I am currently building a Live CD for CentOS 5. I am using the livecd-creator script from the livecd-tools project [1].
Here is my setup: - A workstation with CentOS 5 i386 - dosfstools 2.11-8 [2] - livecd-tools 009-11 [2] - pykickstart 1.0-1 [2]
To create a live CD, you need a kickstart configuration file[3].
You also need to increase the maximum number of open files: # ulimit -n 65535
Then, you can start the creation process (~30 minutes): # livecd-creator --config=centos-livecd-desktop.ks
The resulting iso image (644MB) can be transfered to an USB key... # livecd-iso-to-disk <isopath> <usbstick device>
... or simply burned to a CD or DVD.
The live CD has a writable /usr directory. However, it can not be used to install CentOS 5 on your system. A new anaconda package will be required to achieve this functionality.
[1] http://git.fedoraproject.org/?p=hosted/livecd [2] These packages are available at http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live [3] http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live/centos-...
-- Patrice Guay
Patrice Guay wrote:
I am currently building a Live CD for CentOS 5. I am using the livecd-creator script from the livecd-tools project [1].
Here is my setup:
- A workstation with CentOS 5 i386
- dosfstools 2.11-8 [2]
- livecd-tools 009-11 [2]
- pykickstart 1.0-1 [2]
To create a live CD, you need a kickstart configuration file[3].
You also need to increase the maximum number of open files: # ulimit -n 65535
Then, you can start the creation process (~30 minutes): # livecd-creator --config=centos-livecd-desktop.ks
The resulting iso image (644MB) can be transfered to an USB key... # livecd-iso-to-disk <isopath> <usbstick device>
... or simply burned to a CD or DVD.
The live CD has a writable /usr directory. However, it can not be used to install CentOS 5 on your system. A new anaconda package will be required to achieve this functionality.
[1] http://git.fedoraproject.org/?p=hosted/livecd [2] These packages are available at http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live [3] http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live/centos-...
-- Patrice Guay
Patrice,
Thanks. I was working on this too ... but since you have finished this part, I will concentrate on anaconda to try and get this installable.
Thank you for your hard work on the Live CD.
Johnny Hughes
Johnny Hughes wrote:
Patrice Guay wrote:
I am currently building a Live CD for CentOS 5. I am using the livecd-creator script from the livecd-tools project [1].
Here is my setup:
- A workstation with CentOS 5 i386
- dosfstools 2.11-8 [2]
- livecd-tools 009-11 [2]
- pykickstart 1.0-1 [2]
To create a live CD, you need a kickstart configuration file[3].
You also need to increase the maximum number of open files: # ulimit -n 65535
Then, you can start the creation process (~30 minutes): # livecd-creator --config=centos-livecd-desktop.ks
The resulting iso image (644MB) can be transfered to an USB key... # livecd-iso-to-disk <isopath> <usbstick device>
... or simply burned to a CD or DVD.
The live CD has a writable /usr directory. However, it can not be used to install CentOS 5 on your system. A new anaconda package will be required to achieve this functionality.
[1] http://git.fedoraproject.org/?p=hosted/livecd [2] These packages are available at http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live [3] http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live/centos-...
-- Patrice Guay
Thanks. I was working on this too ... but since you have finished this part, I will concentrate on anaconda to try and get this installable.
Thank you for your hard work on the Live CD.
Johnny Hughes
I completed a first version of a Live CD from which one could install CentOS 5. The installation process uses anaconda in graphical mode. I had to repackage several srpms from Fedora 7 to achieve this - anaconda being the hardest since it contains a lot of branding.
As always, those packages are available at: http://www.nanotechnologies.qc.ca/propos/linux/centos-live/i386/live
The receipe given above will yield a Live CD including an installer.
I would be pleased if the CentOS QA team could review my work. -- Patrice Guay
Hi Patrice,
Patrice Guay wrote:
I completed a first version of a Live CD from which one could install CentOS 5. The installation process uses anaconda in graphical mode. I had to repackage several srpms from Fedora 7 to achieve this - anaconda being the hardest since it contains a lot of branding.
I dont think we can really do this, unles someone can explain to me how one might plan on supporting updates for these packages for 7 years ?
- KB
Karanbir Singh wrote:
Hi Patrice,
Patrice Guay wrote:
I completed a first version of a Live CD from which one could install CentOS 5. The installation process uses anaconda in graphical mode. I had to repackage several srpms from Fedora 7 to achieve this - anaconda being the hardest since it contains a lot of branding.
I dont think we can really do this, unles someone can explain to me how one might plan on supporting updates for these packages for 7 years ?
