Re: [Question] Integrating the debian installer in live-build - DVD, multi-arch, custom, etc.

["Michael ." <keltoiboy@gmail.com>]

@Lyndon
No your name hasn't been showing at my end and fwiw I wasn't shouting
but I'll let you take it whatever way you want to. This is the
internet if you take 1 thing written in caps lock as shouting then
imagine how you take an entire paragraph?

Please understand that if something doesn't work in Live-Build it is
rather obvious when it doesn't show up in the build. You can pick my
config apart all you like and ask me to "trust you" all you like but
lets be clear here and understand that when I said it "just works" I
mean exactly that. Take me at my word or ignore me altogether, either
way I'll be a happy camper ;-)

Let's get back to Sunhani's build efforts for a minute and what my
understanding of it is. Subhani replied to a thread started by DBGR
(oops sorry dbgr) about building a system that can install both 32 and
64 bit systems. That is what I am working through. I am not interested
in 1 system that is 32 bit that can install on a 64 bit architecture.
Can we or can we not create an iso like the netinst but with both live
images that can install a 32 but system on a 32 bit machine and a 64
bit system on a 64 bit machine? Simple question, hopefully you can
give a simple answer. If we can, how? if we can't, why not? what is
lacking in live build and can you rectify it?
Cheers.
Michael.

On 21/04/2020, jnqnfe@gmail.com <jnqnfe@gmail.com> wrote:
> @michael I always quote (include) the message I am replying to in my
> message when writing to multiple people or a mailing list, or otherwise
> use "@person" to address a specific person. When quoting, the quote
> always starts clearly with an "On [DATE, TIME] Michael wrote" type line
> (at least in my email program). Sometimes I write my message above the
> quoted text, sometimes below, sometimes broken up inbetween where bits
> of my reply need to be associated with specific parts of what I am
> replying to for clarity. Perhaps the issue lies with the set of email
> addresses that this thread has accumulated in the 'to' and 'cc' fields,
> rather than generically being targetted at the
> 'debian-live@lists.debian.org' mailing list address, or perhaps you're
> not used to me replying above quoted text rather than below?? I feel I
> am being perfectly clear; I do not understand why there's any
> confusion.
>
> btw 'jnqnfe' is my handle, my first name is Lyndon, is this not
> appearing at your end? I see your name as "Michael ." at my end. Also
> it's typical to address someone in the form @keltoiboy or @michael
> rather than just a handle/name in all caps (shouting) fwiw.
>
> Yes I know how to create a multi-arch system, not that I've actually
> tried it, but I'm very familiar with live-build being a significant
> contributor to the codebase.
>
> I've already discussed the details a little in this thread tonight, but
> to repeat a little:
>  1. You use -a i386 --linux-flavours "686 amd64", replacing "amd64"
> there with "amd64:amd64" if using live-build version 20191219 or newer.
> This gets you the correct set of kernels.
>  2. Having just one single package name like 'firefox:amd64' in a
> package list in your config is enough for live-build to know to run
> `dpkg --add-architecture amd64` and thus get a combined i386 and amd64
> image.
>
> Whether or not you need to have both 'Foo' and 'Foo:amd64' in your
> package lists for every single package you add to your package lists to
> get them in both arch forms is a detail I do not know off the top of my
> head. But just one in the form 'Foo:amd64' is enough to get the
> additional architecture configured as just stated.
>
> This gives you such a combined live environment, and if you use the
> "live" version of the installer, you thus also have a means of
> installing it. If you use the other installer types on the otherhand
> then you'll only get the one for the base architecture (i386 here) and
> thus only be able to install i386 (though you can manually add amd64
> later of course).
>
> Note that having a live environment containing both i386 and amd64
> architectures like this is the only means of having multiple
> architectures in a single image. You can **not** have an i386 live OS
> and an amd64 live OS sat side by side in the same image, selectable
> from different menu entries.
>
> With regards to your config, note that there is a big difference
> between appearing to work and actually working. Just because something
> appears to work does not mean that there is not a problem.
>
> Furthermore your script in fact is **not** working just fine, it IS
> broken, as I've just confirmed by running it myself (not that I needed
> the confirmation). A clear example of the problem is that when you run
> it you will see a final output line that ends with "--linux-flavours:
> not found". This is an error, caused by some of the problems I
> previously stated, and is explained further below.
