1LIVEMEDIA-CREATOR(1) Lorax LIVEMEDIA-CREATOR(1)
2
6 livemedia-creator - Live Media Creator Documentation
7 Authors
9 Brian C. Lane <bcl@redhat.com>
10 livemedia-creator uses Anaconda, kickstart and Lorax to create bootable
12 media that use the same install path as a normal system installation.
13 It can be used to make live isos, bootable (partitioned) disk images,
14 tarfiles, and filesystem images for use with virtualization and con‐
15 tainer solutions like libvirt, docker, and OpenStack.
16 The general idea is to use qemu with kickstart and an Anaconda boot.iso
18 to install into a disk image and then use the disk image to create the
19 bootable media.
20 livemedia-creator --help will describe all of the options available. At
22 the minimum you need:
23 --make-iso to create a final bootable .iso or one of the other --make-*
25 options.
26 --iso to specify the Anaconda install media to use with qemu.
28 --ks to select the kickstart file describing what to install.
30 To use livemedia-creator with virtualization you will need to have qemu
32 installed.
33 If you are going to be using Anaconda directly, with --no-virt mode,
35 make sure you have the anaconda-tui package installed.
36 Conventions used in this document:
38 lmc is an abbreviation for livemedia-creator.
40 builder is the system where livemedia-creator is being run
42 image is the disk image being created by running livemedia-creator
44
46 Create Live Install Media
47 usage: livemedia-creator [-h] (--make-iso | --make-disk | --make-fsimage | --make-appliance | --make-ami | --make-tar | --make-tar-disk | --make-pxe-live | --make-ostree-live | --make-oci | --make-vagrant)
50 [--iso ISO] [--iso-only] [--iso-name ISO_NAME] [--ks KS] [--image-only] [--no-virt] [--proxy PROXY] [--anaconda-arg ANACONDA_ARGS] [--armplatform ARMPLATFORM] [--location LOCATION]
51 [--logfile LOGFILE] [--lorax-templates LORAX_TEMPLATES] [--tmp TMP] [--resultdir RESULT_DIR] [--macboot] [--nomacboot] [--extra-boot-args EXTRA_BOOT_ARGS] [-r RELEASE] [-t VARIANT]
52 [-b URL] [--isfinal] [--disk-image DISK_IMAGE] [--keep-image] [--fs-image FS_IMAGE] [--image-name IMAGE_NAME] [--tar-disk-name TAR_DISK_NAME] [--fs-label FS_LABEL]
53 [--image-size-align IMAGE_SIZE_ALIGN] [--image-type IMAGE_TYPE] [--qemu-arg QEMU_ARGS] [--qcow2] [--qcow2-arg QEMU_ARGS] [--compression COMPRESSION] [--compress-arg COMPRESS_ARGS]
54 [--app-name APP_NAME] [--app-template APP_TEMPLATE] [--app-file APP_FILE] [--ram MEMORY] [--vcpus VCPUS] [--vnc VNC] [--arch ARCH] [--kernel-args KERNEL_ARGS] [--ovmf-path OVMF_PATH]
55 [--virt-uefi] [--no-kvm] [--with-rng WITH_RNG] [--dracut-conf DRACUT_CONF] [--dracut-arg DRACUT_ARGS] [--live-rootfs-size LIVE_ROOTFS_SIZE] [--live-rootfs-keep-size]
56 [--oci-config OCI_CONFIG] [--oci-runtime OCI_RUNTIME] [--vagrant-metadata VAGRANT_METADATA] [--vagrantfile VAGRANTFILE] [--project PRODUCT] [-p PRODUCT] [--releasever RELEASEVER]
57 [--volid VOLID] [--squashfs-only] [--timeout TIMEOUT] [-V]
58 Named Arguments
60 --make-iso
61 Build a live iso
62 Default: False
64 --make-disk
66 Build a partitioned disk image
67 Default: False
69 --make-fsimage
71 Build a filesystem image
72 Default: False
74 --make-appliance
76 Build an appliance image and XML description
77 Default: False
79 --make-ami
81 Build an ami image
82 Default: False
84 --make-tar
86 Build a tar of the root filesystem
87 Default: False
89 --make-tar-disk
91 Build a tar of a partitioned disk image
92 Default: False
94 --make-pxe-live
96 Build a live pxe boot squashfs image
97 Default: False
99 --make-ostree-live
101 Build a live pxe boot squashfs image of Atomic Host
102 Default: False
104 --make-oci
106 Build an Open Container Initiative image
107 Default: False
109 --make-vagrant
111 Build a Vagrant Box image
112 Default: False
114 --iso Anaconda installation .iso path to use for qemu
116 --iso-only
118 Remove all iso creation artifacts except the boot.iso, combine
119 with --iso-name to rename the boot.iso
120 Default: False
122 --iso-name
124 Name of output iso file for --iso-only. Default is boot.iso
125 --ks Kickstart file defining the install.
