Error message on remaster install

[Taco.22]

I was just wondering if anyone has come across this error message when trying to install a remastered version of Ubuntu. 



The pic above shows VBox but I am also having the problem on hard drive.  Currently I am using Pinguy Builder, a fork of the now defunct Remastersys, to build a live ISO of a couple of remixes I am doing of Bento.  The error shows up at some point of the installation - it is all a bit random as to when it will strike.  I have tried using Startup Disk Creator, unetbootin and dd in terminal.  Sometimes one fails to launch the installer, but another will get past that point.  From what I have gleaned online the error message itself is a bit generic - it can mean anything from a failing hard drive to "sorry, we have run out of coffee!!".  I have tried three different hard drives - same result.  I don't have a problem with an ISO dropped straight off the net, but remaster it a couple of times on a hard drive and the error starts to pop up.  It's a bit frustrating, as it wasn't that many years ago that remastering a spin with something like Remastersys was like falling off a log!   

[melodie]

I haven't. As you are working with Virtualbox, it might be something related to the type of virtual image you created, or perhaps some kind of option that would be needed : really I confess I don't know.

If it would be on bare metal, we might look for some inconsistencies in the file system… or some issue with the hard drive. Wondering : have you tried to install and ticked the options meant to update while installing or so? I usually only tick the mp3 non free option, not the rest, to avoid filling the virtual memory. You tell?

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

The problem first arose when I installed a remaster from VBox on to a hard drive.  Eventually I installed a clean Bento to the hard drive and did the all the modifications from scratch.  The problem occurred again with install problems with the remasters.  I have tried three different hard drives, and I don't tick any update options when installing as the new system is already up to date.  I haven't tried Bodhibuilder yet - maybe that might work.  These are all forks of the old Remastersys - maybe inconsistencies are starting to accumulate.  What are you using to create an ISO?   

[melodie]

I use Customizer. I have been using it for years now, and after a while I threw away the gui and used only the console. Soo easy, and so much lighter. Also I use a ssh connection to a remote server to do that, which really eases the whole process.

https://github.com/kamilion/customizer

you can start easily if you follow the startup guidelines, https://github.com/kamilion/customizer/wiki

have fun! 

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

I have taken your suggestion and am trying out Customizer.  I have looked through the documentation and have downloaded it and its dependencies - all except isolinux.  I can't seem to find that anywhere.  I have on the system syslinux, extlinux, but no isolinux.  A search via apt-cache/Synaptic comes up with bootcd, and xorriso which is installed.  When using the install instructions apt-get returns this -

Code: [Sélectionner]

apt-get install git build-essential fakeroot make binutils g++ \
python python-dev python-qt4 pyqt4-dev-tools squashfs-tools \
xorriso x11-xserver-utils xserver-xephyr qemu-kvm dpkg-dev \
debhelper qt4-dev-tools qt4-linguist-tools isolinux \
--no-install-recommends
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package isolinux

Everything else installed.  Then on installation of Customizer this -

Code: [Sélectionner]

cd .. && sudo dpkg --install customizer*.deb
Selecting previously unselected package customizer.
(Reading database ... 293500 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack customizer_4.1.5-0+20170208_all.deb ...
Unpacking customizer (4.1.5-0+20170208) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of customizer:
 customizer depends on isolinux; however:
  Package isolinux is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package customizer (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for menu (2.1.46ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 customizer

I am running an updated Bento 14.04 64bit.  A fair amount of internet searching hasn't thrown up any answers - any ideas?

EDIT - I think I might have worked it out.  I installed instead via the "make install" option found here.  Now to work out how to use it!

EXTRA EDIT - Wow, easy to use.  I tried a quick hack of your Bento.  I like the way Xephyr kicks in when you hit Desktop - really cool - you can trouble-shoot on the run.  However I seem to be back to the original issue, maybe (!) - 

Code: [Sélectionner]

xorriso : UPDATE : 105 files added in 1 seconds
xorriso : FAILURE : Given path does not exist on disk: -boot_image system_area='/usr/lib/ISOLINUX/isohdpfx.bin'
xorriso : UPDATE : 105 files added in 1 seconds
xorriso : aborting : -abort_on 'FAILURE' encountered 'FAILURE'

[melodie]

Taco, have you updated your package base?

