Here is a follow-up: After some banging my head against a brick wall I managed to get 'Clonezilla Live' to do this automated rebuild using partclone/partimage. You just boot the USB stick and confirm 'y' twice (to be sure). It even managed to restore onto a completely dissimilar piece of hardware successfully :-)
Process summary: I had to: * create a bootable Clonezilla Live USB stick (well documented) * backup all partitions to it (using 'skip' option) * boot the USB stick again and tell it to create a 'restore-zip-iso' with the image I just created * made a note of the command it says it runs to do this zip restore * rebooted same USB stick again before actually telling it to proceed (it takes ages then starts overwriting its own data etc otherwise!), * edited the syslinux.cfg file to boot-up using those command options (passed as kernel parameters). I'll post the detailed how-to to the clonezilla people because it works well nut the process isn't documented and not 'out of the box'. Thanks for all of your suggestions and advice :-) Best Regards Phil Lewis On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 10:57 +0100, Phil Lewis wrote: > Hi Tim, > > I'll certainly post on how it goes when I have a satisfactory solution. > > The hardware is identical - which is why the re-imaging option looks > better than an automated rebuild. A rebuild could typically take a lot > longer to run than a re-image (assuming I don't do a byte-for-byte copy > of the whole disk but use partimage or similar). > > Best Regards > > Phil > > > On Fri, 2009-08-07 at 18:27 +0100, Tim Dobson wrote: > > Umm yeah I can probably sort of help. > > > > One of the projects I'm working on is a customised version of Ubuntu > > 8.04 (LTS is a good idea!) that in theory you can use to easily install > > Ubuntu server with an asterisk voip server and a web UI for configuring it. > > > > There's some quite good wiki page on this subject: > > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization > > (that's the page for desktop installations - what I'm doing wiki ubuntu > > server is a bit different) > > > > Essentially there are two steps: > > > > * create a customised ISO > > * put the customised ISO on a usb stick and make it work. > > > > As we've been finding the second step quite difficult, we've been > > concentrating on the first step and testing the first bit on CDs - > > there's no need to complicate things further at this stage. > > > > Customising the install process is in theory fairly easy, unfortunately, > > I had quite a few issues getting the Ubuntu-keyring package to function > > correctly so at the moment I'm using a non-ideal solution whereby the > > preseed late_command runs a script to install some packages. > > > > It's still a very bad way of doing things and I'll have to go back and > > see what it is that wasn't quite going right to start off with. > > > > What you need is to preseed most of the Ubuntu installer (Alan linked to > > some good documentation here), modify the image or do something to > > install those extra packages and modifications, work out how to get the > > customised image to boot from usb correctly. > > > > Just to emphasise, I'm NOT an expert in this area, it just so happens > > I've been banging my head about this sort of thing for the past few > > weeks, so I know a little. :) > > > > Would love to hear how you get on! > > > > Tim > > > > Phil Lewis wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > Does anyone here know of any open source software solution that will > > > allow me to image an Ubuntu laptop on to a USB stick so that it can be > > > used by a technophobic teacher to rebuild a laptop when one goes bad? > > > > > > The reimaging has got to be REALLY SIMPLE - e.g.: > > > > > > 1) Plug in usb stick > > > 2) Power up netbook > > > 3) Click or type 'yes' to confirm > > > 4) Wait for a while > > > 5) Plug out usb stick > > > 6) Repower netbook > > > > > > Some background: a primary school has asked me to design and rollout a > > > 30-60 netbook solution for their classrooms. I am planning on an Ubuntu > > > 9.04 build with specific educational extras. It will be somewhat > > > customised such that the kids/teachers will find it easy to use and > > > start apps etc (more concerned about teachers here of course). Since I'm > > > trying to get a basic third-party commercial support contract for the > > > setup, I want the support people to be able to tell the teachers to just > > > insert a USB stick to reimage a laptop if required. > > > > > > I could go with a scripted PXE-boot based install system but given that > > > all these netbooks will we wireless I think this would make it harder > > > for staff if they have to find an ethernet cable before re-imaging > > > if/when required. Also with all the (documented) tweaks to the desktop > > > etc, PXE would be quite a tedious scripting task and probably not the > > > best solution given that the build will be almost static. > > > > > > Any ideas/solutions welcome... > > > > > > -- > > > > > > Phil Lewis > > > > > > > > > - > > > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, > > > please visit > > > http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > > > Unofficial list archive: > > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > > > - > > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > > Unofficial list archive: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
