[Solved]: ISO Snapshot of a live system?

[Member redrooster]

Greetings everyone, a new user here.

Can I do an ISO Snapshot of a remastered antiX live system without having to install it?

[Moderator ModdIt]

Hi redrooster, Below should work, I do not know a practical tool with gui.

To make an ISO from your stick and create a file named “bootableusb.iso” Example in your current working directory.
$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=bootableusb.iso
Replace c in device path with your own drive letter

After your iso is created you will also have to do
$ sudo chown $USER:$USER bootableusb.iso
as the iso image will be owned by root due sudo usage.

[Member Xecure]

redrooster wrote:

Can I do an ISO Snapshot of a remastered antiX live system without having to install it?

Xecure wrote:

It will give you the option of including your user information, so the image will be almost identical to the running system (except removing some specific machine configurations, so you can boot the ISO form any/all other computer).
It is even able to snapshot a Live system with any modifications (even if they are not saved in persistence).

[Member redrooster]

Thank you everybody for your fast responses.

I’m sorry for taking up your time but I just had figured out how to do it. Nevertheless thank you for reaching out, much appreciated.

For anyone wondering the ISO Snapshot tool wasn’t working properly and I got the following error message : FATAL ERROR:Failed to open exclude file “/usr/local/share/excludes/iso-snapshot-exclude.list” because No such file or directory”.

Very similar problem to https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/19-3-iso-snapshot-problem/

In order to fix it i had to upgrade the iso-template-antix package with the commands in terminal and actually create an empty file named iso-snapshot-exclude.list in the above mentioned directory.

I don’t know what it was all about, but it is working now and I’m a happy camper.

Once again thank you both.

[Member skidoo]

In order to fix it i had to upgrade the iso-template-antix package with the commands in terminal and actually create an empty file named iso-snapshot-exclude.list in the above mentioned directory.

Ouch!
Given a blank “excludes” list, I’m half surprised that the operation was able to complete.
The exclusions are necessary. Without ’em, I would not trust the resulting product to boot/run successfully. IMO, you should discard that iso you created while a blank exclusions file was present.

Failing all else, you can retrieve the expected default content of the excludes file here:
https://gitlab.com/antiX-Linux/iso-snapshot-antix/-/raw/master/iso-snapshot-exclude.list

[Member skidoo]

This is at least the second time we have heard a report from someone who encounterd this “bug” and creatively but naively accomplished a “fix” by touching a blank exclusions file.

It stands as a reminder of why all the machines I support locally are still/only running antix 17
(No package upgrades may be installed until a trusted admin manually screens and approves them.
Otherwise, I/we will likely refuse to “support” a malaffected machine and instead just advise
“smoke ’em if ya got ’em — reinstall from backup“)

IMO, when one chooses to use antiX / debian stable repositories,
one should not be subjected to the type of break /fix shite evident here in this topic.

For a small project like antiX, it’s a catch-22 ~~ although only field-tested releases should be pushed to stable repository… few/none testers available to test new version releases of software (other than supplicants of the coughstablecough repository)

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by skidoo.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

Documented under known issues

antiX-19.3 (Manolis Glezos) bug-fix/upgrade isos available

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member redrooster]

Hello all,

yes upgrading the iso-snapshot-antix and iso-template-antix packages as described in the link above given by anticapitalista solves the problem. My mistake and a good reminder to read the release notes before using a new system. Anyway staying true to the antiX philosophy i never intended to install antiX on any of my machines but use it as a live usb system.

Out of curiosity using the usb live maker made a running system out of the snapshot with the blank exclusions file and it worked fine. Boots and runs successfully.

Again thanks to all for your help and forgive me for wasting your valuable time.

[Moderator ModdIt]

Hi redrooster,
not a waste of time, it made me aware that the antiX tool is fixed and able to make an iso from live with controllable exclusions.
My last used command line method makes a one to one image. Both methods have there use cases.

[Author]

Posts