Code: [Sélectionner]

$ apt-cache show isolinux
Package: isolinux
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 121
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian QA Group <packages@qa.debian.org>
Architecture: all
Source: syslinux
Version: 3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1
Recommends: syslinux-common
Suggests: xorriso
Filename: pool/main/s/syslinux/isolinux_6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1_all.deb
Size: 44606
MD5sum: 88cc37995f8bfbd74ce87d40f146b098
SHA1: e0d366a579eeb9f330a3da6c4a4d67203008c140
SHA256: aa476094a4d7dff1fa4c0db9749841f3595f567cc721202bd91f1c3500fb3c08
Description-en: collection of bootloaders (ISO 9960 bootloader)
 syslinux is a suite of bootloaders, currently supporting DOS FAT and NTFS
 filesystems (SYSLINUX), Linux ext2/ext3/ext4, btrfs, and xfs filesystems
 (EXTLINUX), PXE network boots (PXELINUX), or ISO 9660 CD-ROMs (ISOLINUX).
 .
 This package contains the bootloader for ISO 9960 CD-ROMs (ISOLINUX).
Description-md5: 022dfbc5d7dbeb65e18812d57c55dc61
Homepage: http://www.syslinux.org/
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Supported: 5y
$


for the rest as I told you I use only the console mode (which is really handy). If I remember xorriso is for the gui methods?


Remember also you first need to edit /etc/customizer.conf

[melodie]

Also get the latest code available, not the one from the old github which is mentioned in the "First guide".

https://github.com/kamilion/customizer follow the green button..

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

Well that got a little complicated as obviously I didn't have the approriate repo activated!  "Apt-cache show isolinux" had nothing to show.  In the end I used "pool/main/s/syslinux/isolinux_6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1_all.deb" as a search term and edited my sources.list appropriately.  I did have the latest Customizer and now all works well. 

I must say that this is so easy it's silly!  It's way less work than configuring a system on a separate or virtual hard drive, and having to remaster an ISO and boot from it before you realise there is a mistake.  This way you can see the result and make corrections, additions or edits on the run.  I can also search the net, use/edit my config files, or edit image files at the same time.  Why haven't I been using this ages ago?!?

Thanks very much for the heads-up on this - much appreciated     

[melodie]

Why haven't I been using this ages ago?!?

[/quote]


because you haven't met with Kamilion, who is a fantastic person. He lives in US west coast, and used Customizer long before he started to take care of the code (which has a history of several maintainers since the original author).

He is the one who has advised me to use it after Ubuntu Builder was obsoleted. You can meet him on the IRC chan #lxde on irc.freenode.net, for instance.

Thanks very much for the heads-up on this - much appreciated 

you are most welcome!

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

Well there had to be a catch somewhere!  Using Customizer to remix the ISO is the easy bit.  Getting the finished ISO onto a USB stick has been an exercise in frustration.  I had used VBox, Pinguy Builder and Customizer on Lou's computer, and I think things were getting a bit confused.  I also kept getting corrupted or borked file systems on USB sticks when trying to install on to them.  I was constantly reformating to fat32 as they failed to boot, or the installer failed to work.  Sometimes there was a "Boot Failure" error right at the start, other times failure struck during installation, and never at quite the same point   To install onto a stick I used Startup Disk Creator, Unetbootin and dd - all were hit and miss.  That error message that I mentioned in the first post even popped up when I was installing Bento 64bit onto my computer, but with an option to skip - hadn't seen that before!

Anyway, long story short, after making many attempts to build and burn a workable ISO on my wife's computer I have done a clean install of Bento 64bit onto my computer (it had the 32bit version previously), modified the system to my specs and then did a clean install of Customizer.  I have remixed my version of Bento in Customizer and installed onto a USB stick with Startup Disk Creator.  On booting Lou's computer I hit a login window.  No go.  However booting straight to the installer worked - I need to boot my computer from another hard drive to see if it goes through with the install.  Am I missing any tweaks that need to be made with Customizer?  I'm also thinking of buying a couple of new USB sticks as mine are starting to get a bit used and abused - they do wear out in the end.

