aw, not what I expected.
create a snapshot of your running system and squash it to an ISO
This is a remastersys -type deal. Create a redistributable respin from your running system...
Okay, here's a couple points of feedback regarding the WIP anyhow.
https://github.com/machinebacon/sys2iso ... system2iso
script bails if not run by root. So, the call to sudo
sudo chroot
seems superfluous (or I'm failing to comprehend why it's desirable here)
https://github.com/machinebacon/sys2iso ... iso_chroot
invocation of grub-mkrescue necessitates the presence of grub2 which, in turn, depends on xorriso v0.5.6+
(ouch. 'Cept for mint and bbq, I don't think many of the distros I hop between have embraced grub2 yet)
Hmm, they _might_ be using grub v1.99 and would have grub-mkrescue available.
(FWIW, beyond the flicker of curiousity about casper, I have zero interest in Ubuntu.)
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refractasnapshot (pkg in debian sid in not latest version) is the best debian implementation I've seen
similar to sys2iso, but I'm not interested in a tool to support wannabe distroteers.
(I coined that term, distroteer, {a play on "mousekateer"} -- check it, it stumps google.)
but, ala refracta, providing a gui is a bad idea, IMO. User should be expected/required to read through the script and/or at least fine-tune the rsync excludes entries. For instance, user may have retrieved (but not installed) various deb packages prior to snapshotting, so that they'll be available for later offline installation... but oops, in the spirit of helpfulness, the script unconditionally calls apt clean.
My take on "snapshot" has been "create a faithful copy of my current system (usually performed within a live session) and prep it for installation to another bootable pendrive", and the workflow amounts to:
-- prompt to run bleachbit/sqlite (continue/exit)
-- cleanup additional hand-picked targets, esp paths containing stray lang files (continue/exit)
-- rsync (using tailored --excludes) to external partition (continue/exit)
-- create squashfs -> genisoimage (continue/exit)
-- isohybrid (continue/exit)
To be clear, I'm not asking you to tailor the WIP "snapshot" script based on my use case. I'm describing a different use case.
I've realized that I'll need to incorporate chroot+update kernel+update initramfs into the flow at some point,
but I got sidetracked {headspin} looking at how refracta, antix, and porteus(IIRC) accomplish customizing and rebuilding the gfxboot cpio.
(in the meantime, pushing the image to pendrive via unetbootin, i dont see that gingerbread anyhow).
With an eye toward privacy, I've been excluding etc/machine-id from the copy and regenerating it afresh during live boot. (I didn't find machine-id listed among the excludes in the bbq WIP.) I'm still wondering whether there are any other systemwide fingerprint-y details I might omit. (FWIW, no akonadi nor gvfs datastores exist on my system)
