On Wed Feb 13 2002 at 16:51, Daniel Shane wrote: > I have a small problem here, I moved some of the RPMS's in the cd2 into cd1 > and ran the following script to update everything: > > genhdlist --withnumbers ~/cd1 ~/cd2 > pkgorder ~/cd1 i386 > pkgorder > genhdlist --withnumbers --fileorder pkgorder ~/cd1 ~/cd2 > > Now I'm pretty sure that the RPMS that I moved do not have any dependencies > on the 2nd cd (things like rsh-server for example). > > Now... this script doesnt seem to work since when I install "Everything" it > starts asking for the 1rst cd while it's installing packages on the 2nd > cd.... > > Should I specify both cd's with pkgorder (pkgorder ~/cd1 ~/cd2 i386 > > pkgorder) or should the script work as is? > (As a side note, is the first genhdlist really necessary? Got the script > from a web page on the net, and I'm not too sure about why there are two > genhdlists). > > Thanks for your help! > Daniel Shane Exactly the same issue hit me with redhat 7.0, and I only recently managed to figure out how to do it "right" so that this sort of thing does nto happen. Please find attached something that I've written about how to create updated redhat installation cdroms. It should help to solve your problem. What I've written here is highly "beta", but it works for me. I have yet to "officially release", so any feedback on it would be appreciated before I do that. Cheers Tony ---*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=--- Tony Nugent <Tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> LinuxWorks - Gold Coast Qld Australia
# >> RedHat 7.2 Customised Installation Disk mini-HOWTO # >> Tony Nugent <tony(at)linuxworks.com.au> # >> 27/28th January 2002 Version 0.2 (pre-release) # >> Thanks to: Scott Sharkey <ssharkey(at)linux-no-limits.com> # >> Comments and additions gratefully accepted. # >> I wrote this. It might all be lies, you take the risk. # >> It works for me, if you are lucky it might work for you too. # >> If you reproduce any of this document, kindly give me due credit. This document describes the basic methodology for creating customised redhat 7.2 installation cdroms. The basic principles described here are likely to apply to previous 7.x redhat distributions (untested). Details for creating customised install disks for previous versions of redhat (6.2 and earlier) can be found here: http://ha.redhat.com/docs/CD-HOWTO/RedHat-CD-HOWTO.html While many of the basic principles this document describes are still very valid, it does not work for rehat 7.x. The new split-disk distribution format has changed everything. Fortunately redhat provides the anaconda tools that are needed, but at the same time there is a terse lack of documentation included that describes how to use it. (Perhaps it is documented on the rh7.2 documentation - if it exists. I have not seen it on any of the redhat sites, nor have I seen the boxed version). My basic aim was to create customised rh72 installation cdroms that already contained all the update packates already added to them. This avoids having to go through the tedious and often perilous hassle of appling them all after the initial installation. As of Jan 2002, the total size of just the i386 binary update packages for rh72 had bloated to 550Mb (with another 370Mb for the src.rpm packages). Repeatedly applying all that lot to every new installation is a real headache... kernels (generally) need to be install and not upgraded or freshened, some packages are new and need installing before some of the updates, choose between freshening the glibc-i386 or glibc-i686 package and so on. Yuk! Much better to have as many of the updates in there right at the initial installation. Nine easy (??) steps: 1 Prepare the build system 2 Prepare the build source tree 3 Generate a new hdlist 4 Generate a package order file 5 Rebuild the anaconda installer images 6 Split the installation image into several CDROM images 7 Re-generate new hdlist files (again) 8 Create the iso9660 filesystem images 9 Burn (and test) the cdroms Step 1 Prepare the build system ------ ------------------------ Start off by doing this on a "standard" redhat 7.2 installation. Apply all the current updates to it, including the latest kernel rpms. Do it, you have been warned. Install the (updated) kernel-BOOT package. Install the anaconda and anaconda-runtime packages. Get the latest redhat update-disk image, loop-mount it, and replace the corresponding files in your /usr/lib/anaconda/* tree with the versions contained in the update. (Some of them go into one of the subdirectories). It is important to do this... it will mean that you will not need to use the update boot disk from the redhat 7.2 updates for the installer. Step 2 Prepare the build source tree ------ ------------------------------ This is the trickiest part of the whole process. Designing customised redhat-based installation images is beyond the scope of this discussion, details can be found elsewhere. What is described here is how to produce working installation disks from your customised install image. To get started with a new fresh installation image, copy the entire contents of both of the original redhat 7.2 installation cdroms into a directory called "i386" on a partition that has plenty of space available for what you need to do. For example purposes, I'll use /redhat72/i386/ (I'm using intel-based linux). See the README in the base directory of the distribution cdroms. All the RedHat/RPMS/*rpm files from both disks should now be together in the same directory, exactly how it should be as for an NFS export for network installs. Carefully and attentively replace, add or remove packages as you see fit to RedHat/RPMS/*. Make sure package dependencies are satisfied, and don't forget to modify the RedHat/base/comps file if you need to add or remove mention of any packages you have changed. BEWARE: (for redhat 7.2) 1. Mention of the Omni and Omni-foomatic packages needs to be made to comps (required after the update for ghostscript). 