A Unique Linux Backup to Live Media Tool for Debianand Ubuntu

A Unique Linux Backup to Live Media Tool for Debianand Ubuntu

Whatis remastersys?

   Remastersysis a tool that can be used to do 2 things with an existingDebian, Ubuntu or derivative installation.

1. It can make a full system backup including personaldata to a live cd or dvd that you can use anywhere and install.
2. It can make a distributable copy you can share withfriends.  This will not have any of your personal user data init.

  The resulting iso file can be usedon any other PC that still meets the original minimum requirements ofUbuntu or Debian.  Things like the graphics card and otherhardware will be configured and setup automatically and you do not haveto use identical hardware.  Ubuntu's live boot tool, casper,currently blacklists Nvidia and AMD proprietary drivers so they willnot be available on the live system and will need to be reinstalledafter installation of your custom system.

  Currently there is a sizelimitation imposed by the genisomage tool in Ubuntu and Debian. This tool is used to create the iso file.  This limits the maximumsingle file size for the iso to be set at 4GB which means the entirecompressed filesystem.squashfs file(your complete compressed system)must fall under this size.  If it does not then the iso file willnot be created.  It is recommended to remove most media files andany virtual machine hard drives like the ones used by qemu, VirtualBox, etc off the system while you run the backup mode or make sure youadd these files to the excludes in the /etc/remastersys.conf fileeither manually or through the gui.  Due to the size restrictionit is best to think of Remastersys Backup as a tool to backup yourapplications and your personal config files while leaving your mediafiles, etc out of it as they can be easily backed up to a dvd orexternal portable drive and copied back afterwards.

   I personally use remastersysto make numerous backups of the computers I have at home running Ubuntuand Debian and also use it to create custom installs for the differentneeds of the PC's in my home.  I share some of these from time totime and Remastersys Squeeze Distribution is one of the ones I amcurrently using.  If you would like more information about itplease click the Remastersys Squeeze Distribution link at the top ofthis page.

Howdid it come to be?

   Itwas initiallycreated by my desire to be able to easily backup orcreate a distributable copy of an Ubuntu or derivativeinstallation. Inspiration for this tool came from the mklivecd script that Mandrivauses and the remasterme script that is in PCLinuxOS.  I hadoriginallylooked at some way to port these over to Ubuntu but that proved to beway too much work as it wasn't compatible with casper and ubiquity andused too many Mandriva specific things,  so I set out tocreateremastersys from scratch.

  After studying casper and ubiquity along with some wikis ontheinternet,  I created the first version ofremastersys.  The biggestproblem had to do with the making of the live cd user.  I hadinitiallymade a small workaround that created the livecd user during thebuilding of the livecd system but that wasn't always consistent andbecame a showstopper with Feisty.  I took a few months offfrom workingon it to enjoy the summer with my family.

   Iwas about to give up on it until I received a nice message fromChris of Klikit who informed me he had used remastersys to createKlikit.  After taking a look at Klikit and seeing how great itwas, Idecided to push the rest of the way and finish it.  I ironedout thelast few bugs and remastersys 2.0 was born.  

 The Debian port came to be from interest in the debian community asthey could not get the Ubuntu version to work due to dependenciesspecific to Ubuntu.

  As soon as Ifinished working on the remastersys-installer which is a very basictext-based installer, I started working on the debian port. Thereare many shared ideas and tools between debian and ubuntu so it wasn'tall that hard but since no installer was present I waited until Ifinished it in order for remastersys to be a full service tool forDebian.  This is the only reason it took so long.

 Thanksto all the testers of both versions without whose help I wouldn't havehad the confidence to release it to everyone.

 Atthe moment I, Tony Brijeski, am the only developer/coder/scripter orwhatever you want to call me, that has created remastersys,remastersys-gui and remastersys-installer and continue to work on it.

 Remastersysis almost never stagnant.  I don't have any release schedulesas Irelease new versions as I come up with better ways to do things orfixes or workarounds need to be put in place and I'm notified of themthrough the forum.