1st Remaster Kinda Works....

[mr-roboto]

Have been using PCLOS-LXDE-2010.12 for at least three months as an important diagnostic tool for fixing PC+laptops.  I am very pleased with its performance and PCLOS has almost completely replaced a much older, well-known Linux live CD.  I wanted to make a few tweaks [have to change LXTerminal's bkgd color from transparent every time I use the disc !] and additions, so I started working on a remastering my own LXDE disc last Wed 25 May.

I make many bootable tool discs using VMWare Workstation, so I created a VM and installed PCLOS.  My 1st attempt failed at the very beginning of the boot process, due to the 'Unable to mount loop filesystem' error, which I corrected by upgrading the kernel of PCLOS installation.  This system made it to the LXDE desktop, but various things failed on that ISO.  Since then, I've made bootable ISOs (which I've burned and tested on real PCs) and while every disc boots to the LXDE desktop, every disc fails in the same ways, so that it's completely useless.

On Sat 28 May, I started all over from the LXDE-Mini master and tried the following:

• Install to sda1.  Took the default partitioning scheme on a single 8GB virtual drive.
• Made some minor tweaks in LXDE Control Center (ie. lengthen mouse double-clicks, change PCFM to open files on double-click, auto-login the Guest account, etc.)
• Configure network time support in PCLOS Control Center.
• Update packages via Synaptic and add draklive-install.
• BleachBit and BleachBit Root.
• Run mylivecd.

Here's the log of the mylivecd run for pclos-mini-0.2.iso from Sun 29-May:

[localhost-Sun May 29-15:14:43]
root-pt1
/home/guest $> time mylivecd --lzma --splash=no --verbose pclos-mini-0.2.iso
mylivecd, version 0.9.3, http://pclinuxos.com/
Copyright (C) 2010, Texstar <texstar at gmail.com>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Disabling Services not needed on the LiveCD

running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: chkconfig --del atd
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: chkconfig --del crond
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: chkconfig --del syslog
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: chkconfig --del kheader
running: /sbin/chkconfig --list
running: chkconfig --del xinetd


Creating initrd:                                   [101.71% 00:00:09/00:00:09]tar: ./etc/sysconfig/clock.orig: time stamp 2011-05-29 17:02:16 is 6247.483755805 s in the future| (cd /tmp/mylivecd.4835 ...
                                                   [100.00% 00:00:15/00:00:15]
Setting filesystem parameters:                     [100.00% 00:00:08/00:00:13]
Creating compressed image:                         [100.00% 00:26:55/00:27:16]
Creating isolinux boot:                            [100.00% 00:00:01/00:00:01]
Creating final iso:                                [100.00% 00:00:20/00:00:20]
Embedding MD5 checksum:                            [100.00% 00:00:17/00:00:17]
                                                                             
Restoring Services on the installed system

running: chkconfig --add atd
running: chkconfig --add crond
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 2
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 3
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 4
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 5
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 2
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 3
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 4
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 5
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 2
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 3
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 4
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 5
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 2
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 3
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 4
Warning: syslog is needed by crond in runlevel 5
running: chkconfig --add syslog
running: chkconfig --add kheader
running: chkconfig --add xinetd

Created 'pclos-mini-0.2.iso' (599,363,584 bytes) in 00:28:02

84.36user 1466.38system 28:02.07elapsed 92%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 582544maxresident)k
6367530inputs+2497328outputs (167major+6896023minor)pagefaults 0swaps
[localhost-Sun May 29-15:45:57]
root-pt1
/home/guest $>

The warning about /etc/sysconfig/clock.orig is due to the time being wrong, until I changed the time manually (via date), then remembered to configure the NTPD daemon.

I confirmed (via MD5 sig) that the ISO successfully made the transfer from VM to the real world.  Burned a disc from the ISO and rebooted on my main PC.  The normal strean of messages was interrupted by:

ACPI: Aborted because no cpio magic

The disc continued to boot to the LXDE desktop.  The system recognized my WiFi adapter, but not my audio.  In fact, on every system I try a remastered disc on, the volume is always zeroed-out, unlike the original PCLOS disc, which always has volume set at 80%.  Firefox gets me around the net, I could not use NTP applet in the PCLOS Control Center.  The NTP, Audio, and Video applets fail with a 'The program terminated abnormally' dialog box.  I also ran the 'Media Check' from CD menu and no errors were detected.

I also want to point out that since I chose to stick the original kernel for my remaster, I explicitly used '--lzma' at mylivecd time, as shown in the log.  With my mini-0.2 remaster, I tried to make the fewest structural changes to the WORKING Mini system image, for the best chance at success.  Moreover, I don't need extensive changes to PCLOS, for my purposes.