2. The Jan 2002 KDE update packages do not fully replace the original distribution packages, the packages that are installed after the update have different names. Look for mention of these files in the comps file and make alterations accordingly. (eg, the kde-i18n-Chinese package is now missing). The RedHat/, images/ and dosutils/ are standard (and expected) in the i386/ build source directory. If you add or remove any additional files or directories to your installation root, they are added to the first install disk image exactly as is. Put all the *.src.rpm packages into a SRPMS/ directory alongside the i386/ directory (eg, into /redhat72/SRPMS/). Before moving on from here, make sure that everything in this "buildroot" (/redhat72/) is in the right place. Step 3 Generate a new hdlist ------ --------------------- At this point, do the following to make it much more convenient for using the anaconda tools from the command line: # export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/anaconda # export PATH="$PATH:/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime" If you get errors running any of the anaconda tools (genhdlist, pkgorder, buildinstall, splitdistro), then the first things to investigate are inconsistency problems in the comps file and missing or corrupt packages and/or dependencies in the RPMS/ directory. Generage new i386/RedHat/base/hdlist{,2} files: # genhdlist /redhat72/i386 Note, no options to genhdlist (at this time). Step 4 Generate a package order file ------ ----------------------------- # pkgorder /redhat72/i386 i386 | tee /redhat72/pkgorder.txt Check for error messages in the output (which is why I use tee). Step 5 Rebuild the anaconda installer images ------ ------------------------------------- # buildinstall --pkgorder /redhat72/pkgorder.txt /redhat72/i386 This will rebuild most (all?) of the install boot images in i386/images/ and i386/dosutils/autoboot/, as well as the anaconda installer runtime images in i386/RedHat/base/*.img (hdstg1.img, netstg1.img, stage2.img). If you don't have the kernel-BOOT package installed, then bootinstall will give lots of complaints about things like missing modules. It is likely that at just before this point it is possible to reconfigure the buildinstall to include things like your own customised install boot drivers if you need to do that. This is useful for, eg, kickstart installing a big bunch of cloned machines that all happen to have some weird hardware that need special drivers for accessing the installation media. Building new installer images should also negate the need to use the libparted.so library found in the redhat 7.2 update boot disk (both issues). At this point, it should now be (theoretically) possible to use /redhat/i386/ as an nfs export for network doing installs using netboot.img on clients. (Untested, but it should work). This is a good way to test highly customised installations, as you don't need to waste time burning potentially useless cdroms. Step 6 Split the installation image into several CDROM images ------ ------------------------------------------------------ # splitdistro --fileorder /redhat72/pkgorder.txt /redhat72 i386 This will create a series of directories alongside the i386/ and SRPMS/ directories, called i386-disc1/ i386-disc2/ i386-disc3/ and i386-disc4/. These directories contain a "split" of the original (larger) image in i386/ spread over 4 directories (two installers, and two for all the src.rpm files), suitable for creating iso images for burning to cdrom. All the files in these directories are hard-linked to the original files of the same name in the i386/ directory tree. This is very cool, the hard links are not copies of the original files, the hard-linked files just point to the same disk inodes. The files themselves are not copied, which means that very little time and disk space is actually used to obtain a "copy". By the way, you can safely do "rm -rf /redhat72/i386-disc*" if you want to, it will simply delete the directory trees with all the hard-linked filenames. Simply run splitdistro again to (quickly) recreate it all. Note that /usr/lib/anaconda/splitdistro can be hacked to set the size limit of the final images. This is handy... after the updates and other additions I tend to add, the final result is close to two full 700Mb install images - no problem with blank 700Mb disks but too much for 650Mb (the default). 650Mb just doesn't cut it any longer :-) (The day when distributions are released on DVD as standard is coming quickly...) Step 7 Re-generate new hdlist files ------ ---------------------------- Delete the i386-disc1/RedHat/base/hdlist* files, they are hard-linked copies of those in i386/RedHat/base/ and they are very likely not to work on cdrom. Then generate new ones... # rm -f /redhat72/i386-disc1/RedHat/base/hdlist* # genhdlist --withnumbers --fileorder /redhat72/pkgorder.txt \ /redhat72/i386-disc1 /redhat72/i386-disc2 Note all the options to genhdlist, they are important. If you don't do it like that, then it is likely that you'll end up with an installation that repeatedly asks for disc1 and disc2. The package order file prevents this so that only one disc change is ever needed. And now congradulations, this completes the preparation of the cdrom source tree images. Step 8 Create the iso9660 filesystem images ------ ------------------------------------ Use whatever tools you like to do this, with your own options. I do it something like this: # cd /redhat72/ # mkisofs -r -N -L -d -D -J \ -V "RedHat 7.2 (enigma) UPDATED" \ -A "RedHat 7.2 (enigma) update created on 27 Jan 2002" \ -P "Tony Nugent <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>" \ -p "Tony Nugent <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>" \ -b images/boot.img \ -C RedHat/base/boot.cat \ -x lost+found \ -o enigma-1.iso \ i386-disc1 Some people would question the use of -r over -R, -d -D and -N. But it works for me. Don't forget to make the first iso image bootable with the images/boot.img file (or perhaps the pcmcia.img file if you want to boot the cdrom for installing onto laptops). I like putting the boot.cat file out of the way into RedHat/base/. Don't make the second and subsequent images bootable -- although if there is space, there is no reason why you couldn't manually add your own cdrom boot image tree to any of the other image trees. Check freshmeat.net for tomsrtbt (it has an ElTorita boot image), mindi, and other similar tools. Step 9 Burn the cdrom images ------ --------------------- Assuming that you have a scsi or ide-scsi (atapi) cdrom writer installed as device 3... # cdrecord -v dev=0,3,0 speed=12 fs=20M -eject -data enigma-1.iso Testing with cd-re-writables at this point is advised, you'll need to do a test installation with your result to confirm that it all went well and works as advertised. But if you got this far, the chances are that it will work just fine. It works for me :-) Step 10 Enjoy! ------- ------
