Talk:Features/SoaS Remixability

Build Your Own Remix

THIS SHOULD BE LOOKED AT FIRST:http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide

NOTE: this content will be used to enhance above link - 08/03/2010 satellit

CAUTION: DO NOT TRY DOING THIS FROM A SOAS USB STICK or CD. A MINIMUM OF 8GB IS REQUIRED TO BUILD A CUSTOM-REMIX.ISO

8GB is a minimum size requirement.

A 120GB or larger external USB Hard Drive is recommended. Install fedora on it.A Gnome Desktop install seems to work best.

Download Links F13: [1][2]

• A related project SugarCreationStation is being developed.

A Prebuilt Installer Disk [3]

This will be a Custom Remix CD with livecd-tools and spin-kickstarts installed.

Requires installation to a Hard Disk to allow Building .iso's.

This CD will Provide the tools, including detailed instructions, for creating a custom Soas-remix

The following is Modified/Adapted from: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Talk:How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD

Introduction

NOTE THAT THESE REMIXES ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY FEDORA

You may find some volunteer support on IRC freenode #sugar however.

This page explains how to make a custom-content Live CD or DVD on Fedora-based systems including derived distributions such as RHEL, CentOS and others.

If you simply want to burn a pre-made ISO to a disc, visit http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora to download a LiveCD or LiveDVD, then see the install guide or burning how-to for further instructions.

Instructions

The basic workflow for creating a remix is:

1. Create / Modify a kickstart file that specifies the packages you want installed on your remix, along with special settings you want to tweak.
2. Run that kickstart file through livecd-creator, which will pull in the packages and compose an .iso, which you can then burn to CD.

...that's it! We will walk you through these steps below.

Install the necessary software

To create a live image, the livecd-creator tool is used. Super user privileges are needed. The tool is more or less self-documenting, use the --help option to see options.

The livecd-creator tool is part of the livecd-tools package. If it is not installed on your system, add it with:

su -c 'yum install livecd-tools spin-kickstarts'

If you are interested in localized live cd files, install also l10n-kickstarts.

su -c 'yum install l10n-kickstarts'

Note the spin-kickstart files that download are specific for the version of fedora you are using

The version of sugar will also be different for each version of fedora:

f12 0.86.-

f13 0.88.-

f14(rawhide) 0.89.- (0.90.-?)

Set up your environment

Now we'll set up the place you'll be building your remix's image file in. We assume you're running a recent version of Fedora.

We will use the /home/(user*)/Desktop to do our builds

Note: If you use the Kickstart files in the default installed location in /usr/share/spin-kickstarts you will have permission problems editing the files.

• Set SELinux in permissive mode:

su -c ‘setenforce 0’

• Copy the fedora-livecd-soas kickstart file you've Downloaded to your Desktop:

(user*)= your user name

mkdir /home/liveuser//home/liveuser/Desktop/spin-kickstarts
cp -r /usr/share/spin-kickstarts/*.ks /home/liveuser/Desktop/spin-kickstarts/

• Edit one of the .ks files you just copied to your Desktop/spin-kickstarts directory

gedit

Create/Modify the kickstart file

1. Open the kickstart file you chose from the spin-kickstart folder you copied to your Desktop in the editor of your choice.:
2. Create the package manifest section and add your favorite packages:

%packages
foo
baz
bar
%end

More Information

• %packages

Add and or remove programs

Any Program with a minus sign (-) will be removed; any program without a minus will be added

• %post

Manipulate files that have been installed

%post command are done in cheroot (the commands are only run against the new file system created for the live CD)

• To change repository: (eg: enable rawhide)

Edit the fedora-live-mini.ks

Put # in front of repos you do not want to use

(remove # )from The repos you want to use

EXAMPLE: repo --name=rawhide --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=rawhide&arch=$basearch

• Look at this .ks for usage examples:http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/Mirabelle-Remix-plain.ks

• Congrats -- you're done!

