[CentOS] Kickstart-based Install, editing comps.xml, hdlist/hdlist2

Thu Jun 30 00:06:08 UTC 2005
Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists at hughesjr.com>

On Wed, 2005-06-29 at 19:02 -0500, Johnny Hughes wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-06-29 at 16:42 -0700, dan.trainor wrote:
> > Hello, all -
> > 
> > I've been throwing the question around on the kickstart-list for the
> > last few days here, and can't quite get ahold of things.  Please, allow
> > me to explain.
> > 
> > I am in the process of making a custom CentOS/RHEL kickstart install.
> > It works well right now; however, it's a hackjob, and I am not
> > comfortable with it as of yet.
> > 
> > For the past few days, I've even gone as far as making a custom
> > comps.xml file, for the purpose of the kickstart.  What I'd like to do
> > is not include any @groups or -/+files in my kickstart file; rather, I'd
> > like to edit comps.xml's @Base and @Core so that I need nothing else in
> > my kickstart file, except for the configuration options.  I know that
> > this isn't required, I'm just anal about the whole situation ;)
> > 
> > This would also give me a chance to package, along with my install,
> > newer and updated packages/RPMs so that I don't have to run an update
> > process on the newly installed machine.  My understanding is, if this is
> > done, a new base/hdlist{2} file{s} is/are needed to be created.  I've
> > read around a bit, and apparently I'm supposed to use a tool named
> > "genhdlist", but I've not been able to find any documentation on this
> > tool, what exactly it does, and how exactly to use it.
> 
> genhdlist is part of anaconda-runtime
> 
> Here is some good info:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBinaries
> 
> Here is all the stuff you need to run the anaconda binaries:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBuildEnvironment
> 
> (Although anaconda is very much undocumented)
> 
> > 
> > I'm expressing my frustration, along with many other people who have
> > been in the same situation, as seen from the kickstart-list.
> > 
> > I guess what I'm asking for, is if someone has ever made a completely
> > custom kickstart install that does the following:
> > 
> > 1) edits comps.xml to modify @base and @core
> > 2) takes newer packages into consideration
> > 3) compiles this information, creates new hdlist{2} reference files
> > 4) gets the mother to work.
> > 
> > This seemingly simple process seems to lack a bit of documentation.  I
> > ahve found sniplets all over the 'net where it would show a small
> > process of how to get all this done, however, the author fails to
> > document the utility or method in detail, or the process is for
> > something totally archaic such as RH6.2.
> > 
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Here is the script I use to build the ISOs from the main tree:
> 
> http://centos.hughesjr.com/testing/build.sh.txt


Here is my .rpmmacros of i386:

http://centos.hughesjr.com/testing/rpmmacros
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