Findings while working on alternative install DVD...

[l3mce]

***Some success in 1004!
Seems smart to start pages with the trac http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/1015

I have success in 1004 finally... for the very large part... will need to test more to be sure.
Load the pre-install-from-repo.sh, mce-install.sh, then master_lmce.sh. Will install. Slight oddity in that when you are trying to setup a new user during new dvd install, x fails over on tty8. I will fix that. Switch back to tty7.

On first boot... don't do anything. Just let it sit. It will eventually reboot itself when done resnagging ripped packages and drop you into avwiz.

i just started over on building it so i thought i would document my process so others could try or i can be corrected if im doing something wrong.
Install Ubuntu server 10.04 32 bit

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sudo su
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
add deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository ubuntu/
apt-get update
apt-dist upgrade
apt-get install xorg kdm kde-minimal subversion pmount remastersys 'dvd+rw-tools'
shutdown -r now
open konsole after reboot

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sudo su
svn co http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-0810/src/new-installer
chmod 777 /home/user_name/new-installer
add master-lmce.sh and postmaster.sh to the new-installer directory
cd new-installer
./pre-install-from-repo.sh
apt-get -f upgrade
./mce-install.sh
./master_lmce.sh


For the record, on 10.04 you should use this repo
http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository karmic/
But the step should be unnecessary. The script adds, installs, and removes that repo now.

One day soon remastersys will not be necessary. I will have a couple of new scripts up tonight or tomorrow based on the 10.04 results.

[l3mce]

Major progress.

I now have, I believe, a fully functional alt dvd install maker on 1004. (locutus_ I think the permission errors you were getting before were my fault... shoving too much unnecessary hidden stuff into skel)

This does not make 1004 more functional, mind you.

What it does do is make an installer with everything free available on the disk and 90% pre-installed. It is also prettier. It also (should be) MD ready. A quick breakdown of what it is actually doing...

Handles most of the functions ultimately run by mce-install.sh, except the networking magic. (You no longer need to run mce-install)
Installs the following tools to handle the rest of the process:
   vrms (checks non-free licenses)
   apt-rdepends (shows what depends on a package, rather than package dependencies)
   dvd+rw-tools (for burning if it is not already installed)
   remastersys (this will eventually be rewritten and included)
Creates 4 scripts to handle forcing out non-free packages and then replacing them politely.
Places postmaster.sh which will only run once, when booted from a hard drive.

Postmaster has taken on more tasks. It now handles network arrangement, and runs post-install.sh after regrabbing all necessary packages and reconfiguring/installing the major pieces. I can't figure out a way to bop an alert up in KDE yet, so I will probably kill kde so you can see what is going on. As it is now... it runs in the background and downloads for a while while you bungle around the desktop for a few minutes and then suddenly the machine reboots, and you end up at avwiz.

It is much more graceful about everything now. It is also pretty.

So now, with the dvd this produces, you can do a ground up install in about an hour, with MDs.

I am tweaking and testing, will put the code up later and update here. I am also trying to include a "burn to bootable thumbdrive" option as I have gone through about 100 dvd's since I started this project... that nobody asked for. Have learned a lot. Looking forward to doing this the right way.

*hack job up

The process is now...
download new scripts

drop my scripts IN THAT DIRECTORY.
Run pre-install-from-repo.sh
Run master_lmce.sh. Follow the prompts from there.

Things definitely left to do:
Better DVD, HD, and USBHD detection.
New graphics

[l3mce]

Ok... so that worked out pretty well. Only major issues to sort is avwiz trying to boot during dvd product install (ctrl alt f7 back), and x starting on first boot, looking confusing.

[locutus]

well i dont want to be a downer but mine failed on grub installation, but that i mounted from the raw .iso on a vm so now ill burn it to a dvd and try on hardware

also, this new script made a much bigger .iso than i was getting previously, 2.5 gigs, i was wondering if thats what you got also?

[l3mce]

well i dont want to be a downer but mine failed on grub installation, but that i mounted from the raw .iso on a vm so now ill burn it to a dvd and try on hardware

also, this new script made a much bigger .iso than i was getting previously, 2.5 gigs, i was wondering if thats what you got also?

The reason it is so much bigger is because it is keeping the fat videos and preloading all of the MD stuff, so that hopefully they are plug n play.

I also was rushed when testing the first time, and interrupted the diskless dl... (and therefore post-install.sh) when it was successful. I also was holding shift on first (well... technically second) boot just in case avwiz did not glow.

