CentOS - Jun 2005 - Kickstart-based Install, editing comps.xml, hdlist/hdlist2

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.

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.

Thanks!
-dant

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



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