I have read instructions at http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ I have basically one question: how to update the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to put under isolinux directory of CD/DVD, so that the installation kernel is the 2111 one and not the default 2054? Do I have to compile the kernel source rpm with any specific target? I remember in rh el 3 I was able to use a specific config file for the installation kernel... but it seems it is not here in Fedora. Is it the i586 one? And what about the initrd.img file generation? Thanks in advance for your answers. Bye, Gianluca
Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
I have read instructions at http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ I have basically one question: how to update the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to put under isolinux directory of CD/DVD, so that the installation kernel is the 2111 one and not the default 2054? Do I have to compile the kernel source rpm with any specific target? I remember in rh el 3 I was able to use a specific config file for the installation kernel... but it seems it is not here in Fedora. Is it the i586 one? And what about the initrd.img file generation? Thanks in advance for your answers. Bye, Gianluca
The instructions you have referenced will not work on Fedora Core 5, Anaconda has changed. The Fedora Unity Project (http://fedoraunity.org/) will be releasing updated "respun" ISOs with in the next week, the i386 has completed testing, once the x86_64 is tested they will be announcing on the announce list.
Robert 'Bob' Jensen Fedora Documentation Project Fedora Release Notes Editor-In-Chief http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BobJensen
Gianluca Cecchi a écrit :
I have read instructions at http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ I have basically one question: how to update the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to put under isolinux directory of CD/DVD, so that the installation kernel is the 2111 one and not the default 2054?
It's the "buildinstall" job. So, nothing to do.
Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
I have read instructions at http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ I have basically one question: how to update the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to put under isolinux directory of CD/DVD, so that the installation kernel is the 2111 one and not the default 2054? Do I have to compile the kernel source rpm with any specific target? I remember in rh el 3 I was able to use a specific config file for the installation kernel... but it seems it is not here in Fedora. Is it the i586 one? And what about the initrd.img file generation? Thanks in advance for your answers. Bye, Gianluca
The instructions you have referenced will not work on Fedora Core 5, Anaconda has changed. The Fedora Unity Project (http://fedoraunity.org/) will be releasing updated "respun" ISOs with in the next week, the i386 has completed testing, once the x86_64 is tested they will be announcing on the announce list.
Robert 'Bob' Jensen Fedora Documentation Project Fedora Release Notes Editor-In-Chief http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BobJensen
On Tue, 2006-05-16 at 18:26 +0200, Gianluca Cecchi wrote:
I have read instructions at http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ I have basically one question: how to update the vmlinuz and initrd.img files to put under isolinux directory of CD/DVD, so that the installation kernel is the 2111 one and not the default 2054? Do I have to compile the kernel source rpm with any specific target? I remember in rh el 3 I was able to use a specific config file for the installation kernel... but it seems it is not here in Fedora. Is it the i586 one? And what about the initrd.img file generation?
Dear Gianluca,
These are all really good questions.
I assume you'd like to do this with FC 5, since I think 2054 was the default for FC 5.
We've had some discussion on anaconda-devel-list about how to build modified installation CD images. A guy named Dan Carpenter has posted some scripts that have helped, and I personally managed to use his scripts (well, a variant of them, for which I posted the URL to the list -- you can look at this month's archives) to build an FC 5 installation CD that had my own packages on it and my own version of Anaconda. This required rebuilding the initrd. However, I did not replace the kernel.
(The motivation here was that FC 5's Anaconda has a bug in it that crashes when it tries to find the CD drive on an IBM Blade Center, if the Kickstart file is on CD. Although I fixed the bug and posted the URL for the patches, it would be a lot less work, in most cases, just to work around it by reading the Kickstart file off of a floppy disk.)
However, even though the scripts rebuild the initrd, I was using the kernel that came with the initrd. I believe that the kernel builds for the initrd and installer CD are identical to the stock kernel that ships with FC 5 and is installed. So using the stock one from the RPM should be safe. If you want to recompile the kernel for some reason, then the .config file from that kernel is probably pretty safe too.
