[KPhotoAlbum] Image-file to use KPA 3.0.2 on Knoppix (5.2) available

[Martin Jost]

Hello,

whenever I carry some of my photos on CDs to friends of mine, I wish I
could use KPA to pick specific photos. Unfortunately most of my friends
use windows, so KPA won't work there. While Linux live-CDs (like
knoppix) make it possible to boot Linux from CD/DVD, I know of no
version containing KPA.

The following (rather long) posting describes a way to have KPA
available using knoppix and how to create it yourself, to adapt it to
other live-CD/DVD systems.

Newer knoppix have a feature to create a image file (e.g. on memory
stick) and mount this "on top" of the CD/DVD image. (UnionFS) This makes
it possible to add additional software to the packages coming with the
CD/DVD. (Without the need to install anything on the computer knoppix
runs on)

I have created a image for knoppix (5.2) containing KPA 3.0.2 and the
missing dependencies. I used the knoppix DVD which came with
german CT magazine 7/2007. I hope it also works for other versions as well.

Usage:
1.
Get the (compressed) image from my homepage:
http://www.majo.name/knoppix.img.bz2
(KPA maintainers: feel free to put this on the KPA pages, if you like;
same thing for the (possibly edited ;-) description here)

2.
uncompress the image
> bunzip2 knoppix.img.bz2

3.
copy the resulting image-file to the root-directory of one partition
available to knoppix later on. (I put it on my memory stick)
Knoppix searches all root directories of all partitions it finds on boot
for a file named knoppix.img)

4.
Boot from the Knoppix CD/DVD

5.
On boot, knoppix will ask whether to mount the image it found. The
default is *not* to mount it, so you most agree to this.
(The mounting is a potential security risk, because you now rely on the
contents not being malicious; If you want to have a look "inside" the
image file, have a look at "do-it-sourself" later on)

6.
After log in, you now can start KPA from the command line. Because it is
installed as /usr/bin/kphotoalbum, it should be on the path.

7.
Enjoy !
There should be all features present (EXIF-DB, kipi-plugins,
translations, video) *except* the video preview; sorry I didn't find,
what it takes to get this to work. All tips welcome.

Do-it-yourself

1. How to look "inside" the image
(Assuming here, /tmpmnt is a directory)
> sudo mount -o loop -t ext2 knoppix.img  /tmpmnt
This will mount the image on /tmpmnt
You now can look inside the image.
You will find dirs like /etc/network/if-up.d/ (and many more)
beside the obvious KPA files.
These results from activities of Knoppix, which changed these files, so
they ended up in the image too. I tried to get rid of these, but this
always destroyed the image. (Tips here also welcome)

2. Creating your own image file from scratch

a. get the needed files
I installed mostly from source, because I already had those available.
Get the files and save it on a partition later available on knoppix.
What you need may differ, depending on the version you are using and if
you are using a CD or DVD version. I ssume that you are familiar with
the usual way to compile and install configure-based open source SW.

sqlite-2.8.16
(http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-2.8.16.tar.gz)

libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb
(http://packages.debian.org/stable/libs/libqt3-mt-sqlite)

For the following see the KPA homepage
exiv2-0.12
libkexif-0.2.5
libkexiv2-0.1.1
libkipi-0.1.5
kipi-plugins-0.1.3
kphotoalbum-3.0.2

b. Create a image file
(The exact steps depend on your Knoppix version. My description here is
based on Knoppix 5.2. The titles are back-translated from my German version)
- Boot the knoppix CD/DVD
- On the KDE desktop click the penguin icon on the KDE bar (second left
  after the K-icon)
- Choose "Configuration/Install permanent Knoppix-image"
- Confirm message
- Choose the partition, the image will be created on
- Answer the question for encryption with no.
- Enter size for the image (you'll need approximately something between
  60 and 70 Mbyte; so 70 MByte seems good)
- Note: The image now gets created, but not mounted, until the next
  reboot.

c. Installing KPA in the image file
- Reboot the knoppix CD/DVD and confirm the mounting of the image file.
- Compile and install sqlite
- Install libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb using
  > dpkg -i libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb
- Install the remaining packages in the order
  exiv2-0.12
  libkexif-0.2.5
  libkexiv2-0.1.1
  libkipi-0.1.5
  kipi-plugins-0.1.3
  kphotoalbum-3.0.2
- Now KPA should be working and installed in the image.
  (You might need additional packages, depending on your version)
  Next time just the image file is needed.

Enjoy

Martin

-- 
Martin Jost                        Tamagotchi ?
Martin.Jost at majo.name              I've got a computer !