Remastersys

What is remastersys?

Remastersys is a tool that can be used to do 2 things with an existing Debian, Ubuntu or derivative installation.

1. It can make a full system backup including personal data to a live cd or dvd that you can use anywhere and install.
2. It can make a distributable copy you can share with friends. This will not have any of your personal user data in it.

How do you use it?

There are some pre-requisites for the debian version that aren't there for the Ubuntu version.

• You should install squashfs-modules for your kernel and either aufs-modules or unionfs-modules before you install remastersys. On initial testing from a net-inst lenny cd I had not installed these prior and something very bad happened to my install - it was unable to boot and the livecd created was also unusable. I feel it had something to do with building the initramfs. As another safeguard, its recommended to reboot your system after the modules are installed just to ensure it boots properly. If all that goes well, you are fully prepared to install and run remastersys for debian.

• If your kernel doesn't have the squashfs-modules and either the aufs-modules or unionfs-modules, you MUST use a different kernel. No ifs ands or buts about it.

• At the command line, you simply run "remastersys backup" as root to make a full system backup, or "remastersys dist" again as root, to make a distributable copy to share with friends. There is a configuration file - /etc/remastersys.conf where you can set things like the name of the livecd/dvd, the live session username, other files to exclude from the cd/dvd, etc.

If you are a gui person, simply click on the "Remastersys Backup" in the System menu and you can select which option you want to run.

The official version supported by remastersys is lenny and later. If you get it to work with previous versions that is great but not guaranteed nor supported at the moment.

Some notes about using the dist option

You should start with a clean install of Debian and use a single user to make all changes. Clean up history and cache and copy over the contents to /etc/skel but be sure to change the ownership of everything in /etc/skel to root. While the livecd/dvd is being created, you should not open any other apps or windows. If you have customized gdm.conf, it will not be used. live-initramfs, the debian livecd set of scripts copies the /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf over to /etc/gdm/gdm.conf so you MUST put your customizations in /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf if you want them to be used for the livecd.

Some notes about the backup option

You can log into the livecd/dvd with any valid user that was on the system on the hard drive but it is recommended to log into the first one created during the initial installation as that is the user that can sudo.

Lebih Detail

Beberapa perintah penting:

remastersys-installer intl
remastersys-installer intl gui
remastersys-installer
remastersys-installer gui

remastersys-grub-restore
remastersys-grub-restore gui

Referensi

• http://saidalfaraby.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/backup-ubuntucreate-your-own-live-cd/
• http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/remastersystool.html
• http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/debian.html
• http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/ubuntu.html
• http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/capink.html
• http://www.ubuntugeek.com/creating-custom-ubuntu-live-cd-with-remastersys.html

Pranala Menarik

• Linux Howto
• Remastersys: Membuat Ubuntu LiveCD