Ubuntu Installation :: Create A Custom Installation CD ?
Sep 1, 2010
At work, we use custom Ubuntu installations, I create them by plugging the new hard drive to my computer and running some installation scripts, basically, these scripts debootstrap the hard drive and later install some additional packages and files. It works great for our needs.
But now, I think a CD or USB installation method could be a better option, and would like to get some advice on how and what tools could be of use for this.
I'm reading the Install CD Customization guide at [url]...DCustomization, and I think I can use it, but would have to remove a lot of packages (we use only the ones supplied by the "normal" debootstrap process and some other packages, mainly the X server and optionally FluxBox).
Are there other alternatives? Is there a tool that I could execute inside one of the already created systems that would allow me to package the whole system as an installation CD? Remastersys perhaps?
I need to install Ubuntu on approximately 50-60 netbooks. None of them have CD drives, and I don't want to have to install them individually, walking around with a USB stick. I figured the fastest way to install on so many machines is to use a combination of apt-cacher (http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-set-up...ith-apt-cacher) and netbooting. I have successfully booted one machine to test, but as soon as the kernel comes up, support for the network interface is gone. Specifically, the "atl1c" module is not included on the netboot initrd image. Also, I would like to try to use preseeding, and I need to get that onto the initrd as well.
So, to summarize my question: How can I create a custom install kernel and initrd? I have a feeling it's related to the "debian-installer" category in the package repository, but I have not found any good documentation about doing this.
I have several partitions on my hard drive, and like to use the 'Create Custom Layout' option during the installation process, to make sure that I don't loose any of my existing partitions or the data on them.
I have attempted a minimal F12 installation from Fedora 12 DVD. But the 'Create Custom Layout' option is not an option in the menu.
How do I install F12 and tell anaconda exactly which partitions I want to use and format?
My current working partition layout is shown in the attached screenshot.
I want to use the following custom partition layout during the initial F12 installation:
This allows me to share existing partitions between my current working F10 root partition, and the newly-installed F12 root partition. So if there are problems with the new F12 installation, I still have a working F10 system to fall back on.
The other partitions with data on will be mounted when the intiall installation has been completed
I am trying to install fedora15, my devices are as follows: /dev/sda1- contains windows recovery /dev/sda2- contains windows vista /dev/sda3- free space /dev/sda4- where fedora10 is existing.
Basically I want to scrap the fedora 10 in /dev/sda4 and install fed15 on the place (ext3). During the installation process fedora asked me, Which type of installation you want? I choose 'create custom layout'.
Then in the next window that appeared I choose /dev/sda4. Then it gives me four options like Create Edit Delete Reset
I want to know what does this Delete mean. What will it do, will is erase all the older partitions within /dev/sda4 i made for fedora10 (previously I made three partitions /boot, swap, /) or will erase /dev/sda4 itself. I am scared to continue installation further.
Just spent three whole days barking up the wrong tree, solving Fedora 11 and Fedora 12 boot failures because the correct hypothesis was illogical: installation did not update/modify the initrd.
The first couple of times I installed Fedora 11 on the HighPoint Technologies RocketRaid 2640x4, the installation inserted my "custom" driver module (rr26xx) into the initrd, permanently, so that the system booted off the controller card for which the custom driver was inserted. (I yelled about this success in this thread: [url]
My most recent installs of BOTH F11 and F12 on the RocketRaid failed to properly set up the boot. It turns out that the "rr2640" module I "slipstreamed" into the installation process was *NOT* permanently added to the initrd by anaconda. (F12 gave me "no root device found boot has failed, sleeping forever", on boot; F11 hung also, without such error, I presume, during the init script execution). Because of limited resources and time, I only know for sure the module was missing from the F11 initrd, and am ASSUMING the same was the case with F12.
The only difference between the successful installs and the ones with failed boot is that the successful installs were made on a single-drive (JBOD) mode on the controller; whereas, the failed ones were placed on RAID 5. But, AFAIK, the created logical device for the card is "/dev/sda", in both cases, and the kernel can not distinguish between the two cases (or can it?). Thus, the inconsistency cost me a lot of time, and is still inexplicable to me.
Question: What is the best way to deal with custom drivers, today? There are custom spins, and many tools, like isomaster. Stupid question: Is there a way to modify the initrd inside an installer ISO -- be it for CD/DVD/USBboot drive -- beefing the init RAM disk with whatever modules you'd like, for the boot process (using, say, isomaster)?
