Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

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Fixer1234

Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

I'm hoping that somebody involved in creating the Xfce 17 iso might be able to shed light on a question. I installed Mint Xfce 17 RC, which contained a version of Menulibre with a bug (not sure whether the final release contains the corrrected version). The bug causes Menulibre to corrupt the Whisker menu file. I already downloaded the corrected Menulibre but to fix the damage, I need to replace the menu file in ~/.config/menus with an uncorrupted copy. Without this file (i.e., just deleting it), Whisker and Menulibre work with different menu definition files so the menu file Whisker uses can't be edited.

My question: is there a way to obtain just that file or a way to identify and extract it from the iso? I'm still setting up the Linux installation and hadn't yet backed it up, so I no longer have a good copy of the preprocessed menu file (that I know of). I've invested enough time so far that I would hate to start over reinstalling everything for one file. Many others have also reported this problem, so making that menu definition file available or accessible for those who need it would save a lot of people a lot of time and aggravation.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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gonse

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by gonse »

Hi there,

you can simply open the .iso file with the archive tool and extract the file you want.

Regards,
Stefan
Fixer1234

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

Thanks. By any chance do you know how to locate a specific file in the hundreds of archives on the iso?
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Flemur
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Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Flemur »

You can mount the iso image as a filesystem, then use 'find' or whatever to find a file.
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-to-mo ... linux.html
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Fixer1234

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

Cool! Thanks.
Fixer1234

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

gonse wrote:Hi there,

you can simply open the .iso file with the archive tool and extract the file you want.

Regards,
Stefan
Tried that. Not so much. Opening the iso with the archive tool gives you access to the same thing you see on the DVD after you burn the iso.
Flemur wrote:You can mount the iso image as a filesystem, then use 'find' or whatever to find a file.
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-to-mo ... linux.html
Same thing. Mounting the iso is the same as opening the DVD after burning the iso.

What is on the burned iso is a combination of nested folders, archived files (within nested folders), .deb files, binary files, etc. The search and archive applications aren't able to search everything on the iso from the top level for the filename that gets installed on the computer. Even manually recursing through the directory structure, I couldn't spot an individual file or simple archive that looked like what I was looking for. It could be that the file I'm looking for may be buried in a .deb installation file or possibly created on the fly at installation.

But you don't know until you try and you learn by trying, so thanks for the suggestions.
shengchieh

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by shengchieh »

I would think you can

- boot the iso as liveCD/liveDVD
- find the file you want and copy it an USB stick OR email the file to yourself using a webmail
- logout of the live session
- boot back normally and add the file from the USB stick or email

never tried it - no guarantee.

Sheng-Chieh
Fixer1234

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

Great minds think alike (if you find someone besides yourself with a great mind, we can test this theory). I tried that and for many files, that would work. Unfortunately, the particular file I was looking for isn't populated in the liveDVD session.
shengchieh

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by shengchieh »

Hmmm. If you know the name of the file and where it is, maybe someone (not me - I'm still on LM XFCE)
can email/PM the file to you?!?

Sheng-Chieh
Fixer1234

Re: Extracting or obtaining one file from the iso

Post by Fixer1234 »

I was recently able to get the particular file I needed from someone who had saved a copy of the unaltered file right after the Mint installation. I left this thread open because I and others will not always be so lucky. I was hoping to learn whether there is a way to get such files directly from the iso if needed. So far, it looks like files that get populated in the live session are easily retrievable. Others may not be practical and would require reinstalling Linux. It's a good lesson to make a backup of the entire fresh installation.
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