Remastering

Table of contents

• Remastering TC
  • Unpacking
  • Packing
    • Creating an iso
    • GUI Tools
• Dynamic root filesystem remastering

Remastering TC

This guide assumes you are comfortable with the command line.

In the core there is a gzipped cpio archive. This can then be bundled along with the kernel for the boot method you like, for example an ISO image.

The remaster process can be done from inside TC (with advcomp.tce loaded, and mkisofs-tools.tce if you want to create an ISO image), or from any other Linux distribution that has the required tools (cpio, tar, gzip, advdef, mkisofs if making an ISO)

Note: advcomp.tce is optional. If not installed, skip all the advdef commands.

Unpacking

First, get the kernel and tinycore.gz from the iso:

sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
sudo mount tinycore.iso /mnt/tmp -o loop,ro
cp /mnt/tmp/boot/bzImage /mnt/tmp/boot/tinycore.gz /tmp
sudo umount /mnt/tmp

If you are going to create an ISO image, instead of copying only two files, copy everything instead:

sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
sudo mount tinycore.iso /mnt/tmp -o loop,ro
cp -a /mnt/tmp/boot /tmp
mv /tmp/boot/tinycore.gz /tmp
sudo umount /mnt/tmp

Then, extract tinycore.gz for adding/removing something:

mkdir /tmp/extract
cd /tmp/extract
zcat /tmp/tinycore.gz | sudo cpio -i -H newc -d

Now, the full filesystem is in /tmp/extract. Feel free to add, remove, or edit anything you like.

Packing

If you are remastering 2.x where x <= 1 and you added any kernel modules then execute

sudo chroot /tmp/extract depmod -a 2.6.29.1-tinycore

You must use chroot because "depmod -b /tmp/extract" will not follow the kernel.tclocal symbolic link to find modules under /usr/local.

For versions 2.x where x >= 2 and later:

sudo depmod -b /tmp/extract 2.6.29.1-tinycore

If you added shared libraries then execute

sudo ldconfig -r /tmp/extract

Afterwards, pack it up:

cd /tmp/extract
find | sudo cpio -o -H newc | gzip -2 > ../tinycore.gz
cd /tmp
advdef -z4 tinycore.gz

It is only packed at level 2 to save time, as advdef -z4 is equivalent to about -11 on gzip.

Now, you have an edited tinycore.gz. If going to boot any other way than CD, copy it over with the kernel to your boot device.

Creating an iso

If you would like to create an ISO image:

cd /tmp
mv tinycore.gz boot
mkdir newiso
mv boot newiso
mkisofs -l -J -V TC-custom -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 \
-boot-info-table -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin \
-c boot/isolinux/boot.cat -o TC-remastered.iso newiso
rm -rf newiso

(Above, mind the mkisofs command line spans three lines above.)

TC-remastered.iso can now be burned or started in a virtual machine.

GUI Tools

You may find useful ISO Master, a GUI tool to edit disk image. It is available in the repository as a .tcz extension.

Dynamic root filesystem remastering

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