I know that Hans K. Rosbach (at http://fedora.isphuset.no/ ) has rebuilt the Fedora Core 4 installation CD set, with updated RPM packages, including an updated installation kernel. He calls it "Unofficial FC 4.2". I'm certainly curious to know how he rebuilt the initrd for FC 4 with the updated installer kernel; I myself failed to do it. Here's the story, in case you find it helpful to know about a path that didn't work for me:
I've been putting together an installation CD for us to use here at Mazu Networks to install on our Mazu Profiler security appliance (a hardware box that we sell). We want a single CD that has bundled on it the Kickstart file we use and all of the packages we want to install. After I got the FC 5 version working (by fixing Anaconda, as I mentioned above), we made a technical decision to base the current release of the product on FC 4.
The problem here is that the distributed FC 4 installer comes with kernel version 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4. 2.6.11 has a bug in the keyboard driver which causes a kernel panic when booting on the IBM Blade Center. 2.6.16 doesn't have it. So, before I discovered Hans Rosbach's kernel, I attempted the following sequence:
* Got the new kernel. Unpacked it with the help of rpm2cpio. * Copied the first CD over to hard drive (write-able media). Let's say to the directory CD/ . * unpack the initrd on the CD: mkdir initrd; cd initrd; gzip -d -c < ../initrd.img | cpio -d -i * Unpacked the modules.cgz file on the CD (same format as the initrd) * Replaced the modules in it with matching ones from the new kernel, including having an appropriately-named subdirectory containing the modules. (This doesn't work for the MPT SCSI driver, which now needs three different kernel mods to work together, where it used to have two, but that's probably not relevant for you. Anyway, what I'm talking about didn't work.) * Repacked modules.cgz. Put it in the same place as the old one in my initrd subdirectory. * Repacked initrd: cd initrd; find . -print | cpio -o -c | gzip -9 -c>../initrd-new.img * cp initrd-new.img CD/isolinux/initrd.img * cp new-kernel/boot/vmlinuz CD/isolinux/vmlinuz * Reburned the CD with: mkisofs \ -o $ISO_DEST -r \ -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \ -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \ CD/
Anyway, doing this led to a kernel panic:
VFS: Unable to mount root FS on unknown-block(9, 1)
And the stack trace is: panic => mount_block_root => sys_mknod => initrd_load => prepare_namespace => sys_access => init
So, I obviously got something wrong there, but have no idea what it was. Just wanted to save you some time by telling you what doesn't work.
As someone else on the list has mentioned, there are scripts available in the Anaconda distribution in the "scripts" directory. They are undocumented and I think it would take a lot of trial-and-error and study to learn to use them, but you might have to. If you do, please write up your experience and post it.
Good luck!
I've managed to make a script to create a boot.img with an updated kernel. It's horribly hacky in places, but hey, it works.
The filesystem setup needed is a directory with as subdirectories: - boot: The contents of boot.iso, i.e. one isolinux directory with boot.cat, etc. - initrd: The contents of the initrd (gzip -dc initrd.img | cpio -id --no-absolute-filenames) - configs: A directory with: - kernel-2.6.16-1.2111_FC5.x86_64.rpm (or another one, just not a xen one I think) - defmods.txt which is attached and comes from the anaconda-runtime scripts and Mk.1 eyeball - isolinux.cfg if you want to change it, otherwise remove the cp from the script - ks.cfg if you want to add it, otehrwise remove the cp from the script, you'll need an "ks=cdrom:/isolinux/ks.cfg" in the append of isolinux.cfg to use it automatically
Also you need gen_initramfs_list.sh and gen_init_cpio from the linux kernel sources somewhere (in the script they're in ../..).
Then you run mkiso, and hopefully you'll get a beautiful newboot.iso you can use for a nfs install. It's probably reasonably easy to extent to a dvd iso regeneration.
OG.
