Suggestion: add the ability to install Chard Arch chroot on a removable media (p.s. by shadowed1: keeping this issue open until it is implemented)

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

I've been trying with Google Gemini to install chard chroot on a removable media, and I found a way to trick the chromeos jail for USBs so we can install chard without getting noexec error (among other perm errors). The method consists on

1. Connect a removable USB drive (mine is 32GB) and renaming it (in my case, ChardUSB)
2. Doing sudo umount -l /media/removable/ChardUSB (ChardUSB is replaced with the Label of your removable media)
3. sudo umount -l /dev/sdX replacing X with the current ID of the usb unit (looking at lsblk)
4. After that, create mkdir -p /usr/local/MiUSB
5. Later, format the USB with ext4 sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX -L ChardUSB (again, replacing the X)
6. Disconnect and replug USB
7. Do again step 2 and 3
8. and sudo mount "$DEVICE" /usr/local/MiUSB -t ext4 -o rw,exec,dev,suid || true
   9. After that, sudo ln -s /usr/local/MiUSB/chard /usr/local/chard
   10. Then, when DOWNLOADING the Chard Arch installer script, it is first located at ~/Chard_Installer, so we go to cd ~ and I do sed -i 's/sudo timeout 10 rm -rf "$CHARD_ROOT"/# sudo timeout 10 rm -rf "$CHARD_ROOT"/g' Chard_Installer so the symbolic link isn't removed on installation.
   EDIT: Trying with no symbolik link and trying to do it directly on mountpoint /usr/local/MiUSB
9. Then, I move the ChardInstaller to /usr/local and I run it edit: putting the install path at the mountpoint (in my case, /usr/local/MiUSB/chard)
10. Installation starts. It might be slow depending on transfer speed, but it works.
    I'm still installing it (extracting the Arch Bootstrap), and I will send here another message because I might have to edit something of the script that mounts the chroot chard root because of the functionality of detecting removable media. I'll update the status later on this same issue.

Sorry for poor English and maybe poor explanation

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

Status update: it is currently extracting the linux kernel tar.xz
EDIT: I Accidentally ran out of battery and I'm re-doing installation
EDIT (15:42 UTC+0): For now, even though it is VERY slow, the installation is progressing as expected. It is on Checkpoint 19 (build and install kernel + modules), installing GPU drivers.

[shadowed1]

Hey C0d1ngR4bb1t, thanks for the suggestion! I do want the ability for Chard to run on lower end Chromebooks that simply lack the storage needed. External drive support would be great.

I was under the impression that due to the noexec mount on external media on ChromeOS, we will need to have bindfs.

sudo mount "$DEVICE" /usr/local/MiUSB -t ext4 -o rw,exec,dev,suid || true

I thought applying the exec flag with above method to the device should not work on ChromeOS. This is essentially the same problem I ran into with getting Steam on Chard Arch to support external drives;

See chard_mount for how bindfs is being used here:
https://github.com/shadowed1/Chard/edit/main/bin/chard_mount

If I remember correctly, ext4 is the only format out of the box that can do exec mount on ChromeOS without bindfs.

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

No problem!
I actually made my USB use the ext4 format, and Chariot is doing it's magic!! I am re-applying right now some checkpoints anyway because I got them unfinished (such as yay package). But i'm finishing that issue.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the process in order I use for mounting and unmounting chard and USB to ensure a secure portability.
I'll attach the scripts I made to automate the process of mounting the USB at /usr/local/MiUSB and unmounting it when wanting to remove the USB.

mountard.sh
ejectard.sh

[shadowed1]

Thanks for including them! I can see about adding support for USB devices on fresh install.

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

Hey shadowed! I've been busy and I got no time until know to tell you: Chard installation has successfully been installed in my USB. I'm testing a bit, but seems to go great.

[shadowed1]

That is awesome! I will add this to the to-do list and work on adding this to the installer so it can be easy to choose the right device.

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

Great! Feels nice to help the project grow.

[shadowed1]

Added you to contributors. I just need to figure out a user-friendly approach for the installer for this. Ideally the installer will also be able to set up formatting the chosen drive to ext4 as well.

[shadowed1]

I have not forgotten abou this, but I am struggling at getting a user-friendly approach to this in the Installer!

[C0d1ngR4bb1t]

Oh, just saw this. Don't worry shadowed! Take as much time as you need. You know, sometimes it's better quality over rushing.

[shadowed1]

Making good progress on verifying this works on SD card. For example:

sudo umount -l /media/removable/SD 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo umount -l /dev/mmcblk0p1 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo umount -l /dev/mmcblk0 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/SD
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk0 -L SD

# DISCONNECT and RECONNECT SD Card!

sudo umount -l /media/removable/SD 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo umount -l /dev/mmcblk0p1 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo umount -l /dev/mmcblk0 2>/dev/null
sleep 0.2
sudo mount "/dev/mmcblk0" /usr/local/SD -t ext4 -o rw,exec,dev,suid || true

Selecting /usr/local/SD in the Chard installer will add it. I just need to add a bunch of little things to make it easy to use.