127 --image-only
129 Exit after creating fs/disk image.
130 Default: False
132 --no-virt
134 Run anaconda directly on host instead of using qemu
135 Default: False
137 --proxy
139 proxy URL to use for the install
140 --anaconda-arg
142 Additional argument to pass to anaconda (no-virt mode). Pass
143 once for each argument
144 --armplatform
146 the platform to use when creating images for ARM, i.e., high‐
147 bank, mvebu, omap, tegra, etc.
148 --location
150 location of iso directory tree with initrd.img and vmlinuz. Used
151 to run qemu with a newer initrd than the iso.
152 --logfile
154 Name and path for primary logfile, other logs will be created in
155 the same directory.
156 Default: ./livemedia.log
158 --lorax-templates
160 Path to mako templates for lorax
161 --tmp Top level temporary directory
163 Default: /var/tmp
165 --resultdir
167 Directory to copy the resulting images and iso into. Defaults to
168 the temporary working directory
169 --macboot
171 Make the iso bootable on UEFI based Mac systems
172 Default: True
174 --nomacboot
176 Do not create a Mac bootable iso
177 Default: False
179 --extra-boot-args
181 Extra arguments to add to the bootloader kernel cmdline in the
182 templates
183 Default: ""
185 -r, --release
187 release information
188 Default: ""
190 -t, --variant
192 variant name
193 Default: ""
195 -b, --bugurl
197 bug reporting URL for the product
198 Default: "your distribution provided bug reporting tool"
200 --isfinal
202 Default: False
203 --project
205 substituted for @PRODUCT@ in bootloader config files
206 Default: "Linux"
208 -p, --product
210 Alias for --project
211 Default: ""
213 --releasever
215 substituted for @VERSION@ in bootloader config files
216 Default: "38"
218 --volid
220 volume id
221 --squashfs-only
223 Use a plain squashfs filesystem for the runtime.
224 Default: False
226 --timeout
228 Cancel installer after X minutes
229 -V show program's version number and exit
231 disk/fs image arguments
233 --disk-image
234 Path to existing disk image to use for creating final image.
235 --keep-image
237 Keep raw disk image after .iso creation
238 Default: False
240 --fs-image
242 Path to existing filesystem image to use for creating final im‐
243 age.
244 --image-name
246 Name of output file to create. Used for tar, fs and disk image.
247 Default is a random name.
248 --tar-disk-name
250 Name of the archive member for make-tar-disk.
251 --fs-label
253 Label to set on fsimage, default is 'Anaconda'
254 Default: "Anaconda"
256 --image-size-align
258 Create a disk image with a size that is a multiple of this value
259 in MiB.
260 Default: 0
262 --image-type
264 Create an image with qemu-img. See qemu-img --help for supported
265 formats.
266 --qemu-arg
268 Arguments to pass to qemu-img. Pass once for each argument, they
269 will be used for ALL calls to qemu-img.
270 Default: []
272 --qcow2
274 Create qcow2 image instead of raw sparse image when making disk
275 images.
276 Default: False
278 --qcow2-arg
280 Arguments to pass to qemu-img. Pass once for each argument, they
281 will be used for ALL calls to qemu-img.
282 Default: []
284 --compression
286 Compression binary for make-tar. xz, lzma, gzip, and bzip2 are
287 supported. xz is the default.
288 Default: "xz"
290 --compress-arg
292 Arguments to pass to compression. Pass once for each argument
293 Default: []
295 appliance arguments
297 --app-name
298 Name of appliance to pass to template
299 --app-template
301 Path to template to use for appliance data.
302 --app-file
304 Appliance template results file.
305 Default: "appliance.xml"
307 qemu arguments
309 --ram Memory to allocate for installer in megabytes.