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 16:42 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
- initrd: The contents of the initrd (gzip -dc initrd.img | cpio -id --no-absolute-filenames)
[snip]
Also you need gen_initramfs_list.sh and gen_init_cpio from the linux kernel sources somewhere (in the script they're in ../..).
Ermm, you do realize that there's a script in anaconda (scripts/upd-kernel) that will take a new kernel and explode everything that needs to go into the initrd?
Jeremy
On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 11:47:28AM -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 16:42 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
- initrd: The contents of the initrd (gzip -dc initrd.img | cpio -id --no-absolute-filenames)
[snip]
Also you need gen_initramfs_list.sh and gen_init_cpio from the linux kernel sources somewhere (in the script they're in ../..).
Ermm, you do realize that there's a script in anaconda (scripts/upd-kernel) that will take a new kernel and explode everything that needs to go into the initrd?
No, I didn't. It would have been nice to have it installed with anaconda, that would have given me a chance to find it.
OG.
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 19:35 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
No, I didn't. It would have been nice to have it installed with anaconda, that would have given me a chance to find it.
anaconda-runtime
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 13:39 -0400, Jesse Keating wrote:
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 19:35 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
No, I didn't. It would have been nice to have it installed with anaconda, that would have given me a chance to find it.
anaconda-runtime
Doesn't seem to be there either:
$ rpm -ql anaconda-runtime | grep upd /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/upd-instroot
No upd-kernel script present.
Is there a HOWTO for this somewhere? People wanting to try the installer with an updated kernel come by fedora-list every now and again.
Paul.
Actually, using http://fedoranews.org/contributors/gene_czarcinski/update_distro/ hints, integrated with Remi Collet answer on this thread (update of vmlinuz/initrd install files: It's the "buildinstall" job) and taking things at http://www.users.on.net/~rgarth/weblog/fedora/patch_cd.autumn (Simone Caronni comments in particular for pkgorder and buildinstall options) allowed me to create an updated DVD iso (up to 16/5 + unofficial 2118 kernels) in a very simple way. I was able to install without any problem (x86 arch): only a pair of dependency problems in install.log about pilot-link and another package, probably related to mirror not completely updated when I downloaded rpm updates to master the iso... The choice and filter inside the RPMS dir was made manually ;-( I didn't have time to check the scripts referred in the latest link and other sources. I'm going to repeat with the offical 2122 kernel and see.
One probably important thing is that the whole process of creating the updated iso was done on an FC5 system, updated at the same level the future iso would have been. Or at least with latest packages for programs used: anaconda anaconda-runtime busybox-anaconda
The main need for an updated kernel in DVD iso is in the case you have an hw component not or not well supported in 2054/original kernel (my case problem with sata drivers) and instead supported in an updated version. And also for consistency and coherency of the bundle itself.
Thanks to all for the moment. Gianluca
On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 09:57 -0400, Steven Augart wrote: *snip*
(The motivation here was that FC 5's Anaconda has a bug in it that crashes when it tries to find the CD drive on an IBM Blade Center, if the Kickstart file is on CD. Although I fixed the bug and posted the URL for the patches, it would be a lot less work, in most cases, just to work around it by reading the Kickstart file off of a floppy disk.)
This is exactly what a respin would fix =)
However, even though the scripts rebuild the initrd, I was using the kernel that came with the initrd. I believe that the kernel builds for the initrd and installer CD are identical to the stock kernel that ships with FC 5 and is installed. So using the stock one from the RPM should be safe. If you want to recompile the kernel for some reason, then the .config file from that kernel is probably pretty safe too.
I know that Hans K. Rosbach (at http://fedora.isphuset.no/ ) has rebuilt the Fedora Core 4 installation CD set, with updated RPM packages, including an updated installation kernel. He calls it "Unofficial FC 4.2". I'm certainly curious to know how he rebuilt the initrd for FC 4 with the updated installer kernel; I myself failed to do it.
http://fedora.isphuset.no/howididit.txt
I haven't commented it a lot, but together with the comments from the howto I derived it from it should be enough to get you going.
