273 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
273 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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INTRO
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-----
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livemedia-creator uses Anaconda, kickstart and Lorax to create bootable media
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that use the same install path as a normal system install. It can be used to
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make live isos, bootable (partitioned) disk images and filesystem images for
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use with virtualization.
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The general idea is to use virt-install to install into a disk image and then
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use the disk image to create the bootable media.
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livemedia-creator --help will describe all of the options available. At the
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minimum you need:
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--make-iso to create a final bootable .iso
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--iso to specify the Anaconda install media to use with virt-install
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--ks is the kickstart to use to install the system
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To use livemedia-creator with virt-install you will need to install the
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following packages, as well as have libvirtd setup correctly.
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virt-install
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libvirt-python
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If you are going to be using Anaconda directly, with --no-virt mode, make sure
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you have the anaconda package installed.
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QUICKSTART
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----------
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso \
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--iso=/extra/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-netinst.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks
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If you are using the lorax git repo you can run it like so:
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sudo PATH=./src/sbin/:$PATH PYTHONPATH=./src/ ./src/sbin/livemedia-creator \
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--make-iso --iso=/extra/iso/Fedora-18-x86_64-netinst.iso \
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--ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks --lorax-templates=./share/
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If you want to watch the install you can pass '--vnc vnc' and use a vnc
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client to connect to localhost:0
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This is usually a good idea when testing changes to the kickstart. It tries
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to monitor the logs for fatal errors, but may not catch everything.
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HOW IT WORKS
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------------
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There are 2 stages, the install stage which produces a disk or filesystem
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image as its output, and the boot media creation which uses the image as
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its input. Normally you would have it run both stages, but it is possible
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to have it stop after the install stage, using --image-only, or to have it
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skip the install stage and use a previously created disk image by passing
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--disk-image or --fs-image
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When creating an iso virt-install boots using the passed Anaconda installer iso
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and installs the system based on the kickstart. The %post section of the
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kickstart is used to customize the installed system in the same way that
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current spin-kickstarts do.
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livemedia-creator monitors the install process for problems by watching the
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install logs. They are written to the current directory or to the base
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directory specified by the --logfile command. You can also monitor the install
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by passing --vnc vnc and using a vnc client. This is recommended when first
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modifying a kickstart, since there are still places where Anaconda may get
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stuck without the log monitor catching it.
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The output from this process is a partitioned disk image. kpartx can be used
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to mount and examine it when there is a problem with the install. It can also
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be booted using kvm.
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When creating an iso the disk image's / partition is copied into a formatted
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disk image which is then used as the input to lorax for creation of the final
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media.
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The final image is created by lorax, using the templates in /usr/share/lorax/
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or the directory specified by --lorax-templates
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Currently the standard lorax templates are used to make a bootable iso, but
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it should be possible to modify them to output other results. They are
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written using the Mako template system which is very flexible.
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KICKSTARTS
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----------
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The docs/ directory includes two example kickstarts, one to create a live desktop
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iso using GNOME, and the other to create a minimal disk image. When creating your
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own kickstarts you should start with the minimal example, it includes several
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needed packages that are not always included by dependencies.
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Or you can use existing spin kickstarts to create live media with a few
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changes. Here are the steps I used to convert the Fedora XFCE spin.
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1. Flatten the xfce kickstart using ksflatten
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2. Add zerombr so you don't get the disk init dialog
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3. Add clearpart --all
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4. Add swap partition
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5. bootloader target
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6. Add shutdown to the kickstart
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7. Add network --bootproto=dhcp --activate to activate the network
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This works for F16 builds but for F15 and before you need to pass
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something on the cmdline that activate the network, like sshd.
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livemedia-creator --kernel-args="sshd"
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8. Add a root password
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rootpw rootme
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network --bootproto=dhcp --activate
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zerombr
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clearpart --all
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bootloader --location=mbr
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part swap --size=512
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shutdown
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9. In the livesys script section of the %post remove the root password. This
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really depends on how the spin wants to work. You could add the live user
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that you create to the %wheel group so that sudo works if you wanted to.