I tried the latest kernel, as well as an interim kernel (can't get the actual numbers, til I finish this post, reboot my PC, and fire up VMWare), but no joy.  For the record, I've reinstalled the full and mini LXDE images and everything works perfectly under VMWare, including every single app [Chromium, Audacious, VLC, GParted, SMPlayer, et al] I've installed via Synaptic.

I may be missing something trivial, but it must be right under my nose, so I can't see it.  TIA....Jet

[AS]

The disc continued to boot to the LXDE desktop.  The system recognized my WiFi adapter, but not my audio.  In fact, on every system I try a remastered disc on, the volume is always zeroed-out, unlike the original PCLOS disc, which always has volume set at 80%.  Firefox gets me around the net, I could not use NTP applet in the PCLOS Control Center.  The NTP, Audio, and Video applets fail with a 'The program terminated abnormally' dialog box.  I also ran the 'Media Check' from CD menu and no errors were detected.

Hi mr-roboto,

about audio:
look like mylivecd explicitly exclude the audio configuration file (/var/lib/alsa/asound.state) from the new ISO, I think to avoid problems when reinstalling to a different system, so it does for other configuration files, i.e. /etc/X11/xorg.conf, network card configuration, and others.

My answer is to point out the above, in fact, depending on future use of the new ISO (reinstalling the same system vs. installing to a new system) the desirable behavior is a little different. Don't know about the others applets related issue you have pointed out, may be they are specific to LXDE, because I never noticed about using KDE.

AS

[mr-roboto]

<snip>

Hi mr-roboto,

about audio:
look like mylivecd explicitly exclude the audio configuration file (/var/lib/alsa/asound.state) from the new ISO, I think to avoid problems when reinstalling to a different system, so it does for other configuration files, i.e. /etc/X11/xorg.conf, network card configuration, and others.

My answer is to point out the above, in fact, depending on future use of the new ISO (reinstalling the same system vs. installing to a new system) the desirable behavior is a little different. Don't know about the others applets related issue you have pointed out, may be they are specific to LXDE, because I never noticed about using KDE.

AS

AS:

Thank you for your feedback.  After a couple days of additional testing since my original post, I'm pleased to report I'm typing this message from my 2nd successful true remaster !  The "trip"  has been bumpy, but ultimately rewarding.  I'm listening to Pat Metheny Radio (a Jazz Internet Radio station), as create this message.  There's a bit more work to do, before I get my final "PCLOS tech-disc", but I'll elaborate on my journey for those who may follow.

My primary problem seems to have been related to repository issues.  I know I had been selecting multiple repos initially, something I came to learn is a no-no [can't recall the message, in order to provide a link.]  I also suspect the repo at the top of my list.  Using a single different repo (vim.org and ucalgary.ca) had led to three working remastered ISOs.

The 1st ISO was simply Phoenix/XFCE with a few interface tweaks, no new packages, but a new repo (vim.org.)   This ISO worked fine, but I've come to prefer LXDE, even though I've used and liked XFCE [on other distros] in the past.

The 2nd ISO was based on LXDE Mini, no new packages, the same interface tweaks, and the same repo (vim.org.)  The current ISO is a fresh install of LXDE Mini, with several packages, but not the complete update of the LXDE Mini image, and another repo (ucalgary.ca, because it's closer and a bit faster.)  My next attempt will be a full update of the currently working LXDE Mini image.

Essentially, everything works, except for Audacious.  At no time, including remaster attempts prior to the ones listed above, has Audacious ever worked from a PCLOS live CD.  Audacious works flawlessly on the host PCLOS system, but not on the live CD remastered from that host.  It never even displays a window, but as soon as one tries to relaunch Audacious, there's a dialog indicating the program is already running.  Anyway, I've decided to abandon my pursuit of Audacious.

One other oddity:  I use PCLOS to test various components of PCs that come through my shop (I fix PCs for a major retailer), especially networking and audio.  Yesterday, I was testing a Dell XPS desktop and tried to play streaming audio from Shoutcast (forgot to add audio files to my disc.)  Simply didn't work, not the embedded Shoutcast player, the popup Shoutcast player, nor VLC.  However, I move to entirely different website (gotradio.com) and streaming audio worked perfectly !  To make things more confusing, streaming audio from Shoutcast works perfectly on my own PC !  Go figure....Jet

[Tuxfriend]

After updating, when I do a remaster, put it on a USB stick, it works until selection of the keyboard. I can neither use the keyboard, nor the mouse, nor the touchpad.