Project : a Bento Openbox antiX

[Anonymous]

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it’s a 17.4 antiX
. . .
I have chosen “Testing” when I started the install, using antixsources.sh
. . .
specify to remove the antixsources.sh desktop file (or hide it) and the antix installer at the end of install time?

Prior to launching the snapshot tool:

1) edit /etc/iso-snapshot.conf
and change the last line from force_installer=true to
force_installer=false

2) sudo apt purge antix-installer && sudo apt purge antix-install-data

3) sudo apt-mark manual antix-installer && sudo apt-mark manual antix-install-data
Optionally, you can followup with “apt-mark showhold” to confirm the held status of those packages.

4) sudo updatedb

5) (optional) Verify that these files are now absent:
/usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop
/usr/local/bin/antixsources.sh
(NOTE: If the package “live-init-antix” ever receives a package update, the above 2 files will be reinstalled if missing)
/usr/share/applications/minstall.desktop
/usr/sbin/minstall

6) Verify that entries for the now non-existent items are now absent from the desktop menu.
If you are shipping any of the (JWM, IceWM, fluxbox) window managers in addition to openbox, you may need to edit their menu template files residing under /etc/skel/ …and as well as the menu files residing under /root/ and /home/demo/

^—v
Here I’ll show the result when I checked just now.
On a freshly dist-upgraded pristine 17.4.1 system, your result may be slightly different.

$ cd /etc/skel
demo@antix1:/etc/skel
$ sudo grep -inr 'antixsources'
.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/pb_antiX-fluxbox:6:
     <icon x="34" y="336" label="Install">/usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop</icon>
.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/pb_antiX-icewm:6:
     <icon x="34" y="336" label="Install">/usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop</icon>
.config/rox.sourceforge.net/ROX-Filer/pb_antiX-jwm:6:
     <icon x="34" y="336" label="Install">/usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop</icon>
.fluxbox/menu:75:    [exec] (antiX Installer) {sudo antixsources.sh} </usr/share/icons/msystem.png>
.icewm/menu:51:
     prog "antiX Installer" /usr/share/icons/msystem.png sudo antixsources.sh
demo@antix1:/etc/skel
$ sudo grep -inr 'minstall'
demo@antix1:/etc/skel

7) Edit the ControlCenter app ~~ remove the block of lines which reference the non-existent installer.
/usr/local/bin/antixcc.sh
NOTE: unless you “sudo apt-mark hold control-centre-antix” (a choice that I am reluctant to recommend)
the antixcc.sh will wind up overwritten (and your edit lost) when that package is updated.

installer_prog=/usr/sbin/minstall
[ -x $installer_prog -a -n "$ITS_ALIVE" ] && installer_entry=$(entry \
    $ICONS2/msystem.png \
    "gksudo $installer_prog &" \
    $"Install antiX Linux")

8) Are we having fun yet? After all the above, there will still be a few loose ends. For instance
/usr/bin/repo-manager
Tab2 of that app facilitates user selection of alternative debian repos.
It’s your call ~~ edit /usr/bin/repo-manager (to remove the unwanted functionality), or lather, rinse, repeat…

$ dpkg-query -S /usr/bin/repo-manager
repo-manager: /usr/bin/repo-manager

… by purging the package, apt-mark hold -ing the package, and stripping from menus+controlCenter any repo-manager references

[Member melodie]

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Anonymous wrote:

5) (optional) Verify that these files are now absent:
/usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop
/usr/local/bin/antixsources.sh
(NOTE: If the package “live-init-antix” ever receives a package update, the above will be reinstalled if missing)

Exactly, as they do belong to the live-init-antix package.

So what are you telling me? To remove the installer, purge it, hold it (where and when do I reinstall it prior to making the respin? I have read carefully, and I don’t find the sense into it.

I just need to add the two package names in a “post-install-removal” file, so that antix-installer and live-init-antix are removed by the installer, at the end of install, right before rebooting.

The goal : once installed on bare metal, we don’t want the installer to be still in the system.

About the other little problem, consisting in wanting to have the launcher for the install, on the desktop, when in the Live, I will try this next week:

add a lign such as this, in the rc.local file located in /usr/share/live-files/files/etc/ :

if [ -d $HOME/Desktop ]; then
     cp /usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop $HOME/Desktop
fi

I am not sure where in that one rc.local file thought. I just noticed that among several “rc.local” files living in the system, this one is copied straight to /etc in the live session. So, perhaps this will do the trick?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by melodie.