And what makes anaconda understand that a module must be added to the initrd ? How can one force anaconda to do so?
How does moving to dracut as the initrd tool affect any/all of the above?
I've created a USB startup disk under Ubuntu 10.04 lucid (Live CD), Ive selected the option to save system settings to the flashdrive with about 200MB usage, now that ive configured and customized the opperating system (on the flashdrive) I want to create a ISO from that flashdrive installation.
Once the ISO is created, I want to burn it, boot off the CD then create another startup disk but this time setting "Discard on shutdown" so no settings or files can be saved to the flashdrive, but my custom setup remains. "its for an internet cafe setup".
How do i recreate an ISO from the USB startup disk?
I installed ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop and configured a lot(mainly setup git, heroku, rails etc), installed and setup lot of things on it to suit my needs. Now I want to move this setup to another machine and want to avoid all the setup again. Is there a way I can create an installer out of my existing ubuntu installation/partition which I can reuse for other machines?
What I am going to tell you has worked for the Alternative Ubuntu ISO but I would like to see if I can do this for the Server Ubuntu ISO. I need to pass along some ideas as no one else seems to have tried it this way on this forum (other have been using preseeds but I don't think this way).[URL]Copy files from the mounted ISO to my HDD: cp -rf /mnt/ubuntu/* /opt/ubuntu-server/Once the files were on my HDD, I started to edit files that would help using a special preseed I wanted to configureI changed directories to /opt/ubuntu-server/preseed/ and created a file called test.seedI edited the test.seed file with the example found here:[URL]Saved it and changed directories to /opt/ubuntu-server/isolinux/Started the edit the text.cfg (holds the labels for installing ubuntu)Here is what I appended to the end of the file:
--- label test-install menu label ^Install Test Ubuntu
I'm sure this is possible to do, but how do I create a Ubuntu install cd that uses my current config. Ideally I would like to be able to install exactly what I have on my system now, without user files. Wine, Ccsm, amarok, audacity, themes the whole nine yards. I tried using a program called Ubuntu Customization Kit, but it wouldnt let me mount the normal ubuntu install .iso file. This would avoid the hour and a half post-install config every time I screw Ubuntu up as well as stripping off many of the programs I don't need...
I want to create a custom live cd of off peppermint os one. I want to add specific software, and delete some packages i don't really need. How can I do this Reconstructor is not what i want, because i am forced to use Ubuntu or Debian, remastersys doesnt work for me since I see no option in using peppermint one as a live cd.
I want to create a LiveCD that you can boot and where instead of the normal Ubuntu installer (ubiquity) my own installer is starting.
I tried to do that with FAI, but I have many problems with it. Do you know a good way to do it? Is there an Interface for the Ubuntu installer/Source Code? Any other tools, ideas or thoughts?
I'm working to setup an small PC as a kiosk, I was able to create an USB pen drive with ubuntu 10.10 with a persistent area and I made all the changes I need, everything works but if the PC loss power in most of the cases the file system is corrupted. Now I'm trying to generate a non persistent USB drive, but I'm having some problems. I was able to install remastersys and create an ISO image of my system (dist) but when I tried to create the USB drive using different Programs, in all cases I get the boot menu but it never complete the login, it just try to keep booting. The only messages I saw when I create the iso image is a bunch on chown operation fail from remastsys, I'm not sure if it is part of the problem. how to create an USB read only from a persistent one ?
Is it possible to create custom Live Linux cd that consumes less RAM by limiting its functionalities?My laptop has 448 mb RAM and I want to run the LIVE CD along side windows xp pro(using VMware Player). I have tried a few Linux live cds but all of them are very slow when I run them inside xp!! I want to create this custom live cd so it only have firefox browser (latest version) pre-installed along with flash player (Latest version) and ability to hear voice when playing ..... videos. (I want omit the rest of programs in order that Linux runs faster). Is it possible to gain speed by omitting un wanted programs? How I can create such LIVE cd with limited functionality and fast performance.
When you install Ubuntu, you will typically install a complete desktop environment. It is also possible to install a minimal set of software (just enough to boot your machine) and then manually select the precise software applications to install. Such a "custom" install is usually favoured by server administrators, who prefer to keep only the software they absolutely need on the server.
I have never personally noticed any sections in the install to allow you to do a custom minimal install, is this possible in Lucid?If so how, or do I need to download just a mini install iso?