>
> Another problem I spot with your config script that I did not notice
> before due to the mess around the variable initialisation, especially
> with the forced line-wrapping done by your email editor, is that for
> some reason you're sticking backslashes on the ends of every line
> setting a variable. Understand that ending a line with a backslash is
> done to tell the shell that what is on that line up to the backslash is
> not the complete string/command, that it continues on the next line. It
> thus has no business being on the end of the variable initialisation
> lines in your script. It is necessary for the `lb config` stuff so that
> the shell knows that "lb config noauto" is not the complete command,
> that it continues on the next line, then the next and so on. Also, the
> lines with comments will not work if the leading '#' were removed, you
> need to replace the '\' in them with a '#'.
>
> i.e.
> _D="Rugged" \
>
> should be
> _D="Rugged"
>
> and
> #_D="Rugged" \ Debian Derivative Distro e.g. Cobber or Rugged
> should be
> #_D="Rugged" # Debian Derivative Distro e.g. Cobber or Rugged
> if you want to be able to uncomment it and have it work, i.e.:
> _D="Rugged" # Debian Derivative Distro e.g. Cobber or Rugged
>
> or better, you'd just avoid repeating the variable initialisation bit
> and simplifying as:
> # Debian Derivative Distro e.g. Cobber or Rugged
> _D="Rugged"
>
> This is extremely basic shell scripting stuff though, and the mistakes
> you're making suggest that it might be worthwhile for you to re-read
> the manual/book/tutorial/whatever-you-learned-from.
>
> Btw, your variables do not need to all start with an underscore, and
> creating variables for "true" and "false" makes things excessively
> confusing.
>
> You need to trust me and fix your script, since as pointed out about it
> IS broken.
>
> Consider for instance this line that I pointed out mistakes with in the
> last email:
> --keyring-packages "mx19-archive-keyring" "antix-archive-
> keyring"/
>
> 1) "mx19-archive-keyring" is the only package that will be used,
> "antix-archive-keyring" will be ignored because of the quoting issue.
> 2) The forward slash (which should be a space then a backslash) will be
> taken to be a part of the string argument it follows (the fact that it
> is not within the quotes is not a problem in this shell script
> language), i.e. is the same as "antix-archive-keyring/", which is
> obviously the wrong package name, not that this matters since the
> quoting issue means this package name is ignored anyway.
> 3) Furthermore, the lack of a space-then-backslash on the end of that
> line means that the shell thinks that the `lb config` command ends on
> the end of that line. The `--linux-flavours` bit on the next line will
> be taken by the shell as being the start of an entirely new command,
> thus results in an "--linux-flavours: not found" error because "
> --linux-flavours" of course is not a name of a real binary. So the
> latter third of your config is actually being completely ignored!!!
>
> Please, just trust me and fix the issues I've pointed out.
>
> Lyndon
>
> On Tue, 2020-04-21 at 14:41 +1000, Michael . wrote:
>> JNQNFE I think you need to make it clear who you are replying to. At
>> one stage I thought you were talking to me so I replied but looking
>> back it is not clear if you were talking to me or someone else.
>>
>> With regards to my config it "just works" as it is. With regards to
>> the keyring slash I noticed it as I pasted it into the email but I
>> didn't change it because guess what it still "just works".
>>
>> If you know how to build a multi arch system please share exaclty how
>> to do it. I ask this because it has been brought up a few times over
>> the years and Subhani is the only one that has said he has it
>> working.
>>
>> Cheers.
>> Michael.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 21/04/2020, jnqnfe@gmail.com <jnqnfe@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I've not taken a detailed look at this, but some things stand out:
>> >
>> > 1) if you're using live-build version 20191219 or newer, add an
>> > architecture specifier to the secondary kernel flavour.
>> >
>> > -  _FL="686-pae amd64" \
>> > +  _FL="686-pae amd64:amd64" \
>> >
>> > 2) with bootloaders you're mixing comma AND space separation. this
>> > may
>> > work, but it might not. i'd air on the side of caution and just use
>> > comma separation.