Example Terminal Command to Build .iso

You must be connected to a fast Internet connection for this to work

f14(rawhide)build system using fedora-livecd-soas.ks

(This example also works with a f13 Build System)

• In terminal /home/(user)/Desktop:

su

"#"

livecd-creator \
--config=/home/(user)/Desktop/spin-kickstarts/fedora-livecd-soas.ks \
--fslabel=Soas-v(2-3-4)-mmddyear-Remix --cache=/var/cache/live --verbose

• KEY

--fslabel=Soas-v(2-3-4)-mmddyear-xxxx-Remix = (The name you specify for the CD remix)

Explanation of format for name: (preliminary layout pending approval by Soas)

v(2-3-4)= the sugar version v(2-3-4)

v2= Fedora 12 sugar 0.86-

v3= Fedora 13 sugar 0.88-

v4= Fedora 14 sugar 0.89-0.90

dd/mm/year= The Creation Date

-xxxx = custom name

Remix is REQUIRED for naming if Soas is used

--config=/home/(user*)/Desktop/spin-kickstarts/ * (path to your Desktop/spin-kickstarts folder and .ks file)

Build the image

• The build process will take some time, as well as space and bandwidth.

Success is indicated by message:

"Setting supported flag to 0"

your new remix CD.iso is located in your Home Folder.

Credits

Parts of this page were based on Rahul Sundaram's article Roll Out A Fedora Remix. And the References listed below:

Share your Custom.ks File

• we plan to have a listing of Customized kickstart.files to share on the WIKI

We will list them here so others can try them out and learn from them.

Please send e-mail to:

To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org
Subject: [Custom KS]-{Name of your kickstart file}
*Attach your Custom.ks file*
PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION in e-mail:
Sugar Version                    :                  
(0.82; 0.86.x; 0.88.x; 0.89.x)
Country / Deployment             :                      
Build system fedora version      :                    
Number of USB's in Deployment    :  
PC/Netbooks used                 :             
Notes and Any Bug No's submitted :

Name	Kickstart.file	Sugar Version	Country / Deployment	Build system fedora version	Number of USB's in Deployment	Used with PC/Netbooks Types	CD.iso (if available), Notes, Comments, Bug No's submitted.
satellit	Mirabelle-remix [4]	Sugar 0.86.3	USA / Testing	f13	Testing	EeePC900; Acer Aspire One	[5] Works fine, CD, liveinst, zyx-liveinstaller, USBscr,dd, Liveusb-creator all work Read(bug) [6]
satellit	soas-v4-0725-Remix [7]	Sugar 0.89.1	USA /Testing	f14(rawhide)	Testing	EeePC900; Acer Aspire One	[8] Works fine, CD, zyx-liveinstaller, USBscr,dd Liveinst Fails on firstboot cannot log on Read(bug) [9]
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References/Links

Fedora

• http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Installation_Guide/index.html
• http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/sugar/soas/docs/customization-guide/index.html
• https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Talk:How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD
• https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD
• http://www.linuxforu.com/how-to/roll-out-a-fedora-remix/
• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fedora-livecd/
• http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/KickStart-HOWTO.html#s4

Detailed KS Links

• NOTE: This Part Under Construction...Info may be out of date or not applicable
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-kickstart2-options.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/index.html

• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-kickstart2-howuse.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-kickstart2-file.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-kickstart2-options.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-kickstart2-packageselection.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/s1-kickstart2-postinstallconfig.html
• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fedora-livecd/index.html
• http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=231281
• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD

Bugs: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=livecd-tools&product=Fedora

Options provided by the livecd-creator command

f14(rawhide)

livecd-creator --help

Options:
 -h, --help            show this help message and exit
 Image options:
   These options define the created image.
   -c KSCFG, --config=KSCFG
                       Path or url to kickstart config file
   -b BASE_ON, --base-on=BASE_ON
                       Add packages to an existing live CD iso9660 image.
   -f FS_LABEL, --fslabel=FS_LABEL
                       File system label (default based on config name)
   --compression-type=COMPRESS_TYPE * Note: NEW TO F14(rawhide)
                       Compression type recognized by mksquashfs (default
                       zlib, lzma needs custom kernel)
 System directory options:
   These options define directories used on your system for creating the
   live image
   -t TMPDIR, --tmpdir=TMPDIR
                       Temporary directory to use (default: /var/tmp)
   --cache=CACHEDIR    Cache directory to use (default: private cache
 Debugging options:
   These options control the output of logging information during image
   creation
   -d, --debug         Output debugging information
   -v, --verbose       Output verbose progress information
   --logfile=FILE      Save debug information to FILE