lorax/_sources/livemedia-creator.txt

livemedia-creator
=================

:Authors:
    Brian C. Lane <bcl@redhat.com>

livemedia-creator uses `Anaconda <https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda>`_,
`kickstart <https://github.com/rhinstaller/pykickstart>`_ and `Lorax
<https://github.com/rhinstaller/lorax>`_ to create bootable media that use the
same install path as a normal system installation. It can be used to make live
isos, bootable (partitioned) disk images, tarfiles, and filesystem images for
use with virtualization and container solutions like libvirt, docker, and
OpenStack.

The general idea is to use virt-install with kickstart and an Anaconda boot.iso
to install into a disk image and then use the disk image to create the bootable
media.

livemedia-creator --help will describe all of the options available. At the
minimum you need:

``--make-iso`` to create a final bootable .iso or one of the other ``--make-*`` options.

``--iso`` to specify the Anaconda install media to use with virt-install

``--ks`` to select the kickstart file describing what to install.

To use livemedia-creator with virt-install you will need to install the
following packages, as well as have libvirtd setup correctly.

* ``virt-install``
* ``libvirt-python``

If you are going to be using Anaconda directly, with ``--no-virt`` mode, make sure
you have the anaconda package installed. You can use the anaconda-tui package
to save a bit of space on the build system.

Conventions used in this document:

``lmc`` is an abbreviation for livemedia-creator.

``builder`` is the system where livemedia-creator is being run

``image`` is the disk image being created by running livemedia-creator


Quickstart
----------

Run this to create a bootable live iso::

    sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso \
    --iso=/extra/iso/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks

You can run it directly from the lorax git repo like this::

    sudo PATH=./src/sbin/:$PATH PYTHONPATH=./src/ ./src/sbin/livemedia-creator \
    --make-iso --iso=/extra/iso/boot.iso \
    --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks --lorax-templates=./share/

If you want to watch the install you can pass ``--vnc vnc`` and use a vnc client
to connect to localhost:0

This is usually a good idea when testing changes to the kickstart. lmc tries
to monitor the logs for fatal errors, but may not catch everything.


How ISO creation works
----------------------

There are 2 stages, the install stage which produces a disk or filesystem image
as its output, and the boot media creation which uses the image as its input.
Normally you would run both stages, but it is possible to stop after the
install stage, by using ``--image-only``, or to skip the install stage and use
a previously created disk image by passing ``--disk-image`` or ``--fs-image``

When creating an iso virt-install boots using the passed Anaconda installer iso
and installs the system based on the kickstart. The ``%post`` section of the
kickstart is used to customize the installed system in the same way that
current spin-kickstarts do.

livemedia-creator monitors the install process for problems by watching the
install logs. They are written to the current directory or to the base
directory specified by the --logfile command. You can also monitor the install
by passing ``--vnc vnc`` and using a vnc client. This is recommended when first
modifying a kickstart, since there are still places where Anaconda may get
stuck without the log monitor catching it.

The output from this process is a partitioned disk image. kpartx can be used
to mount and examine it when there is a problem with the install. It can also
be booted using kvm.

When creating an iso the disk image's / partition is copied into a formatted
disk image which is then used as the input to lorax for creation of the final
media.

The final image is created by lorax, using the templates in /usr/share/lorax/
or the directory specified by ``--lorax-templates``

Currently the standard lorax templates are used to make a bootable iso, but
it should be possible to modify them to output other results. They are
written using the Mako template system which is very flexible.


Kickstarts
----------

The docs/ directory includes several example kickstarts, one to create a live
desktop iso using GNOME, and another to create a minimal disk image. When
creating your own kickstarts you should start with the minimal example, it
includes several needed packages that are not always included by dependencies.

Or you can use existing spin kickstarts to create live media with a few
changes. Here are the steps I used to convert the Fedora XFCE spin.

1. Flatten the xfce kickstart using ksflatten
2. Add zerombr so you don't get the disk init dialog
3. Add clearpart --all
4. Add swap partition
5. bootloader target
6. Add shutdown to the kickstart
7. Add network --bootproto=dhcp --activate to activate the network
   This works for F16 builds but for F15 and before you need to pass
   something on the cmdline that activate the network, like sshd:

    ``livemedia-creator --kernel-args="sshd"``

8. Add a root password::

    rootpw rootme
    network --bootproto=dhcp --activate
    zerombr
    clearpart --all
    bootloader --location=mbr
    part swap --size=512
    shutdown

9. In the livesys script section of the %post remove the root password. This
   really depends on how the spin wants to work. You could add the live user
   that you create to the %wheel group so that sudo works if you wanted to.

    ``passwd -d root > /dev/null``

10. Remove /etc/fstab in %post, dracut handles mounting the rootfs

    ``cat /dev/null > /dev/fstab``

    Do this only for live iso's, the filesystem will be mounted read only if
    there is no /etc/fstab

11. Don't delete initramfs files from /boot in %post
12. When creating live iso's you need to have, at least, these packages in the %package section::
    dracut-config-generic
    dracut-live
    -dracut-config-rescue
    grub-efi
    memtest86+
    syslinux

One drawback to using virt-install is that it pulls the packages from
the repo each time you run it. To speed things up you either need a local
mirror of the packages, or you can use a caching proxy. When using a proxy
you pass it to livemedia-creator like this:

    ``--proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.com:3128``

You also need to use a specific mirror instead of mirrormanager so that the
packages will get cached, so your kickstart url would look like:

    ``url --url="http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/x86_64/os/"``

You can also add an update repo, but don't name it updates. Add --proxy to
it as well.


