eReuse.org Workbench Live

A Debian 9 live ISO that auto-executes eReuse.org Workbench when booting communicating with an eReuse.org Workbench Server.

Usage

Requirements

We use debian-live to build the ISO. So install it. In Debian 9 is just apt install live-build.

Build an ISO

Execute (from here):

    git clone https://github.com/eReuse/workbench-live.git
    cd workbench-live
    # Obtain last eReuse.org Workbench
    git submodule update --init
    # Build
    # Note you can pass parameters to lb config to alter the ISO
    sudo lb build

For you to understand the project files, I wrote a blog entry using this project as an example for a tutorial with debian-live.

Speed up building

From the guide: "You can speed up downloads considerably if you use a local mirror. [...] Set the default for your build system in /etc/live/build.conf. Simply create this file and in it, set the corresponding LB_MIRROR_* variables to your preferred mirror. All other mirrors used in the build will be defaulted from these values." For example:

LB_MIRROR_BOOTSTRAP="http://ftp.caliu.cat/debian/" 
LB_MIRROR_CHROOT_SECURITY="http://security.debian.org/" 
LB_MIRROR_CHROOT_BACKPORTS="http://ftp.caliu.cat/debian/"

You can execute a package like netselect-apt to know which mirror is the fastest for you.

Modify the contents

Read the debian-live manual as we followed it to build this. Note that at the time of this writing we had to use the unstable version of the manual, as this is the one targeting Debian 9.

Overview

The structure is as follows:

• auto/config: Generic build options like architecture.
• config/bootloaders/isolinux: Bootloader params. We changed isolinux.cfgtiming and splash.svg.
• config/includes.chroot/opt/workbench: Skeleton where Workbench files will be placed into the final ISO (at path /opt/workbench).
• config/hooks/live/0100-workbench.hook.chroot: A chroot hook that installs Workbench from the files above.
• config/includes.chroot/home/user: The home dir of the user the live uses. We add .bash_history, .erwb-help and .profile to auto-execute the Workbench after performing login and provide some user feedback.

Commit

Before committing, ensure you execute sudo lb clean just a cautious measure.

Problem resolution

• If you cancel the lb build you won't be able to delete some chroot stuff because they are mounted. Just reboot and try with sudo.
• If you perform changes, try to use lb clean --purge to ensure a deep cleaning.