I let it go the right way, and avwiz never hits... and orbiter creation fails... even if you then run avwiz, it will not come alive... so this is further from done than I thought. Also, the db is calling the first instance of avwiz (which pops up over installer... but NOT when it is supposed to) so it gets weird. For now, if you are testing, please hold shift down on the forced reboot... (assuming grub is not an issue... which it really shouldn't be... I was able to load on a lot of stuff).

I am also closing the postmaster.sh with /usr/pluto/bin/RebootWithAVWizard.sh hoping to get around the current working method of only running avwiz once... however it is not working. I need to think about this a while.

[ardirtbiker]

I actually got my MD to boot from the Core... the AV wizard ran, but when completed I was got a 'transparency' error which I fixed by changing 'nv' to 'nvidia' in xorg.conf.  Did a reboot and the system came up..

And YES is is kinda pretty. 

If i were smarter, I'd help fix some of the operational issues... but ive only mastered Visual Basic programming... and having a hard time figuring out C and C++.

Thanks for the hard work


Dennis

[locutus]

its good to hear that you got it working, im just curious if you did 1004 or 0810

[l3mce]

I actually got my MD to boot from the Core... the AV wizard ran, but when completed I was got a 'transparency' error which I fixed by changing 'nv' to 'nvidia' in xorg.conf.  Did a reboot and the system came up..

And YES is is kinda pretty. 

If i were smarter, I'd help fix some of the operational issues... but ive only mastered Visual Basic programming... and having a hard time figuring out C and C++.

Thanks for the hard work


Dennis

Thank you for the feedback. I have some more changes that should detect video better... but avwiz is throwing a monkey in my method because it is being called from the db. There is a complete different set of graphics, which look way pretty, but until I find a place to stick them so I can wget them, you get only "kinda pretty". I come from java/ejb/js... and am in the same boat, only further removed. Glad you got it up with an MD no less...

Locutus_, I was reading over some past posts and I guess I was trying to play catchup, and did not make clear that I am no longer doing installs off the server kernel. I am installing kubu 10.04 generic, and running pre-install-from-repo.sh and master_lmce.sh only. I am sorry for not being more clear. Server brought more problems than it solved.

[ardirtbiker]

Ive got 1004 running (on a spare computer as Core) and then just changing which core is plugged into my switch and using the same machine for my MD..   (i did have to 'fix' something... my MD has a RTL8111 (r8168) NIC so I created the MD in Admin, then installed the r8168 driver in the MD file system)   The MD booted up and installed fine (except for the changes noted earlier about the nvidia driver).

Things I know on my setup that I noticed didnt work were :   Gyration remote, LCDProcClient (for LCD display), a DVD doesnt display (just a black screen) but the audio is going (but pushing a remote button would 'pop-up' the screen momentarily).   Also, I couldnt get MythTV to display video... I'm using a HDPVR (that works using 'cat /dev/video0 >> test.ts') but Myth would just keep trying to start LiveTV over and over until timeout.   I didnt investigate too much though... 2 day weekends are not long enough  and there is plenty of yardwork to get done

[l3mce]

Ive got 1004 running (on a spare computer as Core) and then just changing which core is plugged into my switch and using the same machine for my MD..   (i did have to 'fix' something... my MD has a RTL8111 (r8168) NIC so I created the MD in Admin, then installed the r8168 driver in the MD file system)   The MD booted up and installed fine (except for the changes noted earlier about the nvidia driver).

Things I know on my setup that I noticed didnt work were :   Gyration remote, LCDProcClient (for LCD display), a DVD doesnt display (just a black screen) but the audio is going (but pushing a remote button would 'pop-up' the screen momentarily).   Also, I couldnt get MythTV to display video... I'm using a HDPVR (that works using 'cat /dev/video0 >> test.ts') but Myth would just keep trying to start LiveTV over and over until timeout.   I didnt investigate too much though... 2 day weekends are not long enough  and there is plenty of yardwork to get done

Yuck!
Can you ssh into the md, and run

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apt-get -f install
apt-get upgrade
Did the system detect gyro and it just not work? Or does it not even load?

[ardirtbiker]

the OS and MD orbiter detect the usb transceiver (popup message), but none of the buttons work on the remote (or do wrong things).  I even re-created the child device under the orbiter (GO Cordless GC1005M  template 1812).   I dont know if it has to do with the usbhid module (as in 810 we had to compile a modified one).   I might try compiling the modified and test again.