I just installed Edubuntu 10.04 and Its crashed on me twice already (by comparison, I lost 8.10 only four or five times during the entire year and a half I was using it). The monitor goes blank, then produces odd color schemes and then loses the signal altogether, eventually rebooting. It seems to be somehow connected to a non-existent /etc/gdm/custom.conf file. Here's the output from syslog:
We have a project we are working on and wanted to know if it is possible using the ubuntu(or any linux) boot disk.
We need the disk to first wipe the hard disk in the notebook, then perform a hardware test(testing processor/hdd/ram/display) then it should reimage the machine and reboot from the HDD.
I am thinking of using grub4dos to boot(and timeout to the HDD)
and partition image to image the HDD... but i do not know any cli software for the others...
For note the disk has to be completely automated as we don't have the headcount to recheck every machine every few minutes.
I was wondering if theres a way to make custom themes in lucid. when i had windows Xp i used High Contrast 2, is there a way to make it similar in ubuntu?
After much playing around and with help from various forums including this one, I finally created a very fast simple minimal (to me at least) linux OS.
I started with the the ubuntu command line system install, then proceeded to install the rest of the goodies that I needed and nothing more.
I can honestly say it was a great learning experience and also very gratifying to create an OS that only has what one wants and looks the way one wants.
With all that nice stuff being said, my next goal, and I don't know if it's possible, is to take my newly created OS and create an ISO of it from my HD so I can put in my wifes computer as well without having to go through all the steps it took to get to the final product?
I tried to do some research on the topic but I think I was wording it wrong or not correct as i couldn't find anything concrete on the subject.
If not, such is life and I will just have to do it all over again and hopefully remember all the steps and customizing I did.
im trying to create a launcher for flatout 2 and i dont know how. I have tried every thing and it ether comes up with a error or doesn't start or do any thing at all. My problem is that flatout 2 needs to load files from its whole folder. Other wise i would have simply made a launcher of the .EXE but it comes up with a error saying its missing files.
What I want to do is create a custom live USB startup of ubuntu.
I know how to create a usb startup from the iso (any ubuntu iso), with the usb startup disk tool.
Is it possible to add some software to it, for example suppose I want it to have exaile and wireshark (or any software) already installed. How can I do that ?
Proc Core2Duo 6750 MB MSI P35 Neo 2 RAM Corsair 4GB Video Gigabyte GTS250 HDD 2x320GB Seagate in RAID 0 and 1GB WD
I have a Windows 7 installation with a boot partition on the RAID. I also want to have a dual boot with openSUSE 11.2 but I don't know how to set correctly my partitions. I have some unallocated space next to the Windows C: partition. When I try to install openSUSE it makes a suggestion to create some partitions that i don't need and don't want, and even doesn't mount them. It also creates a / 80GB, /boot 36MB, swap 2GB and /home 20GB partitions, so I am in lack of free space.
I don't know how to create screenshots during installation. Maybe I'll try to reinstall later and pick some screens in english, because my system language is bulgarian.
Just started a new job where I test installation scripts and then wipe the system with a fresh install of Redhat each time before testing updated versions. I'm wondering is there a way to create an image of the system I want with the customized packages required rather than having to manually select and deselect a huge amount of packages every time. This would really help make my work much more efficient.
I am in the process of creating a RHEL5.4 custom iso image with minimal functionality. Have gone through a lot of articles over the net and it seems that there are no proper documentation of this process as most of the utilities earlier are not supported.
Following steps were performed :
1. Mount the RHEL5.4 DVD ISO and copied all contents including .discinfo[very important] to a temporary folder [/iso/MODIFIED_ISO/].
2. Edited comps-rhel5-server-core.xml [earlier comps.xml] under /iso/MODIFIED_ISO/Server/repodata under the root directory to only include necessary packages.
3. Removed the unnecessary rpm's from Server directory
4. Created metadata of modified packages, goto root directory of copied folder [in my case /iso/MODIFIED_ISO] and execute :
5. Create the iso :
After performing the above steps, I tested the iso on a virtual box, but checking the error console seems that there are some errors related to dependencies.
Have written a short script to check for the dependencies for the remaining rpm's, executing "rpm -qpR <RPMNAME>" for all rpm's on an already installed box. This would list all dependency packages.
I am using ubuntu 8.04 and i am trying to make iso image cd with running kernel. i know that there is documentation in ubuntu website in"how to make live cd" but the thing is this is my custom kernel. i have my own configuration. so i want this kernel to be work in live cd.
