Livemedia-creator- How to create and use a Live CD

Note
If you simply want to burn a pre-made ISO to a disc, visit http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora to download a LiveCD or LiveDVD, then see the install guide or burning how-to for further instructions.

livemedia-creator

Documentation

• Livemedia Creator: http://weldr.io/lorax/livemedia-creator.html
• Kickstart: https://github.com/rhinstaller/pykickstart/blob/master/docs/kickstart-docs.rst

Setup Environment

Cloud Base/Vagrant

If using the cloud base or vagrant images, install the needed kernel modules:

# dnf install kernel-modules-$(uname -r)

Install Mock

You should always do all work in mock, this will allow you to ensure that the compose environment matches the target environment.

# dnf install mock
# usermod -a -G mock <user>

Setup Build Environment

To setup a Fedora 27 x86_64 environment use mock to setup and install tools.

Init Environment

$ mock -r fedora-27-x86_64 --init
$ mock -r fedora-27-x86_64 --install lorax-lmc-novirt vim-minimal pykickstart

Get kickstarts

The official Fedora kickstarts are stored in a git repository. The 'master' branch is for Rawhide; there are branches for each release as well. You can use a kickstart from this repository (on the correct branch for whatever release you want your live image to be) as a base. You could also take a fully flattened kickstart from a recent official live image compose task as a base.

If you wanted a different arch or release you would use the correct mock configuration file.

SELinux

If your system is using SELinux, it needs to be set to Permissive mode while running lorax.

$ sudo setenforce 0

Running a Compose

Go into your prepared environment to do a compose.

$ mock -r fedora-27-x86_64 --shell --old-chroot --enable-network
<mock-chroot> sh-4.3#

Flatten a Kickstart

The official Fedora spins are composed from templates. Flattening fully resolves the templates to a valid kickstart which can be fed to livemedia-creator. After copying a base kickstart into the mock environment, you can flatten it with e.g.:

<mock-chroot> sh-4.3# ksflatten --config fedora-live-soas.ks -o flat-fedora-live-soas.ks --version F27

Create the Live Image

Run livemedia-creator with the flattened kickstart and relevant options. This creates a Sugar on a Stick live iso that also has EFI/Mac booting support.

<mock-chroot> sh-4.3# livemedia-creator --ks flat-fedora-live-soas.ks --no-virt --resultdir /var/lmc --project Fedora-soas-Live --make-iso --volid Fedora-SoaS-27 --iso-only --iso-name Fedora-SoaS-27-x86_64.iso --releasever 27 --macboot

Example Output

<mock-chroot> sh-4.4# livemedia-creator --ks flat-fedora-live-soas.ks --no-virt --resultdir /var/lmc --project Fedora-soas-Live --make-iso --volid Fedora-SoaS-27 --iso-only --iso-name Fedora-SoaS-27-x86_64.iso --releasever 27 --macboot
2018-04-13 01:36:05,320: livemedia-creator v27.11-1
2018-04-13 01:36:05,399: disk_img = /var/lmc/lmc-disk-1t7520xh.img
2018-04-13 01:36:05,400: Using disk size of 5122MiB
2018-04-13 01:36:05,983: Running anaconda.
2018-04-13 01:36:07,427: Starting installer, one moment...
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: terminal size detection failed, using default width
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: anaconda 27.20.4-1 for Fedora-soas-Live 27 (pre-release) started.
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: 01:36:07 Not asking for VNC because of an automated install
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: 01:36:07 Not asking for VNC because of an automated install
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: 01:36:07 Not asking for VNC because we don't have Xvnc
2018-04-13 01:36:07,428: 01:36:07 Not asking for VNC because we don't have Xvnc
2018-04-13 01:36:07,597: Processing logs from ('127.0.0.1', 36114)
2018-04-13 01:37:03,791: Starting automated install........................................................
2018-04-13 01:37:03,792: ================================================================================
2018-04-13 01:37:03,792: ================================================================================
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: Installation
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 1) [x] Language settings                 2) [x] Time settings
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: (English (United States))                (US/Eastern timezone)
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 3) [x] Installation source               4) [x] Software selection
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: (...)                                                      (Custom software selected)
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 5) [x] Network configuration             6) [ ] User creation
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: (No network devices available)           (No user will be created)
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: ================================================================================
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: ================================================================================
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: Progress
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: 
2018-04-13 01:37:03,793: Setting up the installation environment
2018-04-13 01:37:04,534: Configuring storage
2018-04-13 01:37:04,535: Running pre-installation scripts
2018-04-13 01:37:04,627: Running pre-installation tasks
2018-04-13 01:38:30,542: Installing.
2018-04-13 01:38:30,542: Starting package installation process
2018-04-13 01:38:30,542: Downloading packages
2018-04-13 01:41:39,991: Configuring storage
2018-04-13 01:41:39,991: Performing post-installation setup tasks
2018-04-13 01:41:40,670: Configuring installed system
2018-04-13 01:41:40,723: Creating users
2018-04-13 01:41:40,724: Configuring addons
2018-04-13 01:41:58,165: Generating initramfs
2018-04-13 01:42:11,649: Running post-installation scripts
2018-04-13 01:42:11,649: Storing configuration files and kickstarts
2018-04-13 01:42:49,377: Shutting down log processing
2018-04-13 01:42:50,189: Disk Image install successful
2018-04-13 01:42:50,190: working dir is /var/tmp/lmc-work-8c_bx5tx
2018-04-13 01:46:57,049: Rebuilding initrds
2018-04-13 01:46:57,049: dracut args = ['--xz', '--add', 'livenet dmsquash-live convertfs pollcdrom qemu qemu-net', '--omit', 'plymouth', '--no-hostonly', '--debug', '--no-early-microcode']
2018-04-13 01:46:57,050: rebuilding boot/initramfs-4.15.15-300.fc27.x86_64.img
2018-04-13 01:47:45,442: Building boot.iso
2018-04-13 01:47:45,528: running x86.tmpl
2018-04-13 01:48:13,968: Disk image erased
2018-04-13 01:48:14,709: SUMMARY
2018-04-13 01:48:14,709: -------
2018-04-13 01:48:14,709: Logs are in /usr/share/spin-kickstarts
2018-04-13 01:48:14,709: Results are in /var/lmc

Compose Results

The resulting images will be located in the mock chroot. Copy them somewhere outside of the mock-chroot.

$ cp /var/lib/mock/fedora-27-x86_64/root/var/lmc/*.iso $HOME

Note: The location will be different based on your mock configuration.

Cleanup

We can now safely clean up the build environment and set SELinux back to enforcing.

$ mock -r fedora-27-x86_64 --clean
$ sudo setenforce 1