Just for fun I have included a shot of my "desktop", showing embedded terminal at top left, conky at top right, trayer at bottom right, and Thunar in TWIN PANE mode - that's a patched version I found.  It also has a lovely wallpaper I found years ago and still remains my favourite Openbox background.  Maybe I should post a write up of the specs elsewhere.




P.S - I noticed on a post you made somewhere - can't remember where - that you had a Lenovo X220 laptop.  Do you still have it?  We bought a refurbished one for our daughter the year before last.  It's a great laptop and even came with the dock.  I couldn't bring myself to buy a newer crap brand with Windows 10 installed!

[melodie]

Hi, if you want to use "dd" to create your bootable USB devices you need to have isohybrid in the machine installed where you remaster and use a script after building to make a few changes on the ISO created by Customizer. Here is one of them, for an example:

(You get all my little tricks he he!  ;-) )

/Scripts that I orgininally didn't even make myself… But I use them, and tweak them as time goes.

Code: [Sélectionner]

#!/bin/sh

unset RELEASE

ARCH=amd64
VERSION=14.04
ARCHNAME=x86_64
EDITION=5_3
#BUILD=1
USER=melodie
GROUP=users
ISONAME=bento-openbox-$VERSION.$EDITION-$ARCHNAME.iso

mv /home/Ubuntu-$ARCH-$VERSION.iso $ISONAME
chown $USER:$GROUP $ISONAME
chmod a-x $ISONAME
isohybrid $ISONAME
md5sum $ISONAME > $ISONAME.md5sum
chown $USER:$GROUP $ISONAME.md5sum


arguments are in high cases, $XYZY stands for the value you insert after the sign '=' which comes after the argument.

the line "mv /home/Ubuntu-$ARCH-$VERSION.iso $ISONAME"  will have to be tweaked as maybe now the default is having the work directory under "/home/customizer" and no more under "/home" as it used to be, unless you changed that part to something else, then adapt it accordingly.

If you have questions about the rest of the script, please send! (users and groups are different on the remote server on which I build than locally, etc.)

Yes, I still have my x220. I had broken the motherboard, but I bought another one on ebay and I changed it. I don't like the way the keyboard behaves, it feels very jerky, (I type with 10 fingers fast enough) and I don't see any way around, unless I plugin an external keyboard. Is the one you have jerkey? If you know about a solution I'd like to have it.


PS: isohybrid belongs to the syslinux package, which is probably installed in your system.

[Taco.22]

Hi Mélodie,

I'll give that script a run in the next few days - I've tweaked the work directory line.  I only use the X220 when doing maintenance but I don't recall any issues with the keyboard - seemed all normal to me.  Maybe you need to define "jerky".  What I can't stand about laptops is the scroll pad though - I have to connect a mouse!

I had to install isolinux from a 16.04 repo.  Did you get yours from a 14.04 repo or some other place?


EDIT - decided not to wait and tried the script!  Worked out to run as su.  Neat!  Moves the ISO out of the work directory, which allows Customizer to rebuild if needed.  I'll have to dd and boot to see what the result is.

[melodie]

Hi Taco.22,

I checked, and indeed no isolinux in Trusty. To get it, you might want to upgrade to Xenial. In Trusty, I still use an older version of Customizer: http://46.226.109.156/Customizer-2017-14-march.tar.bz2

and it is xorriso which comes out when searching for isolinux (ad bootcd, but xorriso was already in the list of packages to install before compiling customizer):

Code: [Sélectionner]

$ apt-cache search isolinux
xorriso - outil de manipulation ISO-9660 et Rock Ridge en ligne de commande
bootcd - Lance votre système à partir d'un CD sans avoir besoin de disques
(Tried "LANG=C" to output it in English, but it didn't work in that remote system)


You seem to have found a way to make it work in 14.04 with the latest customizer version, so I think it's ok and you don't need to change?