First, prepare a fresh-installed CentOS as your playground, choose the packages
that your customized disc like to install. Note that if you don’t do so, the
~/install.log used in the following process will not exists.
Create a working directory, e.g., ~/vt-iso, and its sub directory
~/vt-iso/isolinux/ks to store kickstart config files,
~/vt-iso/isolinux/postinstall to store files for post-installation tasks.
Mount the CentOS install DVD disc 1 to /mnt/cdrom, copy all the files from
the /mnt/cdrom/isolinux directory into ~/vt-iso/isolinux. And do not forget
the /mnt/cdrom/.discinfo file, it should be copied into ~/vt-iso/isolinux
as well.
Gunzip the comps.xml.gz into ~/vt-iso/comps.xml, in CentOS 6.4 it will be
/mnt/cdrom/repodata/[UGLYHEXCODE]-c6-x86_64-comps.xml.gz.
Now it’s time to write down your kickstart config. Note that there are some tricks in the following config: a variant-size issue for disk partitioning and a baseurl issue for repository.
# Put these into kickstart config.
clearpart --all
part / --fstype=ext4 --size=4096
part swap --size 1024
# Let the partition grow as big as possible.
part /data --fstype=ext4 --size=1024 --grow
# Change the baseurl to /mnt/source or you'll get some repo not found error.
repo --name="CentOS" --baseurl=file:///mnt/source --cost=100
Optional: Refine all packages that are really needed, compose your own comps.xml and define some new groups.
Create a directory ~/vt-iso/all_rpms and copy all RPMs under Packages
directory of CentOS disc 1,2 into, and then run mvRPM.sh to copy all RPMs that
are really needed into ~/vt-iso/isolinux/Packages.
mvRPM.sh ~/install.log ~/vt-iso/all_rpms/ ~/vt-iso/isolinux/Packages
And don’t forget to copy all extra needed RPMs into
~/vt-iso/isolinux/Packages, e.g. ruby19, git, dialog, pv, etc.
Then test the dependencies in your set of RPMs, if there are some problem, fix it and go on.
mkdir /tmp/testdb
rpm --initdb --dbpath /tmp/testdb
rpm --test --dbpath /tmp/testdb -Uvh *.rpm
The repodata files provide information about the available packages, you have to re-build them for your customized disc.
cd ~/vt-iso/isolinux
createrepo -u "media://`head -1 .discinfo`" -g ~/vt-iso/comps.xml .
Optional: Hack the anaconda installer. For instance, your boss ask you to
replace the CentOS logo or something like that, by the way, in this example it
will be in /tmp/new_install/usr/share/anaconda/pixmaps/*.png.
mount -o loop ~/vt-iso/isolinux/images/install.img /tmp/old_install
mkdir /tmp/new_install
rsync -av /tmp/old_install /tmp/new_install
# Do the dirty works.
mkfs.cramfs /tmp/new_install/ install.img.new
mv install.img.new ~/vt-iso/isolinux/images/install.img
Optional: Okay, if you also want to hack the initrd.img:
mkdir /tmp/initrd
# The compression method was changed to lzma since CentOS 6.4
lzcat ~/vt-iso/isolinux/initrd.img | ( cd /tmp/initrd && cpio -id )
# Do the dirty works. e.g. edit the .buildstamp file
cd /tmp/initrd
find . | cpio -co | lzma > /tmp/initrd.img.new
Now going to the most exciting step: Build the ISO and test it:
cd ~/vt-iso
mkisofs -o VT.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T isolinux/
If the customized disc boot and install successfully, we can think further about the pre/post installation tasks now. In my case, I have to setup my own program (without RPM) to the customized installed system, so I do these things during post-installation:
# Put these into kickstart config.
%post --nochroot
mkdir /mnt/sysimage/usr/sbin/wizard
cd /mnt/sysimage/usr/sbin/wizard
tar xjvpf /mnt/source/postinstall/wizard.tar.bz
echo "( cd /usr/sbin/wizard && /usr/bin/ruby19 repl )" >> /mnt/sysimage/root/.bashrc
%end
Note that the new root directory during post-installation is /mnt/sysimage,
and cdrom is mounted at /mnt/source. Hint: Mention the --nochroot flag.
And some other are:
# Put these into kickstart config.
%post
# Make an auto-login console.
sed -i -e 's/exec \/sbin\/mingetty $TTY/exec \/sbin\/mingetty --autologin root $TTY/g' /etc/init/tty.conf
# Append VGA boot parameter to kernel, it's an 1024x768 resolution.
sed -i '/kernel/ s/$/ vga=791/' /boot/grub/grub.conf
# Perhaps your boss want you replace something during grub.
sed -i '/^title/ s/title CentOS.*/title XXXXX/g' /boot/grub/grub.conf
%end
Ref. 1) http://smorgasbork.com/component/content/article/35-linux/128-building-a-custom-centos-6-kickstart-disc-part-1 2) http://systemdilettante.blogspot.tw/2013/04/playing-with-initrd.html 3) http://zhan.renren.com/mylinux?gid=3602888498025453823