Building a live ISO: Difference between revisions

From FAIWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(11 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
= How to turn the FAI nfsroot into a file system for diskless clients =
= How to build a live ISO for running diskless clients =


Someone asked me about using the FAI nfsroot for a diskless
Building a live ISO:
client setup. The clients should PXE boot and mount it's whole file
system via NFS (NFS v3, v4 is not working with overlayfs) from the install server.


It's pretty easy. Tested with FAI 5.10.1 and Debian 11 (bullseye).
You can create a live ISO using two FAI commands. First, you need to
 
build your own live environment, containing all software including
First add all packages you like to have for your
configuration that you like to use. Using the command "fai dirinstall"
diskless clients to /etc/fai/NFSROOT.
you do an installation using the FAI config space into a directory
 
which will become your live system. After that you create a bootable
Create the FAI nfsroot
ISO which includes this directory tree using fai-cd.
 
<code>fai-make-nfsroot -v</code>
 
The option -N will add nonfree firmware software (for e.g. for Wifi interfaces).
Then disable some FAI specific things inside the nfsroot:


<pre>
<pre>
chroot /srv/fai/nfsroot bash
  Define the FAI classes:
apt purge fai-nfsroot
exit
</pre>
 
This also works with XFCE and xorg running a graphical desktop.
 
 
That's it. Now, boot your client.
Since FAI is using overlayfs, the whole filesystem is writeable for the client, even it's mounted read-only.
 


  cl="DEBIAN,BOOKWORM64,AMD64,FAIBASE,XFCE,XORG,DHCPC,DEMO,LIVEISO,LAST"


= How to create a Live CD with Xfce desktop =
  Build the live environment directory tree:


You will have an account called demo, the pw is fai.
    # LC_ALL=C fai -v dirinstall -u xfce33 -c $cl -s file:///srv/fai/config /srv/xfce


  Then create the live ISO:


<pre>
    # fai-cd -s500 -MH -d none -g /etc/fai/grub.cfg.live -n /srv/xfce live.iso
fai-make-nfsroot -v
 
chroot /srv/fai/nfsroot bash
apt purge fai-nfsroot
export LC_ALL=C
adduser --disabled-login --gecos "fai demo user" demo
ROOTPW='$1$kBnWcO.E$djxB128U7dMkrltJHPf6d1'
usermod -p "$ROOTPW" demo
 
apt-get update
apt-get -y install at-spi2-core locales task-xfce-desktop network-manager systemd-sysv sysvinit-core-
apt-get clean
 
rm lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant@.service
# optional
# rm -f /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf* /var/lib/apt/lists/*_* /var/tmp/base.tar.xz
exit
</pre>
</pre>


Then create the CD/USB ISO image using this command
That's it. Now, boot your client.


<pre>
fai-cd -HMJd '' -g ~/grub.cfg-live ~/fai-live.iso
</pre>


See man page https://fai-project.org/doc/man/fai-cd.html
Hint: The FAI nfsroot is not needed when building a live ISO.
for more info.
 
Here's the grub.cfg.live:
<pre>
## grub2 configuration
set default="FAI live system"
set timeout=3
 
# make sure we can access partitions
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_gpt
insmod all_video
insmod gfxterm
 
set gfxmode=auto
set color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=red/black
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/yellow
 
menuentry "FAI live system" --unrestricted {
    search --set=root --file /FAI-CD
    linux  /boot/vmlinuz rd.live.image root=live:CDLABEL=FAI_CD
    initrd  /boot/initrd.img
}
</pre>




This disk space for creating new files is limited by the amount of
'''Tip for beginners''': Using the FAIme web service https://fai-project.org/FAIme/live/ you can create your own customized live ISO without setting up an FAI server.
free space in the disk image (created inside fai-cd in subroutine
calculate_required_size). You will have about 200MB of free disk
space. This is NO persistent storage.




You can download an ISO image, for and example of this Live CD
You can download an ISO image, for and example of this Live CD
https://fai-project.org/fai-cd/debian11-live-xfce.iso
https://fai-project.org/fai-cd/debian12-live-xfce.iso

Latest revision as of 11:13, 5 September 2024

How to build a live ISO for running diskless clients

Building a live ISO:

You can create a live ISO using two FAI commands. First, you need to build your own live environment, containing all software including configuration that you like to use. Using the command "fai dirinstall" you do an installation using the FAI config space into a directory which will become your live system. After that you create a bootable ISO which includes this directory tree using fai-cd. 

  Define the FAI classes:

  cl="DEBIAN,BOOKWORM64,AMD64,FAIBASE,XFCE,XORG,DHCPC,DEMO,LIVEISO,LAST"

  Build the live environment directory tree:

    # LC_ALL=C fai -v dirinstall -u xfce33 -c $cl -s file:///srv/fai/config /srv/xfce

  Then create the live ISO:

    # fai-cd -s500 -MH -d none -g /etc/fai/grub.cfg.live -n /srv/xfce live.iso

That's it. Now, boot your client.


Hint: The FAI nfsroot is not needed when building a live ISO.


Tip for beginners: Using the FAIme web service https://fai-project.org/FAIme/live/ you can create your own customized live ISO without setting up an FAI server.


You can download an ISO image, for and example of this Live CD https://fai-project.org/fai-cd/debian12-live-xfce.iso

Retrieved from "https://wiki.fai-project.org/index.php?title=Building_a_live_ISO&oldid=3688"