Here's the story, in case you find it helpful to know about a path that didn't work for me:
I've been putting together an installation CD for us to use here at Mazu Networks to install on our Mazu Profiler security appliance (a hardware box that we sell). We want a single CD that has bundled on it the Kickstart file we use and all of the packages we want to install. After I got the FC 5 version working (by fixing Anaconda, as I mentioned above), we made a technical decision to base the current release of the product on FC 4.
The problem here is that the distributed FC 4 installer comes with kernel version 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4. 2.6.11 has a bug in the keyboard driver which causes a kernel panic when booting on the IBM Blade Center. 2.6.16 doesn't have it. So, before I discovered Hans Rosbach's kernel,
*snip*
Actually my respins contain the official kernel RPM updates, so nothing should differ from a normal install + updates.
But I am glad to see that I have helped some people.
I am considering making respins for FC5 aswell, but with the lack of cooperation from fedora or community members it's currently on hold.
-HK
On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 11:06 +0200, Hans Kristian Rosbach wrote:
But I am glad to see that I have helped some people.
I am considering making respins for FC5 aswell, but with the lack of cooperation from fedora or community members it's currently on hold.
There is both actually. Fedora Unity project seems to be already producing respins.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006- May/msg00186.html https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006- May/msg00251.html
Rahul
On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 14:42 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 11:06 +0200, Hans Kristian Rosbach wrote:
But I am glad to see that I have helped some people.
I am considering making respins for FC5 aswell, but with the lack of cooperation from fedora or community members it's currently on hold.
There is both actually. Fedora Unity project seems to be already producing respins.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006- May/msg00186.html https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006- May/msg00251.html
Yes, so they claim. However I have not been able to locate much info about these isos.
I also don't know whether they use the official FC5 anaconda rpm (with its bugs) or their own rebuild of it. And if it is a "private" rebuild, I just don't like the idea as it raises a lot of concerns.
Oh, and I'll have to correct my previous statement. I met a lot of cooperation from Rahul, and I am very thankful for that. Unfortunately we could not resolve the problems (see previous threads) by ourself.
I will most likely make private respins for use in-house, just like what we had planned the FC4 ones to be. We have a pretty strict policy about knowing the origins and details of packages.
-HK
Hans Kristian Rosbach wrote:
Yes, so they claim. However I have not been able to locate much info about these isos.
I also don't know whether they use the official FC5 anaconda rpm (with its bugs) or their own rebuild of it. And if it is a "private" rebuild, I just don't like the idea as it raises a lot of concerns.
Oh, and I'll have to correct my previous statement. I met a lot of cooperation from Rahul, and I am very thankful for that. Unfortunately we could not resolve the problems (see previous threads) by ourself.
I will most likely make private respins for use in-house, just like what we had planned the FC4 ones to be. We have a pretty strict policy about knowing the origins and details of packages.
-HK
Hans,
Yes right now our re-spins are *private* until testing can be completed. We are using a slightly modified testing matrix that was used by Release Engineering to make sure the ISOs are of a quality that deserves the Fedora name.
If you are interested in contributing to our effort feel free to contact me.
Hans Kristian Rosbach wrote:
Yes, so they claim. However I have not been able to locate much info about these isos.
I also don't know whether they use the official FC5 anaconda rpm (with its bugs) or their own rebuild of it. And if it is a "private" rebuild, I just don't like the idea as it raises a lot of concerns.
Oh, and I'll have to correct my previous statement. I met a lot of cooperation from Rahul, and I am very thankful for that. Unfortunately we could not resolve the problems (see previous threads) by ourself.
I will most likely make private respins for use in-house, just like what we had planned the FC4 ones to be. We have a pretty strict policy about knowing the origins and details of packages.
-HK
Hans,
We have now released our Updated ISOs, you can see the announcement https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2006-June/msg00000.html the torrent is available from http://torrent.fedoraunity.org/torrents