[CentOS-devel] lightweight LiveCD installer for CentOS-5.4 available - zyx-liveinstaller

Tue Oct 27 09:48:12 UTC 2009
Douglas McClendon <dmc.centos at filteredperception.org>

Douglas McClendon wrote:
> I thought some of you might like to know-
> 
> The latest version of zyx-liveinstaller (0.1.15) now supports the
> CentOS-5.4 LiveCD/USB.

Actually I just put out 0.1.16, which in addition to being noarch, also 
fixed a problem when installing to rootfs on non-lvm partitions.

The other reason I'm replying to this, is the PS at the end about 
syslinux's menu.c32 vs vesamenu.32, turns out to be a result of 
livecd-iso-to-disk using the burning host's syslinux.  I.e. if I burn my 
LiveUSB from centos-5.4 instead of 5.3 or fedora, the grey screen 
bootloader problem doesn't show up.

-dmc


> 
> http://filteredperception.org/smiley/projects/zyx-liveinstaller/
> 
> This is a ~100kb rpm that can be installed in a running LiveCD/USB
> session.  Once run, zyx-liveinstaller will then allow you to install the
> running system permanently to system-disk.
> 
> This is like the anaconda/liveinst installer available with the Fedora
> LiveCD/USB, except-
> 
> a) it works _rebootlessly_!  After installation completes, you simply
> eject the LiveCD or remove the LiveUSB and continue using the now
> installed system.
> 
> b) it is still relatively immature, but gets the job done (as far as 
> I've tested).  Installation to external usb drives also works.
> 
> c) it can easily be included in a custom CentOS LiveCD spin, without the
> downside of having to have an unsupported version of anaconda on the system.
> 
> d) it is a fairly simple pygtk frontend for a bash backend.  In fact,
> all you really need is the single bash script
> /usr/sbin/zyx-liveinstaller-cli.
> 
> NOTE: that like the Fedora LiveCD installer, it is a *destructive* 
> install.  Target partitions/volumes get reformatted.
> 
> -----------------
> 
> To do a commandline installation with no seperate /boot partition, the
> rootfs on /dev/sda2, and the swap partition on /dev/sda3, you would just
> run-
> 
> rpm -Uvh \
> http://filteredperception.org/downloads/zyx-liveinstaller/zyx-liveinstaller-0.1.15-1.i386.rpm
> 
> zyx-liveinstaller-cli \
> /dev/sda2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3
> 
> -----------------
> 
> Note, that if you throw a copy of the 100kb rpm inside the LiveUSB 
> version of CentOS-5.4, you have a totally portable offline installable 
> version of CentOS.  This is definitely not as seriously usable as the 
> traditional DVD installer on bootable USB form, but might have its uses.
> 
> Bugs, comments, criticisms, and feedback are encouraged.
> 
> Now that I've got this working, I'll really get to work helping Patrice
> crossport my old LiveUSB persistence patches to Fedora-8/9 to CentOS-5.*.
> 
> peace...
> 
> -dmc
> 
> P.S. To get CentOS-5.4 LiveUSB to boot on my acer aspire one, I had to
> change the syslinux.cfg line of 'vesamenu.c32' to 'menu.c32' (and copy
> menu.c32).  Otherwise an unusable and very grey syslinux bootloader.
> Hopefully just a problem with this netbook.
> 
> 
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