nodir ^/home/ray/offline new.iso
[/quote]

Yeah I just counted and their are 62 folders that amount to 14 gigs of info. I like the idea of having the live cd command saved to a text file, I think I will use that, thank you. And also moving the folders to my external drive for safe keeping and then moving them back when I may need to use my remaster, and I will certainly take any suggestion that AS has to offer, I think I am a little clearer on this remaster business now, thank you all very much for your advice and suggestions.

[ff103]

The command mylivecd --help will show you the available options.    
Example:    
mylivecd --nodir ^/home/ray/ ray.iso --- will create an iso completely without user ray. To avoid an iso without a user account, create a new user before remastering.    

Thanks Neal: thats what I thought I was doing when I did my remaster to install to my new computer, but as you can see from that last thread, I made some what of a mess of things and AS had to bail me out.

[Neal ManBear]

And, I would suggest using the corrected form as AS suggested (some folks are in the know!)
     mylivecd  --gzip   --nodir ^/home/ray/offline new.iso

     
The --gzip option is for older hardware. The resulting iso will be larger and less compressed than what results from using the default option.     

[Just17]

OK, the nodir exclusion has to be given a definite pattern and wildcard '*' is not acceptable in a grep search, IIUC.

The  nofile  exclusion then, according to the man page, should follow the same scheme ....  needing a pattern for searching .....  no wildcard either.

(I had not understood the necessity for a pattern)

This, on the surface, would appear to be limiting.

So to ensure no user account files are included in a remaster the only method would be to omit that user altogether ......  creating a new (empty) user for the purpose of remastering, as Neal said.

Pity .....  it would be nice if the user could be retained while omitting ALL files and directories under the user name.

[ff103]

"So to ensure no user account files are included in a remaster the only method would be to omit that user altogether ......  creating a new (empty) user for the purpose of remastering, as Neal said.

Pity .....  it would be nice if the user could be retained while omitting ALL files and directories under the user name"

O K , so here is where I got confused the last time . when I made my remaster, I excluded /home/ray completely. I had a /home/guest account on that same remaster and guest had no files in it's /home. When I booted my remaster, I still had a login for user "ray" and for user "guest", When I tried to login with user "ray" and his password, I was told something to the effect that he didn't exist, so I logged in with user "guest" and his password, and did the install from there, and then I had to fix/change with the help of AS the /home/guest back to /home/ray , BUT, the user login after the remaster install was still user/ray with ray's password and when I clicked on my home icon, It opened Dolphin with /home/guest. That's where I got really confused.

[Just17]

"So to ensure no user account files are included in a remaster the only method would be to omit that user altogether ......  creating a new (empty) user for the purpose of remastering, as Neal said.

Pity .....  it would be nice if the user could be retained while omitting ALL files and directories under the user name"

O K , so here is where I got confused the last time . when I made my remaster, I excluded /home/ray completely. I had a /home/guest account on that same remaster and guest had no files in it's /home. When I booted my remaster, I still had a login for user "ray" and for user "guest", When I tried to login with user "ray" and his password, I was told something to the effect that he didn't exist, so I logged in with user "guest" and his password, and did the install from there, and then I had to fix/change with the help of AS the /home/guest back to /home/ray , BUT, the user login after the remaster install was still user/ray with ray's password and when I clicked on my home icon, It opened Dolphin with /home/guest. That's where I got really confused.

All reference to 'ray' was excluded from the filesystem .....  even though ray was listed as a user. You could not - naturally - delete ray as a user on your original install 

I suspect that is why you saw 'ray' but could not make use of that account .......  ray existed in the user list, but not in the filesystem.

regards