Anaconda image install (no-virt)
--------------------------------

You can create images without using virt-install by passing ``--no-virt`` on the
cmdline. This will use Anaconda's directory install feature to handle the install.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing this:

1. It will be most reliable when building images for the same release that the
   host is running. Because Anaconda has expectations about the system it is
   running under you may encounter strange bugs if you try to build newer or
   older releases.

2. Make sure selinux is set to permissive or disabled. It won't install
   correctly with selinux set to enforcing yet.

3. It may totally trash your host. So far I haven't had this happen, but the
   possibility exists that a bug in Anaconda could result in it operating on
   real devices. I recommend running it in a virt or on a system that you can
   afford to lose all data from.

The logs from anaconda will be placed in an ./anaconda/ directory in either
the current directory or in the directory used for --logfile

Example cmdline:

``sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso --no-virt --ks=./fedora-livemedia.ks``


AMI Images
----------

Amazon EC2 images can be created by using the --make-ami switch and an appropriate
kickstart file. All of the work to customize the image is handled by the kickstart.
The example currently included was modified from the cloud-kickstarts version so
that it would work with livemedia-creator.

Example cmdline:

``sudo livemedia-creator --make-ami --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia-ec2.ks``

This will produce an ami-root.img file in the working directory.

At this time I have not tested the image with EC2. Feedback would be welcome.


Appliance Creation
------------------

livemedia-creator can now replace appliance-tools by using the --make-appliance
switch. This will create the partitioned disk image and an XML file that can be
used with virt-image to setup a virtual system.

The XML is generated using the Mako template from
/usr/share/lorax/appliance/libvirt.xml You can use a different template by
passing ``--app-template <template path>``

Documentation on the Mako template system can be found at the `Mako site
<http://docs.makotemplates.org/en/latest/index.html>`_

The name of the final output XML is appliance.xml, this can be changed with
``--app-file <file path>``

The following variables are passed to the template:

    ``disks``
       A list of disk_info about each disk.
       Each entry has the following attributes:

        ``name``
        base name of the disk image file

        ``format``
        "raw"

        ``checksum_type``
        "sha256"

        ``checksum``
        sha256 checksum of the disk image

    ``name``
    Name of appliance, from --app-name argument

    ``arch``
    Architecture

    ``memory``
    Memory in KB (from ``--ram``)

    ``vcpus``
    from ``--vcpus``

    ``networks``
    list of networks from the kickstart or []

    ``title``
    from ``--title``

    ``project``
    from ``--project``

    ``releasever``
    from ``--releasever``

The created image can be imported into libvirt using:

    ``virt-image appliance.xml``

You can also create qcow2 appliance images using ``--qcow2``, for example::

    sudo livemedia-creator --make-appliance --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks \
    --qcow2 --app-file=minimal-test.xml --image-name=minimal-test.img


Filesystem Image Creation
-------------------------

livemedia-creator can be used to create un-partitined filesystem images using the
``--make-fsimage`` option. As of version 21.8 this works with both virt-install and no-virt modes
of operation. Previously it was only available with no-virt.

Kickstarts should have a single / partition with no extra mountpoints.

    ``livemedia-creator --make-fsimage --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks``

You can name the output image with ``--image-name`` and set a label on the filesystem with ``--fs-label``


TAR File Creation
-----------------

The ``--make-tar`` command can be used to create a tar of the root filesystem. By
default it is compressed using xz, but this can be changed using the
``--compression`` and ``--compress-arg`` options. This option works with both virt and
no-virt install methods.

As with ``--make-fsimage`` the kickstart should be limited to a single / partition.

For example::

    livemedia-creator --make-tar --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks \
    --image-name=fedora-root.tar.xz


Live Image for PXE Boot
-----------------------

The ``--make-pxe-live`` command will produce squashfs image containing live root
filesystem that can be used for pxe boot. Directory with results will contain
the live image, kernel image, initrd image and template of pxe configuration
for the images.


Atomic Live Image for PXE Boot
------------------------------

The ``--make-ostree-live`` command will produce the same result as ``--make-pxe-live``
for installations of Atomic Host.  Example kickstart for such an installation
using Atomic installer iso with local repo included in the image can be found
in docs/rhel-atomic-pxe-live.ks.


Using Mock to Create Images
---------------------------

As of lorax version 22.2 you can use livemedia-creator and anaconda version
22.15 inside of a mock chroot with --make-iso and --make-fsimage.

.. note::
    As of mock 1.2.12 you no longer need to bind mount ``/dev/``, loop devices are setup
    as part of the standard mock ``/dev/`` creation.

