Re: [gentoo-catalyst] stage4 spec

[Eric Edgar]

Currently Catalyst2 supports most of the functionality that you require.
Catalyst is *NOT* designed to run from our livecd at the moment because
it needs a few things the livecd structure doesnt support at the moment.
First it would require the seed stage + snapshot to be on the tree or be
downloaded via the network.  Since the downloaded seed/snapshot is in
the order of 200Mb this would require about 200Mb of ram just to hold
those files since the cdrom is read-only.  These files cant go into the
chroot dir on the harddrive as catalyst makes great effort to make sure
these directories are clean before it runs.  
Also we dont plan on adding partitioning support/filesystem creation
support to catalyst anytime soon.  We dont want to overwrite anyones
filesystems and with this tool the chances are just to large at the
moment to do the wrong thing.

But you should be able to do this with catalyst 2.
    
create a new stage4 tarball.  This tarball will contain the kernel(s)
	initrds and any other system files.  the fsscript part of the
	stage4 spec will allow a scripted post install script that will
	allow automation of steps normally performed during an install.
	There is also an overlay option that will allow additional
	directories and files to be copied into the chroot before it is
	tarred up. 

The install process would be as you already have in place.
    A script that you create and place on your livecd.

    It will create the partitions and filesystems, get the stage4
    tarball from somewhere on the network via ftp/wget/scp and untar it
    into your newly created filesystems.  modify the fstab to match your
    disk layout. rerun your bootloader software to laydown a mbr and
    then reboot.

I hope this helps,
  Eric

On 22:58 Sun 15 May     , Toon Verstraelen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been playing with catalyst for the last few days and it was great
> fun. I've created a livecd that partitions and formats /dev/hda of a
> cluster node automatically and then downloads a complete image from the
> file server and untars it. grub is also automatically installed. The
> image was a created in a chrooted environment on the server following
> the installation handbook.
>
> Is it a good idea to create a sort of stage4 spec for catalyst that does
> the installation of the node image (in the chrooted environment on the
> server) automatically? Although this would be a complicated spec, in my
> case the benefit would be huge for creating production quality node
> images. I'm interested in doing a bit of catalyst-development to achieve
> this, but how do I get started?
>
> Other benefits of such a stage4 spec could be:
>   * unattended install of a gentoo system from a livecd
>   * it could be used by an installer tool that interrogates the user
>     about all possible installation options, then creates the
>     corresponding stage4 spec and runs catalyst to do the job.
>   * A wide set of predefined configurations on the livecd so that
>     absolute noobs could install a gentoo in different flavors.
>   * Instead of creating a complicated howto about setting up a
>     ...-server, one could just publish the stage4 spec with post
>     installation scripts and/or configuration files.
>     The reader of the howto can get started much easier and by changing
>     the spec he can customize the installation of such a specialized
>     server to his own needs.
>
> Any comments are welcome. I just collected a few thoughts here.
>
> greetings,
>
> Toon
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