Nice... finally enough bits and pieces of info that i was able to generate an ext2 file image of debian b3 in ubuntu, copy it to (fat fs) mmc card and mount it as ext2. Now to try ext3 since i guess thats compressed. I might try to merge mounting support with isomount so that i can use it as option for chmod images like this. I'd probably add ext2mount/ext2drop/ext2run(?) and ext3mount/ext3drop/ext3run commands for interfacing with them... adding appropriate sudoers lines on initial install. I guess i'll stick with file extension .ext2 and .ext3.

At that point I could fine tune custom images like your debian images that can be dropped on any mmc type or network share.

Edit : Ok it seems compression is not available for ext3? Can ext3 images be resized dynamically? If not i see no advantages.

Here's how i generated the ext2 image on the (ubuntu) desktop :
Then after the file is copied to device, gainroot and then :
Or try merging into debbie script (I havent tried this yet) and it does complain about the /dev device files when extracting archive to ubuntu fs... so the image might need 'fix up' before use.

Some good news.

• I've managed to hack the /var/lib/dpkg/status file so that it no longer complains about openoffice being broken. After installing openoffice.org, and then hacking the status file, I can install new stuff without problem. "apt-get upgrade" may break things again, however.
  
• I've figured out how to make a .deb (thanks to PyPackager) and I've figured out how to add the line to the sudoers file as part of the install script. So I think I'll be able to have a "Debian chroot" .deb installer that will do all the magic for you by the end of this week. It will have all the scripts and icons, etc, but the actual chroot file will be a separate download. This will allow me to post the .deb here on itT. It will also allow you to download the chroot flavour of your choice. Stay tuned!
  
• I've built a Debian chroot with openoffice.org, abiword, and firefox 3 with java and flash plugins. It comes to 750MB (uncompressed). This also includes a full samba client/server, along with some other goodies. I've put it into a one gig .img file that you will put on your SD card. (It is a purely English language install, but if you need other locales, I will have a small version that requires the user to install the apps themselves.) The .deb will mount this image file and then chroot into it. I just need to find somewhere that can host the 300MB tarball. Any offers? Please?

I can host/mirror it at least for awhile. Look forward to trying it out... what type of filesystem is it?

Hi qole, I've downloaded the large tarball and the mini too, but when I try to extract it, it just do nothing. I use the same command (tar xjvf .......) but it doesn't work with both. Could it be the tar version ? I'm using the same tar used to extract the kde's tarballs.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong :s

I wanted to try this one because I'm having the mpd problem...

I'll PM you...
Just ext2. I did it all on the tablet like I say here...

Ah, yes i just found your old post... can you name it with .ext2 extension so i can associate it (and so its obvious what file system it contains) ?

Ah right, for use with your (very cool) dbus-switchboard. I'll set it to .ext2, although .img is a very common extension for these files.

So, let's assume you downloaded the large tarball to /media/mmc1/
So, you become root, then you do the following?
...if you can wait a few days, I'll make it easier...

qole:
I've tried this way too but it's not working I don't understand why I can't extract it, it's weird...:/

I'll be checking this thread

Thanks!

Hey! It worked --> tar -xvjf /media/mmc1/debian-sid-armel-chroot.tgz
inside the directory where the partition is mounted.

Thanks... yes while img is very commonly used its useless for file system inference as it is used also for clonecd images, picture formats, and i would guess generically to host all types of loopback filesystem types. This would probably not matter if the kernel modules were already loaded by default, but apparently they aren't.

Most importantly, i am integrating support for ext2 filesystems into my isomount package which basically is just simple package which establishes mountpoints, updates sudoers, and adds support scripts. It's not so much a technical marvel as it is an attempt to provide standard framework which people can use. So if you have inputs on refining this interface I would be willing to adapt. I currently establish /mnt/iso for iso's and i have begun using /mnt/ext2 for these ext2 images. I already use isomount in emelfm2 and dbus-switchboard for iso's. In keeping extension as ext2 i can maintain fine grained permissions when run as user. This would provide command like ext2chootrun which would (mount filesystem, run command, unmount filesystem)... or i could just mount and leave open. Base commands for mounting, chroot setup, and unmounting would be sudo-able.

For dbus-switchboard this would let you associate file extensions like debernardis did for open office documents in a very generic, reusable way.

But i will also associate with emelfm2 so that it can mount and drop ext2 file systems like it already can with iso's. This will be very useful for tweaking .ext2 images since i can edit text files in emelfm2 or copy files in and out.