On 09/04/2013 07:25 PM, Julian H. Stacey wrote:
Likewise we have asked Canonical (somewhat involved in the Freedom Toaster) I didnt know what that was so for others: http://www.freedomtoaster.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Toaster
whether they were aware of a USB burning Kiosk able to burn ISO files and add other files to the same USB drive. While we just started the discussion if someone knows anything or has any idea please share with us. Too big a topic to solve in time for SFD this year. One would need to define aims tighter, eg define to what format, & discard the "and add other files to the same USB drive: as it drags in a mass of consequential questions:
What do you want the OS of the copier to be ? (A divisive question in itself ;-) Linux ? BSD ? Other ? Which version ? Big topic I agree, which will probably raise a lot of debates ;-). While I don't have any preferred choice I don't want an OS that gets outdated in no time. And of course it has to be Free Software. Still vague, but let's say that it won't be Fedora as the one-year support is too short. A Ubuntu LTS eventually, Debian or maybe you have some suggestion and better knowledge (that shouldn't be difficult) on the BSD side.
But necessary as one gets heavily into assumptions of content & what it should boot, & which scripts to use for lots of .iso to usb methods, & the commands those scripts will call, use some of the (I presume) most non standard differential per Unix tools.
eg try http://ixquick.com with freebsd .iso to usb for a hint of various methods. I use FreeBSD's mdconfig command to manually manipulate my .iso over to USB http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mdconfig&sektion=8 http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-virtual.html#idp88166064
What target media format ? - Retain [or re-assert ?] (as typical from shop) USB with MBR for 4 OS, 1st slice using all blocks. - Or use as raw USB stick for 1 Bootable OS ? - What sort of boot ? (Linux nobbles disks' boot in ways BSD doesnt like) Stick to just MBR best, but note newer FreeBSD now likes Geom stuff, MS has aso long nobled the boot too. (Even CDROM .iso had 2 ways to boot). Boot opens a can of worms. I'm not enough knowledgeable to make a mindful decision. I didn't think we could have more than 1 thing booting from the USB but if we can why not?
FS on USB ? FAT32, Linux Ext23/ BSD-FFS NTFS, or several slices ? (you wrote you want to "add other files")
I've made my own bootable FreeBSD stick, & grafted on other stuff, It's also easy with FreeBSD to write a bunch of cd9660 .iso files to a fat32 USB stick, then use the mdconfig command to convert each .iso to a node, & then mount each cdrom .iso image simultaneously. I presume its just as easy on Linux, with probably different commands. Yes and no. Depending on the ISO you can or cannot dd, you can or cannot easily put on a USB disk. So while I was thinking to have something generic and each team download the OSes of their choice we will hit a
The "add other files" was in the case of a typical non-free OS users interested to get a Free OS and some applications for his non-free OS. So it'll have something he can boot from and also a place where it will be able to retrieve those applications that do not require booting from. limit there. Likewise reading ext4 from Windows (for "add other files") will be a tricky thing obviously requiring to use FAT32, or so I think.
But ... The average end user recipient of such a stick probably will not have the skills to easily deal with it. A lot of recipients of cdroms couldn't do much more than insert & push reset ;-) If we make it too complex it wont be useful to more than a small minority who could do it all on a laptop with a few friends anyway using OS & other options of mutual choice, (& then they'll also be there to answer phone in same city when someone calls "Er, what was content order of that unique collection of extras you gave me, how do I extract install boot").
Distributing pictures or source archives, it's easy to write them as files on a FAT32 USB stick, But if we want to also deliver bootable op systems etc, we're best confining that to one per stick, with nothing else on stick.
Yes, I totally hear you here. Well we need a "nice" UI to select what to put on the stick, probably with some exclusive choices but still configurable by the SFD team and then maybe a roadmap for the "upcoming features".
No problem using multiple stick anyway, cos people can re-use them, & force them to buy their own stick at shop round the corner !
If we give out sticks with free s/w, people will just erase the software & keep the stick anyway.
I think so as well. Besides I think everyone has a USB stick at home and it's just a matter of letting them know that they should bring it around. On the organizers side it's just one PC with USB port(s)... manageable. As I said before giving away USB sticks unless someone wants to get rid of them is just to costly to be worth it (the same amount of money will probably do much better things "elsewhere").
Cheers, Julian
So was that a bit clearer? Thanks for the follow up, really appreciate. Fred