Re: [gentoo-soc] Re: GSoc 2009 : Making the cluster LiveCD bootable from USB

[Eric Thibodeau]

I'll top-post this one since there are some errors in the LiveCD-Howto 
(a mix of two approaches I had). The HOWTO doesn't take clearly into 
consideration the fact that there can actually be 2 resulting CDs 
(normal and minimal). The process goes as follows:

A) Build NFSroot Image:
    1,2,3: build stage images
    4: build nfstoot image
       The real PITA here is generally kernel + AuFS related. The 
package and kernel cache deletion steps are _required_ between rebuild, 
otherwise catalyst uses cached packages and things just won't work. 
There might be new features to fix that in newer catalysts.

B) Build LiveCD
    1,2,3: build stage images selecting the spec files that reflect the 
desired end CD (minimal or with desktop). The main difference are some 
USE flags, I'm not even sure the differentiation is still relevant.
    4: build livecd-stage1
    5: a) bind-mount the nfsroot image into the livecd's playgournd
        b) build the livecd-stage2 using catalyst.

The rational behind 5 a) is that the LiveCD is actually built in 5 b) 
and pulls in everything that will reside in 
/var/git/clustering-livecd/catalyst/livecd/2008.0/overlay/ . This is the 
way to include "extra files" in the CD which aren't part of a regular 
Gentoo system.

I'm sorry for the confusion, hope this clarifies the process and answers 
your questions.

Eric

Tom Stellard wrote:
> I was finally able to build an x86 live CD image, but there are a few
> things about the build process I don't understand.  Here are the
> directions for building the live CD as I understand them:
>
> 1. Build nfsroot using these spec files in this order:  stage1.spec,
> stage2.spec, stage3.spec, nfsroot_stage4.spec
>
> 2. Bind mount nfsroot to
> /var/git/clustering-livecd/catalyst/livecd/2008.0/overlay/tftproot/nfsroot/x86
>
> 3. Start building the live CD using these spec files in this order:
> stage1.spec  stage2-desktop.spec  stage3-desktop.spec
>
> 4.Unmount nfsroot
>
> 5. Run catalyst with these spec files: nfsroot_stage4.spec
> livecd-stage1-minimal.spec
>
> 6. Bind mount nfsroot again
>
> 7. Run catalyst with this spec file: livecd-stage2-minimal.spec
>
> My questions are:
> Why is it necessary to bind mount nfsroot in step 2?
> Why do we run nfsroot_stage4.spec again in step 5?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -Tom Stellard
>
>