[Member melodie]

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Skidoo: I don’t use the antix control center (no control center at all), and I have removed all the other desktops. At some point I’ll try to remove the entry for the list of desktops from the boot time.
you can give a whirl to the last version made today, if you wish. https://capucine.phillw.org/

Thanks again!

PS: I don’t think “rince/repeat” may help here. The post-install removal should be setup to be automatic, so that the distributed versions are ready for everyone. (Or is there something I have not understood in your explanation?)

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by melodie.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by melodie.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by melodie.

[Anonymous]

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Whoops, I misunderstood your goal to be “live-only distro, not intended for installation to hard drive”.

By design, the O/S installation-to-hard-disk process already removes itself (the installer package) from the installed system.
leafpad /usr/sbin/live-to-installed
(a script belonging to the “installer-data-antix” package)
Mentioned earlier, I would recommend declaring any additional customized removals within this script.

If you want to place a rc.local -ish script to check//remove during each startup, refer to
man update-rc.d

[Member melodie]

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Anonymous wrote:

By design, the O/S installation-to-hard-disk process already removes itself (the installer package) from the installed system.
leafpad /usr/sbin/live-to-installed
(a script belonging to the “installer-data-antix” package)
Mentioned earlier, I would recommend declaring any additional customized removals within this script.

Hello,

I have checked the file, it does indeed have a removal entry near the beginning of the script, I also checked with grep that it is called by the minstall binary, the result is positive. But the installer is not removed at post install, and is still there once the system has rebooted.

The ISO is available, I pointed to the download page, would you be willing to check?

If you want to place a rc.local -ish script to check//remove during each startup, refer to
man update-rc.d

As I said, I can add the line in the said rc.local, because it replaces the current rc.local that seats in /etc during the live session only, and after that is automatically replaced again by the regular one. I’d rather have this desktop file on the Desktop during the live session only, in a way that uses the loop : that’s to say, use what is already there. I’ll try that next, starting tomorrow.

[Member melodie]

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Hi,

for a reminder for myself:

squashfs-root/usr/local/bin/live-launcher-install.sh 
#! /bin/bash
# File Name: live-launcher-install.sh
# Purpose: script to get the installer launcher on the Desktop in live sessions

if   [ "$HOME" = "demo" ] && [ -d "$HOME/Desktop" ]; then
     cp /usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop "$HOME/Desktop/"
fi

and
mksquashfs squashfs-root linuxfs -comp xz -b 262144

also, the temporary /etc/rc.local needs:

# To get the installer launcher on the Desktop in live sessions
/usr/local/bin/live-launcher-install.sh

[Member melodie]

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New files,

# cat /tmp/squashfs-root/usr/local/share/live-files/files/etc/<strong>xdg/autostart/launcher-install.desktop</strong> 
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=Install Bento antiX
Name[fr]=Installer Bento antiX
Comment=Initiate install
Comment[fr]=Démarrer l'installation
Exec=/usr/local/bin/live-launcher-install.sh
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false

# cat /tmp/squashfs-root/usr/local/bin/live-launcher-install.sh 
#! /bin/bash
# File Name: live-launcher-install.sh
# Purpose: script to get the installer launcher on the Desktop in live sessions

if   [ -d "/live" ] && [ -d "/home/demo" ]; then
     cp /usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop "/home/demo/Desktop/"
fi

The above script worked in en Live, but was not triggered from within rc.local, so I try a different way with a desktop file located inside a “xdg/autostart” subdir in “squashfs-root/usr/local/share/live-files/files/etc/”.

Hopefully it will work, and also be removed at post-install.

[Member melodie]

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Now it works, I GET THE LAUNCHER on the Live Desktop! But only with the file “launcher-install.desktop” placed in /etc/xdg/autostart. I am not sure why it would not do the job if placed into the “live-files” section. (I’d like to avoid still having it in the system after install).

Adding a line to script to avoid having a window asking for executable / not executable:

#! /bin/bash
# File Name: live-launcher-install.sh
# Purpose: script to get the installer launcher on the Desktop in live sessions

if   [ -d "/live" ] && [ -d "/home/demo" ]; then
     cp /usr/share/applications/antix/antixsources.desktop "/home/demo/Desktop/"

else
     chmod a+x "/home/demo/Desktop/antixsources.desktop"

fi

[Member melodie]

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Hello !

Now everything works, mostly.

Once the system is installed, the installer has not been removed : antix-installer and live-init-antix are still in the system.

I’ll check again once I will have installed this last edition on bare metal and updated, in case the last updates provide a fix.

