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Remaster?

One of the most requested features of the amaroK LiveCD is giving the user the ability to add their own music to the collection in the iso. There have been several ways to do this. First, the user could actually install the livecd to a spare partition, boot into it, add the music, and then re-run the mklivecd scripts. This is a rather cumbersome method and not everyone has a spare partition lying around. Instructions for this method are here.

The second method that has existed up until this point was to put the music files on a usb key or other similar device and mount it after the livecd has booted. This is a very quick and easy way to accomplish the goal, but not everybody has a usb key, especially one that holds enough music for a whole 6 hour party.

Conceptually, we had worked out a way to undo the iso, add tunes and then put it back together again, but we didn't have an automated way for a user to do that. Until now.

Note that if you want to add software to the livecd, you cannot use this method. To add packages or otherwise update the OS, you have to use method 1.

Prerequisites

A kernel that supports the squashfs file system
The squashfs-tools package
cdrtools (for mkisofs)
1.5GB of free space
K3b (optional) for integrated burning

Methods of achieving the goal

=Built In

As of version 1.3beta2, amaroK now comes bundled with an amarok_live script which lets you do all of this remastering from within the amaroK player. Start the script from the script manager and follow the onscreen instructions. You can add music (once configured) simply by configuring a playlist and using the right-click menu to add the entire list to the LiveCD. This is a great way to assemble a portable playlist for a party.

Standalone

For those without a running amarok player, or if you just want to performa the process outside of amaroK, there is a set of standalone scripts available to accomplish the task.

Get the Scripts

First, you will need the scripts. You can get them from here: Part1 and Part2.

Get the iso

You will also need the amaroK Live! iso, which you can get from the page the amaroK Live official repository at the University of California, Santa Cruz, School of Engineering

http http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/pub/amarok/ ftp ftp://sluglug.ucsc.edu/pub/amarok/

Run the scripts

Once you have those three things, the first step is really easy. Making sure you are root, run

  ./amarok.live.remaster.part1.sh

Having completed that step successfully, you can add the music that you want. Add the music to the folder

  $WORK/amarok.live/music/

where $WORK is the directory that you chose manually. It does not have to be ordered in any way, as amaroK will pick it up as long as it is in there. Please do not add more than about 380mb worth of music, as the resulting iso will become too large to burn. Once you are done with that, run

  ./amarok.live.remaster.part2.sh

and you are left with a file called amaroK.live.custom.iso. This iso is a bootable iso which is identical to the original livecd except your music is added.

Amarok/Archives/AmarokLiveRemastering