torios team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Israel,

The iso file's file system ISO9660 is read only. Unetbootin and
usb-creator-usb pick the files and write them to a read-write file
system, usually FAT32. This is nothing special with ToriOS, 9w or the
OBI. You will not solve that feature/problem with uniquity.

-o-

If you want specific partitioning, you can get it with a combination of
gparted and the OBI. This works already in the current version of ToriOS
to create dual boot and multi boot systems with one or several drives.

* Advanced OBI level *

1. gparted

Create a partition table with the partitions you want. It can be either
old-style MSDOS alias MBR or GUID partition table alias GPT.

Use can (but need not) make it easy for the OBI and assign *labels*
while in gparted:

'obi-root' (without quotes) for the partition where you intend to
install the root partition

'obi-swap' (without quotes) for the partition you want to use for swap,
which can be shared with other linux distros, if you do not intend to
hibernate.

2. the OBI

Select advanced OBI level and proceed. The OBI will let you select root
partition and swap partition among the existing ones. The selected
partitions will be formatted and overwritten, and a bootloader will be
installed pointing to the currently installed system. Reboot into this
system and run

sudo update-grub

to get dual or multi booting.

* More advanced partitioning *

But if you want separate partitions for home, boot, usr etc, you must
use another method for the installation, and here is where there might
be a need for ubiquity.

* OEM installation *

Even if you use the OBI to install an OEM system from a tarball,
ubiquity will be used in the final stage to create the final user's
settings.

-o-

So even I would say that ubiquity should be bundled with ToriOS, maybe
not in the first version, but in the next version, or in a DVD version
(oversized for CD disks), while we must keep a very lean CD version.

* UEFI *

I don't think that ToriOS is targeting computers where it must dual boot
with Windows in UEFI mode. Anyway, it adds a lot of complexity, and I
suggest that we stay away from it.

Best regards
Nio

Den 2014-09-14 15:05, Israel skrev:
> Hi Nio,
> Ah ha! The disk is read only.
> That sums it up.
> I suppose I could make ubiquity based installers for those who want
> persistence... though I don't think the Live system is the main point of
> this OS.
> Though it would be good to offer a way to install with specific
> partitioning.
> I will look more into all of this closer to the 2.0 version of Tori OS.
> For now this issue is something that will be put on the back burner.
> 
> On 09/14/2014 06:09 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
>> Thanks for this explanation, Phill :-)
>>
>> Best regards/Nio
>>
>> Den 2014-09-14 12:49, Phill Whiteside skrev:
>>> The hybrid kernel (the 'live' one) can be used for either system. It is
>>> the 'standard' kernel with some added extras to make it usable on Live
>>> CD that ubuntu (and others) use. The additions are classed as 'patches'
>>> and ubuntu adds them by default.
>>>
>>> The original kernel is more a 'server' kernel with no LiveCD capability,
>>> as such is not needed on a server.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Phill.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 14 September 2014 08:41, Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx
>>> <mailto:nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Den 2014-09-14 04:21, Israel skrev:
>>>     > Hi all,
>>>     > I have been looking into making a persistent USB image after our
>>>     meeting
>>>     > today, and I am not entirely sure I can, though Nio may have better
>>>     > insight here.
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     http://askubuntu.com/questions/78098/how-to-chroot-into-persistent-installation
>>>     >
>>>     > I am not entirely sure if this is something we can do for ToriOS 1.0,
>>>     > but it may be very important to look into.  I am sure the OBI
>>>     system can
>>>     > benefit from having persistent data, as this will make it easier
>>>     to make
>>>     > a tarball on the live system.  I could be wrong about this but I
>>>     wanted
>>>     > to put this info out here in case someone wants to look into
>>>     this.  I am
>>>     > not going to mess with this until ToriOS 1.0 is ready.... as it is
>>>     there
>>>     > is enough going on :)
>>>     >
>>>     > Also, I have been tossing around the idea of adding a Panel along the
>>>     > bottom with buttons for The manual and the Installer.  I think this
>>>     > would be a good idea, rather than using a custom menu for the Live OS,
>>>     > it could be a custom interface... this would make the installer easily
>>>     > discoverable.
>>>     >
>>>     > Any thoughts?
>>>     >
>>>     Hi,
>>>
>>>     @ Israel and all,
>>>
>>>     * Persistance *
>>>
>>>     I agree that persistence is not an urgent matter at this moment, it is
>>>     easy enough to make a portable installed system to a USB drive with the
>>>     OBI installer. This does not mess with the bootloader of the internal
>>>     drive (which the standard installers do, unless you change that
>>>     manually).
>>>
>>>     Persistence may be straight-forward to get using Unetbootin or the
>>>     Startup Disk Creator alias usb-creator-gtk, or to do it manually
>>>     (creating a casper-rw file or partition. But in this case, it is not
>>>     possible to use mkusb, because it makes a read-only drive with the
>>>     ISO9660 file system. You can make a persistent live system if the file
>>>     system in read-write, typically fat32 or ext2. I can make a quick check,
>>>     if there is something important missing.
>>>
>>>     It also depends on the kernel. That should be no problem in 12.04, but
>>>     in 14.04 you must select the correct non-pae kernel. I think Phill made
>>>     one for installed systems and one for live systems, and you need the
>>>     kernel for live systems also for persistent live systems.
>>>
>>>     * Bottom panel *
>>>
>>>     I think a significant part of the usage of ToriOS will be with the
>>>     original netboot resolution, 1000x600, and then an extra solid bottom
>>>     panel will eat desktop space, which is already scarce. So I suggest that
>>>     you avoid a bottom panel.I don't particularly like autohiding panels,
>>>     they tend to appear by mistake and damage the work flow, when you move
>>>     the cursor to a place near the autohiding panel's edge of the screen.
>>>     Instead I suggest to put the manual and the installer as desktop icons
>>>     in the live system, and the manual as a desktop icon also in the
>>>     installed system.
>>>
>>>     -o-
>>>
>>>     @ Phill, have you merged those non-pae kernels now, so that one kernel
>>>     works well for live as well as installed systems?
>>>
>>>     Best regards
>>>     Nio
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw
> 
>