The ISO can be found here: https://capucine.phillw.org/

[ ] bento-antiX-20191014_1800.iso 2019-10-14 18:09 680M
[ ] bento-antiX-20191014_1800.iso.md5 2019-10-14 18:09 64
[ ] bento-antiX-20191014_1800.iso.sha512 2019-10-14 18:09 160

To see the resources used, you can display htop in the menu > system > sakura (it gives the amount and % cpu and ram used, in urxvt it provides less information).

It is the lightness of antiX, with the simplicity of the Bento Openbox, an Openbox made easy for all.

Thanks for the help received, thanks for antiX. All further help will be welcome to make Bento antiX even better!

[Member melodie]

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Hello,

I have been able to install my respin to two different computers, one tower with an old AMD processor and a laptop with an intel dual core processor, no pain on this side. But afterwards I wanted to make some slight changes and respin again, and could not. I was unable to do so in any of the two machines. I tried once without updating, once with updating, I tried again several times with more changes, no way.

I get this message : “Could not state /.bind-root, no such file or directory” plus one more message inviting me to check for disk space. Well there is plenty space. About /.bind-root, I don’t know, I even tried to create manually a /.bind-root directory, then the iso-installer-antix tool continued a bit and finished with a “hurrah” without even copying files or compressing anything. So the result was a few meaningless files.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for helping.

[Forum Admin BitJam]

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melodie wrote:

Hello, my test version number 7 starts to have more or less the right behavior, just this strange thing that happens at the first boot of the live, the distro given name is replaced with the macro commands, which is very very ugly.

Please see the screenshot, and please tell me how I can get the system to display the dedicated name instead of the macro commands?

The tool to fix this is in my build-iso repo. This repo contains the tools used to build both the antiX and MX distro iso files. If you are serious about making a respin then you may want to learn to use these tools some day. It is best to start off with snapshots like you are doing now.

The tool to fill in those blanks is Tools/bootloader-template.

This tools is also used in my antiX-Gfxboot repo which is used to create our live bootloaders. I have a “Tools” symlink in this repo to the Tools directory of the build-iso repo.

We have tried to make our build process as open and as accessible as possible although it may not seem this way. Several people have mastered the use of build-iso to create their own ongoing repsins.

I believe the lead developers of both antiX and MX rely on a live system with persistence and remastering to build their prototypes of our releases. We designed the live system to be the best OS development environment possible (for OSes based on antiX or MX, but in theory it could be ported to others as well). The combination of semi-automatic persistence coupled with live-remaster and “rollback” give an OS developer tremendous flexibility and safety. Add notes every time you do a remaster. These are saved in the file /etc/live/version/linuxfs.ver so you can trace back the linage of your live system.

For your situation, you can run snapshot on your live development system to make iso files for others to use. If you don’t have a fast usb-stick and fast usb-port then you can do a frugal install to run live off of your hard drive.

IMO these automation tools and the live development environment have helped both antiX and MX become real contenders in the distro world while at the same time have small enough teams to allow devs and leaders to interact with users in the forums. This is good for users, obviously, but it also helps devs “keep it real” and be in touch with the needs of users and know what works and what doesn’t.

We heavily invested our extremely limited developer resources on the live system and on automation. IMO that investment paid off handsomely for antiX and now for MX as well.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by BitJam.

Context is worth 80 IQ points -- Alan Kay

[Member melodie]

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Hello BitJam,

I would most certainly like to learn new ways to create ISOs for redistribution, however I am almost sure I will crually lack time for that. I have climbed learning curves in doing so before this is why I think I can say for sure. I learned to use a script from within a running distribution, as it is here, I have learned to do so with Ubuntu using a chroot and rebuild using the python script “Customizer“, which is nice too. Ideally, “Customizer for antiX” would be lovely! It’s soo easy to use, either with the GUI or even easier with the command line (on a remote server for instance), it is a wonder why it’s not known more widely.

Now, if I stick to the rebuilds inside a running antiX edition, why does isn’t the produced ISO capable of providing the same advantage? I mean:

1/ install antiX
2/ tweak it, rebuild the system
3/ install the resulting new ISO on bare metal to another computer
4/ retweak it (ie : update, add a program, change a detail) and rebuild it : build fails!

?

(just the name at boot isn’t the problem anymore, because editing the isolinux.cfg file has done the job).

Also I find strange that after I installed my respin, there is no symlink pointing to ‘/boot/vmlinuz’ and ‘/boot/initrd.im’g in the ‘/’ directory. Isn’t that strange?

Many thanks for your kind help.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by melodie.

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