>> >
>> > -  --bootloaders "syslinux, grub-efi" \
>> > +  --bootloaders "syslinux,grub-efi" \
>> >
>> > 3) "config" in --bootappend-live needs to be replaced with
>> > "components"
>> > (for live-config 4.x+ compatibility)
>> >
>> > -   --bootappend-live "boot=live config quiet splash keyboard-
>> > layouts=us" \
>> > +   --bootappend-live "boot=live components quiet splash keyboard-
>> > layouts=us" \
>> >
>> > 4) i would not recommand caching the chroot stage
>> >
>> > -  --cache-stages "bootstrap chroot" \
>> > +  --cache-stages "bootstrap" \
>> >
>> > (or just remove it, thus leaving it as default)
>> >
>> > 5) --fdisk "fdisk" is an old hack, you should just remove this
>> >
>> > 6) --gzip-options "-6 --rsyncable" is the default, so just remove
>> > it
>> >
>> > 7) bad quoting in --iso-publisher and --iso-volume
>> >
>> > -   --iso-publisher ""${_D}" GNU/Linux" \
>> > +   --iso-publisher "${_D} GNU/Linux" \
>> >
>> > -   --iso-volume ""${_D}" "${_DE}" "${_BIT}" $(date +%Y%m%d)" \
>> > +   --iso-volume "${_D} ${_DE} ${_BIT} $(date +%Y%m%d)" \
>> >
>> > 8) bad quoting for keyring packages and wrong slash at end of line
>> >
>> > -   --keyring-packages "mx19-archive-keyring" "antix-archive-
>> > keyring"/
>> > +   --keyring-packages "mx19-archive-keyring antix-archive-keyring"
>> > \
>> >
>> > 9) --tasksel is an obsolete option, remove it
>> >
>> > there are other options using defaults, but no particular needs to
>> > remove them.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, 2020-04-21 at 12:47 +1000, Michael . wrote:
>> > > This is the config I have used when I had the error and
>> > > subsequent
>> > > failure. It is a modified version of what used to be use by Ozzie
>> > > (STAR Linux). This configuration works for everything I have done
>> > > until the 2nd flavour as per Subhani's suggestion is added and
>> > > that
>> > > breaks this configuration.
>> > >
>> > > #!/bin/sh
>> > >
>> > > set -e
>> > >
>> > > #_A="amd64" \ CPU Architecture i386 = 32 BIT (686 and 686-pae)
>> > > amd64
>> > > =
>> > > 64 BIT. It would be great if we could build ARM images for RPi.
>> > > _A="i386" \
>> > > #_AA="main contrib non-free" \ Archive Areas must have at least
>> > > main,
>> > > contrib and non-free are optional
>> > > _AA="main contrib non-free" \
>> > > #_BIT="x86-64" \ x86 = 32 BIT system x86-64 = 64 BIT system
>> > > _BIT="x86" \
>> > > #_DD="buster" \ Debian Distribution e.g. buster
>> > > _DD="buster" \
>> > > #_D="Rugged" \ Debian Derivative Distro e.g. Cobber or Rugged
>> > > _D="Rugged" \
>> > > #_F="false" \ When the answer to a question is false
>> > > _F="false" \
>> > > #_FL="amd64" \ Linux Flavour as in BIT. Options (currently) are
>> > > 686
>> > > 686-pae amd64. Flavor MUST match _A="" (CPU Architecture) to work
>> > > _FL="686-pae amd64" \
>> > > #_MB="http://deb.debian.org/debian/"; \ Repository Mirror to be
>> > > used
>> > > _MB="http://deb.debian.org/debian/"; \
>> > > #_MS="http://security.debian.org/"; \ Security Repository Mirror,
>> > > this
>> > > is usually always http://security.debian.org/ unless you are
>> > > building
>> > > a non Debian system
>> > > _MS="http://security.debian.org/"; \
>> > > #_T="true" \ When the answer to a question is true
>> > > _T="true" \
>> > > #_DE="builder-choice" \ Desktop Environment or Window Manager
>> > > used in
>> > > the build. Choices are Cinnamon, Gnome, KDE, LXDE, LXQT, Mate,
>> > > TDE
>> > > (Trinity), XFCE, etc etc etc.
>> > > _DE="Mate" \
>> > > #_WM="builder-choice" \ Window Manager used in the build. Choices
>> > > are,
>> > > currently, Fluxbox.
