[CentOS] Custom CentOS5 DVD

Tue Apr 17 11:46:46 UTC 2007
Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists at hughesjr.com>

On Sun, 2007-04-15 at 12:18 -0700, Paul wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Does anyone have an up-to-date page describing, step by step, how to make a
> customized CentOS5 DVD?
> 
> I noticed that CentOS5 already comes with ~240MB of updates.  So for starters,
> I'd like to create a new DVD with all the current updates.  (And I have other
> custom scripts I need to install on top of that).
> 
> I've googled around and tried various suggestions on the net:
> 
> http://sipx-wiki.calivia.com/index.php/A_Kickstart_CD_for_sipX_on_CentOS
> http://cablemodem.fibertel.com.ar/lateral/stories/38.html
> 
> However, I have not been able to find step by step instructions for CentOS5.
> For example, genhdlist has been deprecated.  Also, the centos-release-5.0.0 rpm
> grabs a new GPG key from the net, even though an identical one is already on
> the DVD.  This creates problems on custom DVD's I've created thus far; I'd
> like to have an unattended install that doesn't require a network connection.
> 

The reason it gets it from the net is because of what you are doing
right now :P

If someone of not so nice intentions made a DVD where they changed that
key, well, I'm sure you get the picture.

Right ... there is no genhdlist (or hdlist) any more ... you just need a
new createrepo done in the main directory.

If you have modified you comps.xml for your new packages, then put it
somewhere and regenerate your yum metadata from with the main dir with:

createrepo -g path_to_comps.xml .

That should make the new repodata for you .... then this:

==========================================================================================
mkisofs -q -J -R -v -T -o /YOUR_PATH/isos/${PRODNAME}-${DISTROVER}-${ARCH}-bin-DVD.iso \
        -publisher "YOUR INFO" -p "${PRODNAME}" \
        -A "${PRODNAME}_${DISTROVER}_${RELEASE_NAME}" \
        -V "${PRODNAME}_${DISTROVER}_${RELEASE_NAME}" \
        -b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
        -c isolinux/boot.cat \
        -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
        ${ARCH}/

implantisomd5 /YOUR_PATH/isos/${PRODNAME}-${DISTROVER}-${ARCH}-bin-DVD.iso
==========================================================================================

You can get the variables from the current DVD's name to substitute,
with the current release name being Final


This should not need to be said, however:

OBVIOUSLY ... people can't modify and the CentOS DVD's and then
distribute them to other people as CentOS ... so let's _NOT_  have
anyone try that please.
==========================================================================================
Personally ... rather than using modified DVDs to do installs, it is
much easier to setup a repo and just do network installs using the very
small boot.iso from the images directory ... then you can totally
automate the install process to do installs / updates off your server
and you are never outdated (so long as you keep your repos updated) and
you are not re-spinning install media every 2 weeks.

That would require an RPM that duplicates / replaces centos-release
(that also will allow you to only do updates from your local server by
allowing you to replace CentOS-Base.repo, if you choose as well)

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes
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