make-live live cd project

the project is located at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive
first the project is the best of what is out there and produces
the smallest image all the other seem to want to into the direction
of knoppix. that is produce a application heavy cd. i dont need this.

First if you dont install apt-cacher your builds will take forever.
edit the file /etc/default/apt-cacher
change the entry AUTOSTART=0 to AUTOSTART=1
then start the server by
/etc/init.d/apt-cacher start
when that is done do the folllowin
edit the /etc/make-live.conf file:
LIVE_MIRROR="http://localhost:3142/ftp.debian.org"

things in the chroot that need to edit
/etc/apt/sources.list seems to have the settings for apt-cacher
this needs to be removed if you need to mod the chroot

making the bootsplash rle file
you will net the netpbm software package and ppmtolss16
and the gimp.

note, that ppmtolss16 is installed with the debian syslinux package.

1. create a new splash.png file using gimp 640x320 resolution and save it
as splash-isolinux.png

2. Click menu: image > mode > indexed > maximum number of colors > set to 16 > ok

3. Click menu: file > save as > file type > PNG image > save (splash-isolinux.png)

In a console:

4. convert it to "pnm" by using "pngtopnm"

   % pngtopnm splash.png > splash.pnm

5. convert it to "rle" by using "ppmtolss16"
% ppmtolss16 <>splash-isolinux.rle 


see the document http://www.geexbox.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_create_a_theme
for decent explanation of this.




goals for this project:
1) brand the bootup screen for a specific splash rle file.
2) simplify the boot up options.
3) make sure that if xorg dies or the program crash xorg is restarted and will restart
the game application or game launcher application.
4) be able to add a deb package of the gaming software to the system, possible without
a complete rebuild of the underlying cdrom image.
5) slim down every thing.
6) the xorg resolution is way to high i needs to be set at 800x600
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) part of 1 is done with splash.rle file mentioned above.
2) this means altering the file isolinux.cfg this file is included in the --template
option of the make-live prog.
3) the file casper-login script does this:
USERNAME=casper
[ -f /etc/casper.conf ] && . /etc/casper.conf
exec su -l -c /usr/bin/startx $USERNAME
#exec /bin/login -f $USERNAME
4) this means know how to build deb packages. this is big one and i dont get know
how to do this. a possible way to start would be to take a small deb prog and modify
to my uses.
5) slimming means a couple of things. first running a script inside the chroot. this is
a good thing as you are going to be removing files and the worst that might happen is the
chroot will get trashed and not the outer system. the slimming script
will be included with directory designated with the --include-chroot and be run with --hook
option
6) xorg resolution is is probably last reall big task slimming down i will attack piecmeal

make-live has a nice option --