[CentOS] Kickstart-based Install, editing comps.xml, hdlist/hdlist2

Johnny Hughes
Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:02:16 -0000

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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