live cd install to a LV

[Mike Wright]

07/11/2014 01:07 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
>
> On Jul 11, 2014, at 1:36 PM, Mike Wright <mike.wright at mailinator.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Is it possible to install a live CD to a logical volume any more?
>
> Yes.
>
>>   I've tried repeatedly and just when I think I've got it the installer refuses to proceed.
>
> What's the filename of the ISO you're using? What are the steps to reproduce the problem, and what's the error message you get?

Fedora-Live-Xfce-x86_64-20-1.  The details are hazy in my memory but I 
spent about 3 hours on it.  When I was finally able to specify my 
pre-existing LV I think I received an error about not being able to find 
an available or usable partition.  The choice remained "greyed out" 
until I gave up and specified a physical.  (I'd have to shutdown and try 
again to give an accurate answer but the system is in use.)

>
>>
>> At one time this was possible.  I needed lot of copies of f14 to use as virtual machines so I installed to hard disk and on completion was prompted to install to more hard disks.  From that point on it took 70 seconds per copy.
>
> a. This worked differently before Fedora 18 and new anaconda. It used to dd copy an image of the ext4 file system to either a standard partition/LV, and then resized the file system to fit the partition/LV. That's why it was fast. But the filesystem choice was fixed.
>
> b. Today you can do live installs to any layout and filesystem because it's rsync'd and there is no file system resize.
>
>> Second question: is there anywhere to get zipped copies of o/s images? I'd like to be able to create installs without having to shut down and run a live CD.
>
> I don't understand this question. It sounds like you should do one install configuring things the way you want in the GUI, and then look at the exported kickstart file, and then figure out how to do kickstart installs for all of your other installs.
>
> Another way is to use cloud images to bypass the installer entirely. Download a qcow2 image, do a yum update to bring it up to date, then make snapshots of that for each VM, point each VM to a different snapshot, and within each VM regenerate machine-id and set a new hostname. Raw images are available also.

Thanks for your detailed explanation Chris.

This sounds like a perfect solution for the way I use my system 
(multiboot xen with kernel and initrd as modules).  Where can I find 
these cloud images and where can I find out how to yum update them once 
I have them?  Guessing mount, chroot, yum update?

>
>
> Chris Murphy
>