>> > > _WM="Fluxbox" \
>> > >
>> > > lb config noauto \
>> > > 	--apt "apt" \
>> > > 	--apt-indices "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--apt-options "--yes" \
>> > > 	--apt-recommends "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--apt-secure "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--apt-source-archives "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--aptitude-options "--assume-yes" \
>> > > 	--architectures "${_A}" \
>> > > 	--archive-areas "${_AA}" \
>> > > 	--backports "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--binary-filesystem "fat32" \
>> > > 	--bootappend-live "boot=live config quiet splash keyboard-
>> > > layouts=us" \
>> > > 	--bootappend-live-failsafe "boot=live components memtest noapic
>> > > noapm
>> > > nodma nomce nolapic nomodeset nosmp nosplash vga=normal" \
>> > > 	--bootloaders "syslinux, grub-efi" \
>> > > 	--cache "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--cache-indices "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--cache-packages "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--cache-stages "bootstrap chroot" \
>> > > 	--checksums "md5 sha1 sha256" \
>> > >     --chroot-filesystem "squashfs" \
>> > >     --debian-installer "live" \
>> > > 	--distribution "${_DD}" \
>> > > 	--debian-installer-distribution "${_DD}" \
>> > > 	--debian-installer-gui "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--fdisk "fdisk" \
>> > > 	--firmware-binary "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--firmware-chroot "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--gzip-options "-6 --rsyncable" \
>> > > 	--hdd-label ""${_D}"Live" \
>> > > 	--initramfs "live-boot" \
>> > > 	--initramfs-compression "gzip" \
>> > > 	--iso-application ""${_D}"-Live-"${_DE}"" \
>> > > 	--iso-preparer "Michael" \
>> > > 	--iso-publisher ""${_D}" GNU/Linux" \
>> > > 	--iso-volume ""${_D}" "${_DE}" "${_BIT}" $(date +%Y%m%d)" \
>> > >     --keyring-packages "mx19-archive-keyring" "antix-archive-
>> > > keyring"/
>> > > 	--linux-flavours "${_FL}" \
>> > >     --linux-packages "linux-image" \
>> > > 	--mirror-binary "${_MB}" \
>> > > 	--mirror-bootstrap "${_MB}" \
>> > > 	--mirror-debian-installer "${_MB}" \
>> > > 	--parent-mirror-binary-security "${_MS}" \
>> > > 	--parent-mirror-bootstrap "${_MB}" \
>> > > 	--parent-mirror-chroot-security "${_MS}" \
>> > > 	--quiet "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--security "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--source "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--source-images "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--system "live" \
>> > > 	--tasksel "apt" \
>> > > 	--uefi-secure-boot "enable" \
>> > > 	--updates "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--verbose "${_T}" \
>> > > 	--win32-loader "${_F}" \
>> > > 	--zsync "${_T}" \
>> > > "${@}"
>> > >
>> > > After reading Subhani's latest reply, and Subhani please don't
>> > > call
>> > > anything MichaelOS, there is much more to it that just a regular
>> > > live
>> > > build.
>> > > Cheers.
>> > > Michael.
>> > >
>> > > On 21/04/2020, jnqnfe@gmail.com <jnqnfe@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > > I've not really been following this thread, I've just
>> > > > previously
>> > > > given
>> > > > it a brief read.
>> > > >
>> > > > I noticed this in the example config given:
>> > > >
>> > > > > --linux-flavours 686 amd64
>> > > >
>> > > > This is obviously wrong, there needs to be quoting here! Could
>> > > > that
>> > > > be
>> > > > the source of your problem?
>> > > >
>> > > > Also, I'm not entirely familiar with using the multi-flavour
>> > > > feature,
>> > > > but I recall a mention of "686 amd64:amd64".
>> > > >
>> > > > On Tue, 2020-04-21 at 10:07 +1000, Michael . wrote:
>> > > > > I just tried Subhani's tip and it failed with
>> > > > > E: Error reading the CPU table
>> > > > > P: Begin unmounting filesystems...
>> > > > > P: Saving caches...
>> > > > > E: Error reading the CPU table
>> > > > >
>> > > > > ...
>> > > > >
>> > > > > > > > > > > lb config --binary-images iso-hybrid --mode
>> > > > > > > > > > > debian
>> > > > > > > > --architectures i386
>> > > > > > > > > > > --linux-flavours 686 amd64 --distribution buster
>> > > > > > > > > > > --
>> > > > > > > > > > > archive-areas
>> > > > > > > > "main
>> > > > > > > > > > > contrib non-free" --updates true --security true
>> > > > > > > > > > > --
>> > > > > > > > > > > cache
>> > > > > > > > > > > true
>> > > > > > > > > > > --apt-recommends true --debian-installer live
>> > > > > > > > --debian-installer-gui
>> > > > > > > > > > > true
>> > > > > > > > > > > --win32-loader true --iso-application PakOS10.3
>> > > > > > > > > > > --
>> > > > > > > > > > > iso-
>> > > > > > > > > > > preparer
>> > > > > > > > > > > subhaniminhas-
>> > > > > > > > > > > https://sourceforge.net/projects/pakos/
>> > > > > > > > --iso-publisher
>> > > > > > > > > > > subhaniminhas-
>> > > > > > > > > > > https://sourceforge.net/projects/pakos/
>> > > > > > > > --iso-volume
>> > > > > > > > > > > PakOS10.3
>
>