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passwd -d root > /dev/null
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10. Remove /etc/fstab in %post, dracut handles mounting the rootfs
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cat /dev/null > /dev/fstab
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Do this only for live iso's, the filesystem will be mounted read only if
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there is no /etc/fstab
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11. Don't delete initramfs files from /boot in %post
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12. Have dracut-config-generic, grub2-efi, shim, memtest86+, isomd5sum and syslinux in the package list
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13. Omit dracut-config-rescue from the package list "-dracut-config-rescue"
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One drawback to using virt-install is that it pulls the packages from
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the repo each time you run it. To speed things up you either need a local
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mirror of the packages, or you can use a caching proxy. When using a proxy
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you pass it to livemedia-creator like so:
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--proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.com:3128
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You also need to use a specific mirror instead of mirrormanager so that the
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packages will get cached, so your kickstart url would look like:
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url --url="http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/17/x86_64/os/"
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You can also add an update repo, but don't name it updates. Add --proxy to
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it as well.
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ANACONDA IMAGE INSTALL
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----------------------
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You can create images without using virt-install by passing --no-virt on the
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cmdline. This will use Anaconda's directory install feature to handle the install.
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There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing this:
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1. It will be most reliable when building images for the same release that the
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host is running. Because Anaconda has expectations about the system it is
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running under you may encounter strange bugs if you try to build newer or
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older releases.
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2. Make sure selinux is set to permissive or disabled. It won't install
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correctly with selinux set to enforcing yet.
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3. It may totally trash your host. So far I haven't had this happen, but the
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possibility exists that a bug in Anaconda could result in it operating on
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real devices. I recommend running it in a virt or on a system that you can
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afford to lose all data from.
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The logs from anaconda will be placed in an ./anaconda/ directory in either
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the current directory or in the directory used for --logfile
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Example cmdline:
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso --no-virt --ks=./fedora-livemedia.ks
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AMI IMAGES
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----------
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Amazon EC2 images can be created by using the --make-ami switch and an appropriate
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kickstart file. All of the work to customize the image is handled by the kickstart.
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The example currently included was modified from the cloud-kickstarts version so
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that it would work with livemedia-creator.
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Example cmdline:
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sudo livemedia-creator --make-ami --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia-ec2.ks
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This will produce an ami-root.img file in the working directory.
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At this time I have not tested the image with EC2. Feedback would we welcome.
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APPLIANCE CREATION
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------------------
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livemedia-creator can now replace appliance-tools by using the --make-appliance
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switch. This will create the partitioned disk image and an XML file that can be
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used with virt-image to setup a virtual system.
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The XML is generated using the Mako template from
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/usr/share/lorax/appliance/libvirt.xml You can use a different template by
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passing --app-template <template path>
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Documentation on the Mako template system can be found here:
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http://docs.makotemplates.org/en/latest/index.html
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The name of the final output XML is appliance.xml, this can be changed with
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--app-file <file path>
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The following variables are passed to the template:
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disks A list of disk_info about each disk.
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Each entry has the following attributes:
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name base name of the disk image file
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format "raw"
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checksum_type "sha256"
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checksum sha256 checksum of the disk image
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name Name of appliance, from --app-name argument
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arch Architecture
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memory Memory in KB (from --ram)
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vcpus from --vcpus
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networks list of networks from the kickstart or []
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title from --title
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project from --project
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releasever from --releasever
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The created image can be imported into libvirt using:
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virt-image appliance.xml
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TAR FILE CREATION
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-----------------
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The --make-tar command can be used to create a tar of the root filesystem. By
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default it is compressed using xz, but this can be changed using the
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--compression and --compress-arg options. This option works with both virt and
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--no-virt install methods.
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As with --make-fsimage the kickstart should be limited to a single / partition.
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eg.
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livemedia-creator --make-tar --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks \
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--image-name=fedora-root.tar.xz
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DEBUGGING PROBLEMS
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------------------
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Cleaning up an aborted (ctrl-c) virt-install run (as root):
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virsh list to show the name of the virt
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virsh destroy <name>
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virsh undefine <name>
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umount /tmp/tmpXXXX
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rm -rf /tmp/tmpXXXX
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rm /tmp/diskXXXXX
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The logs from the virt-install run are stored in virt-install.log,
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logs from livemedia-creator are in livemedia.log and program.log
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You can add --image-only to skip the .iso creation and examine the resulting
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disk image. Or you can pass --keep-image to keep it around after lorax is
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run.
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Cleaning up aborted --no-virt installs can sometimes be accomplished by running
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the anaconda-cleanup script. As of f18 anaconda is multi-threaded and it can
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sometimes become stuck and refuse to exit. When this happens you can usually
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clean up by first killing the anaconda process then running anaconda-cleanup.
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HACKING
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-------
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Development on this will take place as part of the lorax project, and on the
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anaconda-devel-list mailing list.
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Feedback, enhancements and bugs are welcome.
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You can use http://bugzilla.redhat.com to report bugs.
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