Build Your Own Remix with Fedora

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Build Your Own Remix

Return to Sugar_Creation_Kit
Fedora only

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

A 8GB USB is a minimum requirement.
It is usually Cheaper to buy a 120GB or larger external USB Hard Drive and install fedora on it.
A Gnome Desktop install seems to work best. Link: [1]


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

NOTE: this content should be used to enhance above link - 08/02/2010 satellit

NOTE: also look at SugarClone:

(SugarClone duplicates a customized live USB to 2nd USB.)
Sugar Clone, http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Sugar_Clone, is a
short-cut method to customize a SoaS installation that works with a
single-word command.  It would probably serve the targeted-project,
special-focus case.

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

  • AND

FedoraQA Creating_a_Test_Day_Live_Image: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/Live_Image#Creating_a_Test_Day_Live_Image

Introduction

NOTE THAT THESE REMIXES ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY FEDORA
You may find some volunteer support on IRC freenode #sugar however.
click on this link to join #sugar on IRC Chat


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 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:
It will fail if this is not done
su -c ‘setenforce 0’
  • Copy the kickstart files you've Downloaded to your Desktop:
(user*)= your user name
mkdir /home/(user*)/Desktop/spin-kickstarts
cp /usr/share/spin-kickstarts/*.ks /home/(user*)/Desktop/spin-kickstarts/
cd /home/(user*)/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:

# %include spin-kickstarts/(your).ks  (See :[2])

#redefine repo to some local mirror  (See below and :[3])

%packages
#provide list of packages (normal, wildcarded, @comps) to be added or removed - dependencies are handled
#packageYouWant
#wildcardedPackagesYouWant*
#@CompYouWant
#-packageYouDontWant
%end

%post
#put any shell commands here
%end
More Information and Examples of Usage
  • In the worst case you can base the whole livecd on Fedora 12 packages with this definition:
# not really rawhide, overriden with F12 'released' repo
repo --name=rawhide --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=fedora-12&arch=$basearch
repo --name=updates --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=updates-released-f12&arch=$basearch


  • %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)
EXAMPLE
  • edit the boot parameters
delete "quiet" and "rhgb" 
%post --nochroot 
sed -i -e '/ *append / { s/quiet// ; s/rhgb//;  }'  "${LIVE_ROOT}"/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
EXAMPLE
  • disable screensaver locking
%post
# disable screensaver locking
cat >> /home/liveuser/.xscreensaver << FOE
lock:	False
FOE
EXAMPLE
  • Isolinux and most other bootloaders let you edit the boot parameters;

just delete "quiet" and "rhgb" there at boot time. None of the above is livecd specific. 

If you want to make this the default on images you build
then just add the following line in the %post --nochroot section:
sed -i -e '/ *append / { s/quiet// ; s/rhgb//;  }'  "${LIVE_ROOT}"/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
EXAMPLE
  • Include Documents in Books directory
%post --nochroot
# Mel's Example starts  (thanks to Mel Chua)
# pull and include sample content
WD=$PWD
CACHE_DIR=$WD/../cache/books
CONTENT_DIR=$INSTALL_ROOT/home/liveuser/Desktop/books
mkdir -p $CACHE_DIR
mkdir -p $CONTENT_DIR
cd $CONTENT_DIR
PDF="$PDF http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/ReadMeFirst-How-to-build-a-remix.pdf"
PDF="$PDF http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit"
PDF="$PDF http://people.sugarlabs.org/sdz/ForwardPages5-6.pdf"
PDF="$PDF http://people.sugarlabs.org/sdz/Sugar_on_a_Stick-3-Creation_Kit-en-US.pdf"
PDF="$PDF http://people.sugarlabs.org/sdz/Sugar_on_a_Stick-3-Customization_Guide-en-US.pdf"
PDF="$PDF http://en.flossmanuals.net/ActivitiesGuideSugar/FM_25Apr10.pdf"
PDF="$PDF http://en.flossmanuals.net/Sugar/FM_Sugar_28Oct08.pdf"
for pdf in $PDF ; do
 remote_file=$(basename $(curl -4 -s -L -w %{url_effective} -I $pdf | tail -1))
 file=$CACHE_DIR/$remote_file
 if [ ! -f $file ] ; then
   curl -s -4 -L $pdf > $file
 fi
 cp -p $file $CONTENT_DIR
done
%end
  • To change repository: (eg: enable rawhide)
Edit the fedora-live-mini.ks
Put # in front of repos you do not want to use
(remove # )from The repos you want to use
EXAMPLE: repo --name=rawhide --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=rawhide&arch=$basearch


  • 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)-ddmmyear-Remix --cache=/var/cache/live --verbose
  • KEY
--fslabel=Soas-v(2-3-4)-ddmmyear-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

Using the Anaconda Kickstart file

Modify the Anaconda Installer Kickstart file for a Customized install
An alternative approach
Older Anaconda Kickstart Links

Fedora

Fedora Licensing

Using KIWI with openSUSE to Customize

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:KIWI_Cookbook_Live_USB-Stick

Customizing-Trisquel

Customizing-Trisquel

DebianCustomCD

Debian-Custom-CD

Mandriva Custom CD

Draklive:Mandriva Custom-CD
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