[Fedora-livecd-list] livecd-creator problems/questions

[Douglas McClendon]

Chris Hubick wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am having some problems with livecd-creator...

I'll answer what I can-

> 
> I am running from a Fedora 7.91 Desktop Live CD, and attempting to use a
> kickstart file to generate a custom LiveCD (DVD) onto my USB hard drive:
> 
> cd /media/CHWData/chwlive/
> mkdir tmp
> livecd-creator --config=/media/CHWData/chwlive/chwlive.ks --fslabel=CHWLive --tmpdir=/media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp
> 
> 1) Note that if the path to the tmpdir is too long, /sbin/losetup -a will
> truncate the path in it's output, and livecd-creator will fail (after
> tweaking, mine above is *just* short enough).

Interesting bug.  It'll get fixed soon (answer is to rewrite the code so 
that it uses the output of losetup -f to determine the loop device to 
use before setting it up, rather than setting it up and then using 
losetup -a to figure out which one it automatically used.).


> 2) I want a pure x86_64 system with no multilib.  It took me some time to
> figure out to include --exclude=*.i?86 on the repo line in my kickstart
> file.  Is that the best way to do this?

I'm a 32bit luddite/cheapskate, can't help with this one.


> 3) Is there any way to find out the final list of packages for a kickstart
> file after dependency resolution against a given set of repositories?

I've got a use for this, so I'm hoping someone else answers.  I vaguely 
recall past threads that might be related to this.

> I keep tweaking my kickstart file to get things to fit within the required
> size, but somehow I mistakenly add a package with a million dependencies
> I didn't know about, and livecd-creator then goes to download them all.
> It would be nice if there were an option, or separate tool, to print a
> list of packages for approval first, or at least a summary and size?

This isn't exactly what you want, but here is a tool I use after a test 
spin, to determine what I want to remove for the next spin-

http://www.mail-archive.com/fedora-livecd-list@redhat.com/msg00085.html


> 4) How do I build a LiveCD based on a specific (stableish) test release
> (7.91)?  Given two repos:
> 
> repo --exclude=*.i?86 --name=f8t2 --baseurl=http://fedora.mirror.iweb.ca/development/x86_64/os/
> repo --exclude=*.i?86 --name=f8t2 --baseurl=http://fedora.mirror.iweb.ca/releases/test/7.91/Fedora/x86_64/os/
> 
> The first one will work, but the second will fail, because the release
> folder doesn't contain all the same packages (ie, rdesktop) (why)?
 >
> 5) /usr/share/livecd-tools/livecd-fedora-desktop.ks has a directive:
> %include livecd-fedora-base-desktop.ks
> 
> Where is that include file located?  With the Fedora 7 setup examples,
> everything is in the one kickstart file, and easy to reference, but I have
> no idea how to find that information now?


Should be in /usr/share/livecd-tools/ as well.  The change is that now 
inheritance/nested-kickstart-parsing is used.  I've been meaning to try 
writing a hello world tool with pykickstart that will read a nested 
kickstart and output an un-nested kickstart...

> 
> 6) How do I customize what user is created, auto-login, etc?  That used to
> be in the bottom of the kickstart as well, but is gone now?

This is directly related to the previous question.  If you find the 
livecd-fedora-base-desktop.ks you should find what you were familiar with.

Hopefully other people can address the rest.

Good luck...

-dmc


> 7) Is there any easy way to tell what is being downloaded and how fast?
> As it stands now, I have to browse into the tmpdir with Nautilus and
> watch.
> 
> 8) I waited hours while it downloaded my packages, and then finally I came
> back to see this error:
> 
> tune2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
> Setting maximal mount count to -1
> Setting interval between checks to 0 seconds
> No Repositories Available to Set Up
> No Repositories Available to Set Up
> Excluding Packages from None
> Finished
> Installation target uncompressed data size is 136 MB
> umount: /media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp/livecd-creator-DTaMtf/install_root:
> device is busy
> umount: /media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp/livecd-creator-DTaMtf/install_root:
> device is busy
> ioctl: LOOP_CLR_FD: Device or resource busy
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "/usr/bin/livecd-creator", line 1341, in <module>
>     sys.exit(main())
>   File "/usr/bin/livecd-creator", line 1315, in main
>     target.install()
>   File "/usr/bin/livecd-creator", line 849, in install
>     self.installPackages()
>   File "/usr/bin/livecd-creator", line 535, in installPackages
>     self.ayum.runInstall()
>   File "/usr/bin/livecd-creator", line 316, in runInstall
>     return self.runTransaction(cb)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 581, in
> runTransaction
>     raise Errors.YumBaseError, errors
> yum.Errors.YumBaseError: [('installing package
> gnome-power-manager-2.19.92-1.fc8 needs 6MB on the
> /media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp/livecd-creator-DTaMtf/install_root filesystem',
> (9, '/media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp/livecd-creator-DTaMtf/install_root',
> 5480448L)), ('installing package gnome-utils-2.19.92-1.fc8 needs 19MB on
> the /media/CHWData/chwlive/tmp/livecd-creator-DTaMtf/install_root
> filesystem',....
> 
> [...on and on and on with every package until a command prompt]
> 
> 9) It deleted everything it downloaded!  Gah!  How do I stop this?
> 
> So If I want to try again after the above crash, I have to wait hours?  If
> the final iso doesn't fit on my disc or SD card, I have to download
> everything again for each attempt I want to make?  Do you see how much of
> a problem this is when combined with the fact there is no way to tell how
> large it's going to be ahead of time?  Can we make it so if you specify a
> tmpdir, that it just reuses that directory directly, along with any
> existing yum-cache, and doesn't delete it after?
> 
> Help much appreciated, thanks!!
> 
> ---
> Chris Hubick
> mailto:chris at hubick.com
> http://www.hubick.com/
> 
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