New image for download page of xbian.org

[mk01]

@NitSuA

the easiest way is to use simply the build in cloning function, which creates bootable .img automatically. isn't it ?

steps:

Code:

1) flash clean .img
2) boot
3) stop xbmc and use terminal or remotelly ssh is fine (stopping xbmc will speed up the process anyway)
4) update any way you are used to
5) reboot
6) run "all-clean". this command will remove garbage like cached debs for apt, logs, xbian & root histories, will reset XBMC settings, removes ssh keys (they will be regenerated upon next boot) bla bla bla bla more. so the clean img is even cleaner
7) clone to file. with xbianclone function. for training, use just xbian-config, option 6 or 7? as destination put
file:/mnt/path/to/file.img
WARNING - the destination needs to be different filesystem from rootfs. so it has be network mount, or usb hdd/stick or similar.
8) you are done. you can distribute .img.

this auto process will try to guess minimum possible size for destination img file. unfortunately this leads to new rootfs (and img) of size ~600mb which will force btrfs to use mixed-data-metadata structure (because filesystem is too small). according to docs, such filesystem even after resize will keep this structure what can leads to performance hits (when later resized to bg filessytem). docs are not specifying what means BIG and what means (or how much it means) performance hit. I assume developers considered std HDD sizes (1/2TB) so our mini SD cards will not make a difference.

but still if you are perfectionist, you create xbianclone from command line by using --size parameter, you specify size greater than 1G (1024M or 1048576K). the size can be specified exactly as I provided so with G/M/K suffixes. I usually use 1200M.

you get content wise same img as before, but you need (or would be nice) to shrink the filesystem, cut the partition and with dd recopy to new img just the needed amounts of sectors.

sounds scary but is quite easy. if you come to this point and you will feel confident, ask me again for the few commands to cut the waste empty space.