Johnny Hughes wrote:
> 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
>
Hey there, Johnny -
I've been playing around for the past few days with the info that you
have provided, and it has been a great help. I'd like to thank you for
that.
However, I'm still just a bit confused.
My problem is, that I don't need to create a whole new distribution, but
rather, just remaster the data on an ISO that I've made of all the
packages I'll be needing, including editing comps.xml and generating
base/hdlist{2} files from the editing. As far as I can gather, this is
a lot to ask.
Would you mind me asking where you gathered the information to create
this script, or like everyone else, did you hear from a friend of a
friend who's cousin found a note written by someone who used to work for
RedHat that had a friend that made these distributions? That's the
story I hear every single time.
For something so critical, I don't know why this process is so cryptic.
Anaconda and kickstart installations have tremendous power, and it's
all going to waste becase only a small handfull of people can actually
pull it off.
Thanks again for your time, Johnny
-dant