But it will be later today... got some yard work to do before rain this afternoon

Dennis

[l3mce]

the OS and MD orbiter detect the usb transceiver (popup message), but none of the buttons work on the remote (or do wrong things).  I even re-created the child device under the orbiter (GO Cordless GC1005M  template 1812).   I dont know if it has to do with the usbhid module (as in 810 we had to compile a modified one).   I might try compiling the modified and test again.

But it will be later today... got some yard work to do before rain this afternoon

Dennis

Did you add that line in xorg.conf under server flags?
Option    "AutoAddDevices"    "false"
reboot and see if it works correctly?

[ardirtbiker]

oops.. forgot about that... I'll try it this evening!!!!

Dennis

[l3mce]

My latest scripts do not download the MD stuff on creation. It is taking ME too long to test over my crap connection. If anyone would like this feature, uncomment line 199 of postmaster.sh. I have also included an experimental switch to telinit 3 which may get rid of the avwiz overrun.

Also when it is finished installing, it no longer automatically reboots. I had set it to run RebootWithAVWizard.sh, however it does not reboot with avwiz. For now, please manually reboot, and hold the shift key so avwiz will glow.

Because everything has changed so much, I would like to explain clearly, for now, how to test this.

For 810:
1. Install the latest 810 snap (using the "Install LinuxMCE" option) up to Kubuntu desktop and change the sources as described in the wiki. Run update/dist-upgrade as detailed in the wiki.
2. Download my latest scripts from svn link at top of each page in this thread.
3. Terminal into whatever directory you download to, and as sudo su execute the following (where XX is the latest script number):

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cp postmaster.XX.sh /root/new-installer/postmaster.sh
cp master_lmce.XX.sh /root/new-installer/master_lmce.sh
chmod +x /root/new-installer/*.sh
/root/new-installer/pre-install-from-repo.sh
apt-get -f upgrade
/root/new-installer/master_lmce.sh

For 1004:
Download and install Kubuntu 10.04, 32bit edition only. At desktop open terminal and enter (where USER_NAME is your user name):

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sudo su
svn co http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-0810/src/new-installer
chmod 777 /home/USER_NAME/new-installer
cd new-installer
Now download my latest scripts at the svn link at the top of each page of this thread, and open a terminal at that place and enter (where XX is the current script number and USER_NAME is your user name):

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cp postmaster.XX.sh /root/new-installer/postmaster.sh
cp master_lmce.XX.sh /home/USER_NAME/new-installer/master_lmce.sh
cp postmaster.XX.sh /home/USER_NAME/new-installer/postmaster.sh
chmod +x /home/USER_NAME/new-installer/*.sh
/home/USER_NAME/pre-install-from-repo.sh
apt-get -f upgrade
/home/USER_NAME/master_lmce.sh
For the record this creates a duplicate folder, and I dislike redundant folders.

For BOTH
When it is finished and has burned a DVD for you... choose an option (i.e. reboot with new dvd).
You will probably get about half way through the kubuntu installer before avwiz pops up with a failed to load x error. ctrl+alt+f7 to get back to the installer. I'm working on that... sorry.
The system will install, you will be prompted to reboot... on reboot... well... at the moment... I am not sure what you will see. KDE might load for a minute, it might not. You might be able to see what is happening... you might not. Check ctrl+alt+f7 or f2 or f3 until you you see normal download stuff. When it is finished, reboot the machine and hold the shift key down during boot. You will be in avwizard.

IF it does not detect your dvd burner (seems for me to only be a problem in vbox), it may be at /dev/sr0 or something like that, then execute (where YOUR_DVD is wherever your dvd is):

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growisofs -Z /dev/YOUR_DVD=/home/remastersys/remastersys/lmce.iso
A Distribution creation will produce an installable distributable .iso without non-free drivers (like anything nvidia... etc)

A Personal creation will produce something entirely different that has all of the drivers pre-loaded for live boot, which you can use on just about any system (with the appropriate options in avwiz), which you can demo on foreign systems with full functionality... but I have not tested that in a long time... and a lot has changed.
Thank you all for your help.

[ardirtbiker]

l3mce,
     I added the "AutoAddDevices" "false" to xorg.conf where required.   No change...     I do know that a driver hid_gyration is loaded on 10.04.   The air-mouse portion (controlling the cursor) works, as do the left, right, up, and down arrow keys (however only when the air-mouse is enabled)  I have a 'dell' version of the GYR4101US.  (the functionality is the same on my core as well as the MD)

If I can help in any way with this, let me know.. I'll tinker with it when I have time  during this week.   Can you point me in a good direction?


Dennis