Building a live ISO: Difference between revisions

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= 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 5.3.6 and dracut from Debian 9 (stretch).
 
First add all packages you like to have for your
diskless clients to /etc/fai/NFSROOT.
 
Create the FAI nfsroot
 
<code>fai-make-nfsroot -v</code>
 
Then disable some FAI specific things inside the nfsroot:
 
<pre>
chroot /srv/fai/nfsroot bash
rm -f /etc/init.d/rcS
dpkg-divert --package fai-nfsroot --remove --rename /etc/init.d/rcS
insserv -r fai-abort
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.
 
 
 
== How to create a Live CD with Xfce desktop ==
 
You will have an account called demo, the pw is fai.


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.


<pre>
<pre>
fai-make-nfsroot -v
  Define the FAI classes:


chroot /srv/fai/nfsroot bash
  cl="DEBIAN,BOOKWORM64,AMD64,FAIBASE,XFCE,XORG,DHCPC,DEMO,LIVEISO,LAST"
rm -f /etc/init.d/rcS
dpkg-divert --package fai-nfsroot --remove --rename /etc/init.d/rcS
insserv -r fai-abort
export LC_ALL=C
adduser --disabled-login --gecos "fai demo user" demo
ROOTPW='$1$kBnWcO.E$djxB128U7dMkrltJHPf6d1'
usermod -p "$ROOTPW" demo


apt-cache dumpavail > /var/lib/dpkg/available
  Build the live environment directory tree:
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
    # LC_ALL=C fai -v dirinstall -u xfce33 -c $cl -s file:///srv/fai/config /srv/xfce
# optional
# rm -f /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf* /etc/fai/fai.conf /var/lib/apt/lists/*_* /var/tmp/base.tar.xz
exit
</pre>


Then create the CD/USB ISO image using this command
  Then create the live ISO:


<pre>
    # fai-cd -s500 -MH -d none -g /etc/fai/grub.cfg.live -n /srv/xfce live.iso
fai-cd -MJd '' -g ~/grub.cfg-diskless ~/fai-diskless.iso
</pre>
</pre>


Adding -H to fai-cd will add some directories onto the CD, that are normally
That's it. Now, boot your client.
excluded. See man page https://fai-project.org/doc/man/fai-cd.html




Here's the grub.cfg.diskless:
Hint: The FAI nfsroot is not needed when building a live ISO.
<pre>
## grub2 configuration
set default="FAI diskless client"
set timeout=3
set resolution=1024x768
 
if loadfont /boot/grub/ascii.pf2 ; then
  insmod png
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  terminal_output gfxterm
fi
 
# make sure we can access partitions
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_gpt
 
if [ ${iso_path} ] ; then
    set loopback="findiso=${iso_path}"
fi
 
menuentry "FAI diskless client" --unrestricted {
    set gfxpayload=$resolution
    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
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
http://fai-project.org/fai-cd/debian9-live-xfce.iso
https://fai-project.org/fai-cd/debian12-live-xfce.iso

Latest revision as of 13:33, 30 January 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.


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

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