Need advice on "Live" versus "Installed" custom builds

I want to create a custom build that is instantly deployable without having to install it first. However, all of the recipes and examples that I have seen for custom builds involving having to install it rather than being able to use a custom build immediately after booting the ISO from USB or DVD. I love the ISO of DOOM recipe in which the build uses openvpn to initiate a connection with home when it is deployed but it also requires installation. Problems with the "Live" build method:

• SSH doesn't start automatically. I can configure SSH to autostart after the next boot but that isn't possible if I am not doing the "Install" deployment.
• The "Install" deployment requires some storage in order to install the image and I never know whether the machine on which the ISO is booted is headless or has existing storage that would be damaged or wiped out with the "preseed" installation script.
• The pre-set custom wallpaper doesn't show up automatically. I can switch to it under desktop preferences but that requires a manual change rather than the custom wallpaper being used as default.

Does anyone have experience or advice on building a instantly deployable "Live" image that doesn't require installation?

Thanks - M

Persistence if you have not looked into that for the most part you can fully update and change what you want to start up etc very very easily, a decent usb stick should be used though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by undersc0re

Persistence if you have not looked into that for the most part you can fully update and change what you want to start up etc very very easily, a decent usb stick should be used though.

---

Thanks, undersc0re, that was what I needed!

The persistence solved the SSH problem because once the build ran initially, SSH successfully started on the next boot.
Persistence didn't solve the problem with the desktop background not showing up but I got around it by putting the background picture in ~/Pictures and saving the ~/.config/dconf/user configuration file in the custom build includes.chroot.

The only remaining problem now involves inability to use persistence with DVD deployments, which I imagine isn't an issue since most modern systems boot to USB just fine.

// M

use respin or systemback
one click
no complications
to put to another hard drive install qt4-fsarchiver to your distro first and the live you create becomes a backup/restore disk
it seems to me the debian or kali process is complicated without reason to be