On the host system:

1. yum install -y mock

2. Add a user to the mock group to use for running mock. eg. builder

3. Create a new /etc/mock/ config file based on the rawhide one, or modify the
   existing one so that the following options are setup::

       config_opts['chroot_setup_cmd'] = 'install @buildsys-build anaconda-tui lorax'

       # build results go into /home/builder/results/
       config_opts['plugin_conf']['bind_mount_opts']['dirs'].append(('/home/builder/results','/results/'))

   If you are creating images for a branched release of Fedora you should also enable
   the updates-testing repository so that you get the latest builds in your mock chroot.

The following steps are run as the builder user who is a member of the mock
group.

4. Make a directory for results matching the bind mount above
   ``mkdir ~/results/``

5. Copy the example kickstarts
   ``cp /usr/share/docs/lorax/*ks .``

6. Make sure tar and dracut-network are in the %packages section and that the
   ``url points to the correct repo``

7. Init the mock
   ``mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --init``

8. Copy the kickstart inside the mock
   ``mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --copyin ./fedora-minimal.ks /root/``

9. Make a minimal iso::

        mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --chroot -- livemedia-creator --no-virt \
        --resultdir=/results/try-1 --logfile=/results/logs/try-1/try-1.log \
        --make-iso --ks /root/fedora-minimal.ks

Results will be in ./results/try-1 and logs under /results/logs/try-1/
including anaconda logs and livemedia-creator logs. The new iso will be
located at ~/results/try-1/images/boot.iso, and the ~/results/try-1/
directory tree will also contain the vmlinuz, initrd, etc.


OpenStack Image Creation
------------------------

OpenStack supports partitioned disk images so ``--make-disk`` can be used to
create images for importing into glance, OpenStack's image storage component.
You need to have access to an OpenStack provider that allows image uploads, or
setup your own using the instructions from the `RDO Project
<https://www.rdoproject.org/Quickstart>`.

The example kickstart, fedora-openstack.ks, is only slightly different than the
fedora-minimal.ks one.  It adds the cloud-init and cloud-utils-growpart
packages. OpenStack supports setting up the image using cloud-init, and
cloud-utils-growpart will grow the image to fit the instance's disk size.

Create a qcow2 image using the kickstart like this:

    ``sudo livemedia-creator --make-disk --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=/path/to/fedora-openstack.ks --qcow2``

.. note::
    On the RHEL7 version of lmc ``--qcow2`` isn't supported. You can only create a bare partitioned disk image.

Import the resulting disk image into the OpenStack system, either via the web UI, or glance on the cmdline::

    glance image-create --name "fedora-openstack" --is-public true --disk-format qcow2 \
    --container-format bare --file ./fedora-openstack.qcow2

If qcow2 wasn't used then ``--disk-format`` should be set to raw.


Docker Image Creation
---------------------

Use lmc to create a tarfile as described in the `TAR File Creation`_ section, but substitute the
fedora-docker.ks example kickstart which removes the requirement for core files and the kernel.

You can then import the tarfile into docker like this (as root):

    ``cat /var/tmp/fedora-root.tar.xz | docker import - fedora-root``

And then run bash inside of it:

    ``sudo docker run -i -t fedora-root /bin/bash``


Debugging problems
------------------

Sometimes an installation will get stuck. When using virt-install the logs will
be written to ./virt-install.log and most of the time any problems that happen
will be near the end of the file. lmc tries to detect common errors and will
cancel the installation when they happen. But not everything can be caught.
When creating a new kickstart it is helpful to use the ``--vnc vnc`` command so
that you can monitor the installation as it happens, and if it gets stuck
without lmc detecting the problem you can switch to tty1 and examine the system
directly.

If it does get stuck the best way to cancel is to use virsh to destroy the domain.

1. Use ``sudo virsh list`` to show the name of the virt. It will start with LiveOS and contain a UUID.
2. Run ``sudo virsh destroy <name>`` to destroy the domain.
3. Wait 20 seconds or so for lmc to detect that the domain vanished. It should handle cleanup.

If lmc didn't handle the cleanup for some reason you can do this:
1. ``sudo virsh undefine <name>``
2. ``sudo umount /tmp/tmpXXXX`` to unmount the iso from its mountpoint.
3. ``sudo rm -rf /tmp/tmpXXXX``
4. ``sudo rm /var/tmp/diskXXXXX`` to remove the disk image.

The logs from the virt-install run are stored in virt-install.log,
logs from livemedia-creator are in livemedia.log and program.log

You can add ``--image-only`` to skip the .iso creation and examine the resulting
disk image. Or you can pass ``--keep-image`` to keep it around after the iso has
been created.

Cleaning up aborted ``--no-virt`` installs can sometimes be accomplished by
running the ``anaconda-cleanup`` script. As of Fedora 18 anaconda is
multi-threaded and it can sometimes become stuck and refuse to exit. When this
happens you can usually clean up by first killing the anaconda process then
running ``anaconda-cleanup``.


Hacking
-------

Development on this will take place as part of the lorax project, and on the
anaconda-devel-list mailing list, and `on github <https://github.com/rhinstaller/lorax>`_

Feedback, enhancements and bugs are welcome.  You can use `bugzilla
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&component=lorax>`_ to
report bugs against the lorax component.