Q4OS Forum

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

Is it possible to have a virtualbox ready live-cd, that is with the virtualbox additions already installed? I find myself using the live-cd whenever I need to access the virtualbox hdd without wanting to boot into it. I use this method when I want to make some changes before booting into the system to see how the changes affect the VB system and although it is not a big problem using the live-cd without the additions installed it would just make the environment a little better to work in.

I know this is probably not going to be required by many people and it might be best for me to figure out remastering the live-cd with the additions included for myself, but thought I would ask anyway. Also you might have an image you use yourselves that works this way.

Fingers crossed

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,239

Website

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

We are sorry, but we have no Q4OS live-cd with virtualbox additions preinstalled, as it would take some extra space on the cd. It's important to keep it minimal to occupy as little as possible memory, to be able fit live-cd into ram whenever possible.

... remastering the live-cd with the additions included for myself ...

Remastering will be the best way, you will need to install packages from the standard Debian repository:
$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox-guest-utils

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

Thanks guys, I will be looking into this today

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

OK, been searching the net for a simple remaster solution and have drawn a blank in as much as remastersys is no longer available, LinuxRespin installed via dpkg (and apt-get -f install) (dl'd from github repo) but cannot find anything either in the menu or the command-line.
Or how would any body suggest I go about this? I have never needed to "respin" a live iso before so I'm a bit clueless with this. Any help appreciated.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,239

Website

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

In general, you will need to proceed following steps:

- extract iso file:
$ sudo bsdtar xfp input_file.iso

- extract squashed filesystem:
$ sudo unsquashfs -d /some_work_dir/ filesystem.squashfs

- chroot into filesystem and install needed packages:
$ sudo chroot /some_work_dir
# apt-get update
# apt-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox-guest-utils and-other-required-packages
# exit

- create new squashfs filesystem:
$ sudo mksquashfs /some_work_dir filesystem.squashfs

- replace old 'filesystem.squashfs' with the created one
- create iso file:
$ XORRISO_OPTIONS="-R -r -J -joliet-long -l -cache-inodes -isohybrid-mbr /usr/lib/ISOLINUX/isohdpfx.bin -partition_offset 16 -A "Q4OS Live" -p "" -publisher "" -V "Q4OS 1.8.1 Orion" -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table"
$ sudo xorriso -as mkisofs $XORRISO_OPTIONS -o output_file.iso dir_structure
modify XORRISO_OPTIONS to suite your needs

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

Many many thanks guys, I was getting nowhere with google. I will try this out now.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,239

Website

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

Creating needed temporary working directory structure and copying files to the right places is not part of the instructions above, please take care about it on your own.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,989

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

@Q4OS Team:
    YOU GUYS ROCK!! I figured it out after a little tweaking and finding out what packages I was missing, but I got a virtualbox ready iso now. Thanks again guys.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,239

Website

Re: Live-cd with virtualbox additions pre-loaded

You are welcome