using pungi for custom installations

[Remy Bohmer]

Hello Jesse,

I am thankful for that you have built pungi, but while using it I ran into
the following questions. I hope you can answer them:
I am using pungi to be able to build a custom distribution based on FC6 for
an embedded target. Currently I have achieved to build a minimal CD-image of
about 400 MB by specifying a smaller comps.xml file. But the size is still
too big as there is a lot of unneeded stuff in it...

1. The generated ISO image contains xorg RPM packages which I do not need. I
want a text-only installation method (by using the serial console option of
Anaconda), as we do not have a VGA display on our target. Is there an easy
way to get rid of these xorg packages?

2. Currently only 1 ISO image is built with all packages in it. What I
actually want is that 2 ISO's are being built: the 1st ISO containing the
core installation (which almost never changes) with all boot and Anaconda
stuff on it, and a 2nd ISO containing the frequently changing
applications.(a predefined set of RPMs)
Is there a way to split up the list of RPM's in a predefined way (not
related to disc size) and that Anaconda during installation asks for the 2nd
disc?

3. Is there a easy way to get my own build kickstart file on the 1st ISO
through the pungi framework, without the need of rebuilding the ISO files
myself. (And to modify the isolinux configuration file to default load this
kickstart file?)

I hope you can help me by answering these questions...


Kind Regards,

Remy Bohmer

[Jesse Keating]

On Friday 26 January 2007 15:50, Remy Bohmer wrote:
>  1. The generated ISO image contains xorg RPM packages which I do not
> need.
>  I want a text-only installation method (by using the serial console option
>  of Anaconda), as we do not have a VGA display on our target. Is there an
>  easy way to get rid of these xorg packages? 
So right now, those are getting pulled in so that anaconda can build its 
images for the install.  If you don't list say anaconda-runtime and anaconda 
in your comps, it may still work, and you'll just only be able to do text 
installs.  Right now I don't have separated a list of packages anaconda needs 
to create its images vs a list of packages in the compose.

>  2. Currently only 1 ISO image is built with all packages in it. What
> I
>  actually want is that 2 ISO's are being built: the 1st ISO containing the
>  core installation (which almost never changes) with all boot and Anaconda
>  stuff on it, and a 2nd ISO containing the frequently changing
>  applications.(a predefined set of RPMs)
>  Is there a way to split up the list of RPM's in a predefined way (not
>  related to disc size) and that Anaconda during installation asks for the
>  2nd disc? 
That is all done by anaconda-runtime's splittree.py, and what you're trying to 
do doesn't sound all that accomplishable unfortunately.

>  3. Is there a easy way to get my own build kickstart file on the 1st
> ISO
>  through the pungi framework, without the need of rebuilding the ISO files
>  myself. (And to modify the isolinux configuration file to default load this
>  kickstart file?)
>
>  I hope you can help me by answering these questions... 
There is a config option for releasenote files / packages.  See /usr/bin/pungi  
You can treat a kickstart file as a release note file, and package it up into 
a package you include in your spin.  As for altering isolinux, that you'll 
have to figure out on your own.  However if you boot with "linux ks" it'll 
hunt for a ks.cfg on the root of the CD you are booting with.

-- 
Jesse Keating
Release Engineer: Fedora

[Jeroen Janssen]

On 1/26/07, Jesse Keating <jkeating(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  So right now, those are getting pulled in so that anaconda can build
> its
>  images for the install.  If you don't list say anaconda-runtime and anaconda
>  in your comps, it may still work, and you'll just only be able to do text
>  installs.  Right now I don't have separated a list of packages anaconda needs
>  to create its images vs a list of packages in the compose. 
Currently anaconda builds both a stage2.img (graphical) and a
minstg2.img (text) image.

As a first step would it possible to have anaconda just build the
minstg2.img (textonly) image depending on a commandline option?

I'm wondering what exactly pulls in the xorg packages. Is this
something gets pulled in because anaconda-runtime has dependencies to
xorg? So that would mean in order to build an iso without xorg would
need a custom anaconda-runtime package with different dependencies?

note: upd-instroot contains a list of all the needed packages that are
used during image creation.

>  > 2. Currently only 1 ISO image is built with all packages in it.
> What I
>  > actually want is that 2 ISO's are being built: the 1st ISO containing the
>  > core installation (which almost never changes) with all boot and Anaconda
>  > stuff on it, and a 2nd ISO containing the frequently changing
>  > applications.(a predefined set of RPMs)
>  > Is there a way to split up the list of RPM's in a predefined way (not
>  > related to disc size) and that Anaconda during installation asks for the
>  > 2nd disc?
>
>  That is all done by anaconda-runtime's splittree.py, and what you're trying to
>  do doesn't sound all that accomplishable unfortunately. 
What exactly makes anaconda 'ask' for the 2nd disc?

Would it be possible to just generate a single CD with pungi and
"manually" generate a 2nd "application" ISO with a repository on it
that can be used during installation?
Then you could alter the pungi generated iso to let anaconda know it's
a 2disc installation.

Best regards,

Jeroen Janssen

[Jesse Keating]

On Friday 26 January 2007 17:10, Jeroen Janssen wrote:
>  What exactly makes anaconda 'ask' for the 2nd disc? 
The repodata on the first cd has media:// numbers.  If you checkbox a package 
that exists on the second media, anaconda will ask for it.

-- 
Jesse Keating
Release Engineer: Fedora

[Jeroen Janssen]

On 1/26/07, Jesse Keating <jkeating(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Friday 26 January 2007 17:10, Jeroen Janssen wrote:
>  > What exactly makes anaconda 'ask' for the 2nd disc?
>
>  The repodata on the first cd has media:// numbers.  If you checkbox a package
>  that exists on the second media, anaconda will ask for it. 
Ok, so basically the following should work?
* generate a single CD with pungi (containing only FC6 stuff)
* extract the generated CD to <top>/cd1/
* generate a 2nd tree with app RPMS in <top>/cd2/ (who generates .discinfo?)
* rerun createrepo on the <top> tree with --split option resulting in
new repodata being generated in CD1.
* create new isos of cd1 and cd2

It's probably a bit of a 'hack' though :)

Best regards,

Jeroen Janssen

[Jesse Keating]

On Friday 26 January 2007 17:33, Jeroen Janssen wrote:
>  Ok, so basically the following should work?
>  * generate a single CD with pungi (containing only FC6 stuff)
>  * extract the generated CD to <top>/cd1/
>  * generate a 2nd tree with app RPMS in <top>/cd2/ (who generates
>  .discinfo?) * rerun createrepo on the <top> tree with --split option
>  resulting in new repodata being generated in CD1.
>  * create new isos of cd1 and cd2
>
>  It's probably a bit of a 'hack' though :) 
Alternatively, use a different splittree to split stuff how you want it during 
the compose, and let createrepo just happen.  Easier than 
compose/alter/compose.

-- 
Jesse Keating
Release Engineer: Fedora