- KB
Hi Karanbir,
the anaconda package from CentOS 5 can't support installation from a Live CD. This feature has been introduced in Fedora 7. If we want to stick as much as possible to the original CentOS packages on the Live CD, installation from the media won't be supported through anaconda until CentOS 6.
-- Patrice
Hi,
Patrice Guay wrote:
the anaconda package from CentOS 5 can't support installation from a Live CD.
right..
This feature has been introduced in Fedora 7. If we want to stick as much as possible to the original CentOS packages on the Live CD, installation from the media won't be supported through anaconda until CentOS 6.
I'd much rather stick with than create orphans for the likes of lvm / anaconda / kudzu etc. They are all fairly critical portions of the distro, and while being on a livecd is fine, when they get transfered over onto an installed machine, its something a user would expect to be 'CentOS'.
And I am not sure if we can even do this sort of a thing as a CentOSPlus livecd, unless someone wants to take on the job of maintaining these packages in the plus repo, and doing enough to make sure it continues to work with the base distro.
Lets try and see what we can come up with on the CentOS distro anaconda.
- KB
On Wed, 2007-08-22 at 03:51 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
I'd much rather stick with than create orphans for the likes of lvm / anaconda / kudzu etc. They are all fairly critical portions of the distro, and while being on a livecd is fine, when they get transfered over onto an installed machine, its something a user would expect to be 'CentOS'.
I haven't looked yet at how Anaconda does live CD installs, but can't we modify it to install our versions of these packages during the installation?
And I am not sure if we can even do this sort of a thing as a CentOSPlus livecd, unless someone wants to take on the job of maintaining these packages in the plus repo, and doing enough to make sure it continues to work with the base distro.
Quite painful to do so for seven years :(.
-- Daniel
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I haven't looked yet at how Anaconda does live CD installs, but can't we modify it to install our versions of these packages during the installation?
if its installing rpms - then yes that would ( read: should ) not be a major issue.
And I am not sure if we can even do this sort of a thing as a CentOSPlus livecd, unless someone wants to take on the job of maintaining these packages in the plus repo, and doing enough to make sure it continues to work with the base distro.
Quite painful to do so for seven years :(.
Maintaining the packages should not really be an issue, the problem is going to be making sure that everything else in the distro also plays well with what we have in there and making sure we are not creating more issues for users.
- KB
Karanbir Singh wrote:
Daniel de Kok wrote:
I haven't looked yet at how Anaconda does live CD installs, but can't we modify it to install our versions of these packages during the installation?
if its installing rpms - then yes that would ( read: should ) not be a major issue.
I am quite sure it is not installing rpms. The installation process is copying the Live CD content to the selected hard drive. Maybe we could add a post-installation script following these steps:
1. chroot to the new installation 2. force rpm installation of CentOS packages over Live CD packages 3. exit
And I am not sure if we can even do this sort of a thing as a CentOSPlus livecd, unless someone wants to take on the job of maintaining these packages in the plus repo, and doing enough to make sure it continues to work with the base distro.
Quite painful to do so for seven years :(.
Maintaining the packages should not really be an issue, the problem is going to be making sure that everything else in the distro also plays well with what we have in there and making sure we are not creating more issues for users.
- KB
Patrice Guay wrote:
if its installing rpms - then yes that would ( read: should ) not be a major issue.
I am quite sure it is not installing rpms.
yes, that is what my understanding is as well. However, we dont install or need to install anaconda itself - so the chances of creating orphans there is quite limited ( but still possible, i think we can live with that small small chance )
The installation process is copying the Live CD content to the selected hard drive. Maybe we could add a post-installation script following these steps:
- chroot to the new installation
- force rpm installation of CentOS packages over Live CD packages
- exit
As a last case scenario, yes we could do something that drastic. However I'd still like to make something work with what we have. Lets look at this for the livecd5.1 release.
- KB
Hi Patrice,
On Sat, Jul 28, 2007 at 10:57:22PM -0400, Patrice Guay wrote:
I am currently building a Live CD for CentOS 5. I am using the livecd-creator script from the livecd-tools project [1].
I only had the time to try this today, and it worked very well. Maybe it's nice to add yum-metadata-parser too?
-- Daniel de Kok | http://danieldk.org/
Daniel de Kok wrote:
Hi Patrice,
On Sat, Jul 28, 2007 at 10:57:22PM -0400, Patrice Guay wrote:
I am currently building a Live CD for CentOS 5. I am using the livecd-creator script from the livecd-tools project [1].
I only had the time to try this today, and it worked very well. Maybe it's nice to add yum-metadata-parser too?
That's a good idea. There is some space available on my current live CD build. I'd rather put packages requested by the community than fill it with useless stuff.
-- Patrice
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Daniel de Kok -
Johnny Hughes -
Karanbir Singh -
Patrice Guay