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On Wed, 2005-01-12 at 15:06 +0100, Jacques Landru wrote: |
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> Before posting a question in a mailing list, I'd rather have a look in |
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> the archive. Is there an archive of this gentoo catalyst mailing list ? |
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|
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This list is really new and as I understand it, zhen is working on |
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getting an archive setup for it. |
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> I am trying to build a gentoo liveCD. I used gentoo catalyst reference |
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> manual, spec file examples distributed with this reference manual and |
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> the "howto build a liveCD" from the Gentoo wiki. Each step is a |
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> challenge. If I have success, I'll try to publish complementary notes, |
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> especially, for the traps I encoutered (kernel panic due to ramfs size, |
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> CDROM not known, squashfs patch...). Publication of a minimal liveCD |
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> subset of the kernel config parameter would probably be a great help |
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> for me. |
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Well, we do have some of our configuration stuff in CVS, but nothing has |
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been published or released into the portage tree simply due to lack of |
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time on our part. |
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|
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> I have two questions: |
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> A) The goal of that livecd is a zero installation virtual model for |
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> network lab. It's based on VNUML (Virtual Network User Mode Linux |
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> http://www.dit.upm.es/vnuml/) a spanish project based on usermode |
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> linux.(UML). |
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> As the liveCD will be used to launch UML (usermode linux) virtual |
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> machines , I need a SKAS (Single Kernel Address Space) patched kernel on |
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> the liveCD. The Blaisorblade's SKAS patch |
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> (http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade/patchlist.html) is not |
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> avalaible in the official gentoo kernel package database, what is the |
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> best way to intergrate my specific skas kernel on the liveCD? I have not |
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> found how to automatically integrate specific kernel patch on the |
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> development-sources during the catalyst stage2 or the genkernel step. |
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> What I plan to do is to uncompress the iso file, change the kernel in |
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> the isolinux dir and compress again the iso file. Is there a more |
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> elegant way? Is it possible to force catalyst to use a local kernel |
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> source dir instead of one of the on-line sys-kernel source package ? |
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|
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The best way to add your kernel is to make an ebuild for it and add the |
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ebuild to your portage tree before making a snapshot. Neither catalyst, |
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nor genkernel, are designed to do any patching of the kernel. |
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|
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> B) As this liveCD will be used in a pedagogical computer lab, I would |
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> like it to boot as a generic user, instead of the root. I don't want the |
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> student having superuser rights on the real host (student will have |
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> superuser rights in the usermode virtual machine). What is the best way |
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> to do a "user livecd" with catalyst ? |
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|
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We have not done anything like this, so there is no best way. In fact, |
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using the current tools and methods, the scripts to build a LiveCD |
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completely assume that the user will be root, as our LiveCD tools are |
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designed to build installation media. |
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|
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If you stick with catalyst 1.1.1, and don't use catalyst 1.1.2, which I |
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will be releasing in the next day or so, then you will be able to build |
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a user LiveCD. The newer 1.1.2 version does even more to ensure proper |
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root auto-login, using /bin/bashlogin from the baselayout package. |
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Also, if you skip the reinstallation of baselayout in livecd-stage1, |
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then you will not get the LiveCD scripts on your system, so the system |
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will not try to auto-login as root. |
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What you would need to do at this point would be create a fsscript for |
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livecd-stage2 to modify the filesystem for your user. This could be |
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running "adduser" and "passwd" to get the user information into your CD. |
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Essentially, you're going to have to do a lot of work. Catalyst is |
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capable of doing what you want with it, but the Release Engineering |
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project has nothing in place or in use like you want. |
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> And a note : I test my liveCD iso file using QEMU virtual machine |
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> instead of burning it. With 2.6.x kernel QEMU need "clock=pit" param |
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> when kernel is launched. In the python sources of catalyst I found a |
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> "/boot/kernel/xxx/kernelopts" parameter which can append kernel |
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> parameters in the isolinux.cfg file. I 'll probably add a gentoo-qemu |
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> kernelboot to have a "qemu" entry in the isolinux. |
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> This "/boot/kernel/xxx/kernelopts" is not refered in the catalyst |
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> reference manual. I think in a future version of the reference manual, |
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> it would be a good idea to mention it. |
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There's tons of stuff not listed in the reference manual. This is |
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because I generally make changes constantly to catalyst, and we are |
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simply overworked when it comes to documentation. |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering - Operational/QA Manager |
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Games - Developer |
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Gentoo Linux |
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