310 Default: 2048
312 --vcpus
314 Passed to qemu -smp command
315 --vnc Passed to qemu -display command. eg. vnc=127.0.0.1:5, default is
317 to choose the first unused vnc port.
318 --arch System arch to build for. Used to select qemu-system-* command.
320 Defaults to qemu-system-<arch>
321 --kernel-args
323 Additional argument to pass to the installation kernel
324 --ovmf-path
326 Path to OVMF firmware
327 Default: "/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/"
329 --virt-uefi
331 Use OVMF firmware to boot the VM in UEFI mode
332 Default: False
334 --no-kvm
336 Skip using kvm with qemu even if it is available.
337 Default: False
339 --with-rng
341 RNG device for QEMU (none for no RNG)
342 Default: "/dev/random"
344 dracut arguments: (default: )
346 --dracut-conf
347 Path to a dracut.conf file to use instead of the default argu‐
348 ments. See the dracut.conf(5) manpage.
349 --dracut-arg
351 Argument to pass to dracut when rebuilding the initramfs. Pass
352 this once for each argument. NOTE: this overrides the defaults.
353 pxe to live arguments
355 --live-rootfs-size
356 Size of root filesystem of live image in GiB
357 Default: 0
359 --live-rootfs-keep-size
361 Keep the original size of root filesystem in live image
362 Default: False
364 OCI arguments
366 --oci-config
367 config.json OCI configuration file
368 --oci-runtime
370 runtime.json OCI configuration file
371 Vagrant arguments
373 --vagrant-metadata
374 optional metadata.json file
375 --vagrantfile
377 optional vagrantfile
378
380 Run this to create a bootable live iso:
381 sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso \
383 --iso=/extra/iso/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks
384 You can run it directly from the lorax git repo like this:
386 sudo PATH=./src/sbin/:$PATH PYTHONPATH=./src/ ./src/sbin/livemedia-creator \
388 --make-iso --iso=/extra/iso/boot.iso \
389 --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia.ks --lorax-templates=./share/
390 You can observe the installation using vnc. The logs will show what
392 port was chosen, or you can use a specific port by passing it. eg.
393 --vnc vnc:127.0.0.1:5
394 This is usually a good idea when testing changes to the kickstart. lmc
396 tries to monitor the logs for fatal errors, but may not catch every‐
397 thing.
398
400 There are 2 stages, the install stage which produces a disk or filesys‐
401 tem image as its output, and the boot media creation which uses the im‐
402 age as its input. Normally you would run both stages, but it is possi‐
403 ble to stop after the install stage, by using --image-only, or to skip
404 the install stage and use a previously created disk image by passing
405 --disk-image or --fs-image
406 When creating an iso qemu boots using the passed Anaconda installer iso
408 and installs the system based on the kickstart. The %post section of
409 the kickstart is used to customize the installed system in the same way
410 that current spin-kickstarts do.
411 livemedia-creator monitors the install process for problems by watching
413 the install logs. They are written to the current directory or to the
414 base directory specified by the --logfile command. You can also monitor
415 the install by using a vnc client. This is recommended when first modi‐
416 fying a kickstart, since there are still places where Anaconda may get
417 stuck without the log monitor catching it.
418 The output from this process is a partitioned disk image. kpartx can be
420 used to mount and examine it when there is a problem with the install.
421 It can also be booted using kvm.
422 When creating an iso the disk image's / partition is copied into a for‐
424 matted filesystem image which is then used as the input to lorax for
425 creation of the final media.
426 The final image is created by lorax, using the templates in
428 /usr/share/lorax/live/ or the live directory below the directory speci‐
429 fied by --lorax-templates. The templates are written using the Mako
430 template system with some extra commands added by lorax.
431 NOTE:
433 The output from --make-iso includes the artifacts used to create the
434 boot.iso; the kernel, initrd, the squashfs filesystem, etc. If you
435 only want the boot.iso you can pass --iso-only and the other files
436 will be removed. You can also name the iso by using --iso-name
437 my-live.iso.
438
440 The docs/ directory includes several example kickstarts, one to create
441 a live desktop iso using GNOME, and another to create a minimal disk
442 image. When creating your own kickstarts you should start with the min‐
443 imal example, it includes several needed packages that are not always
444 included by dependencies.
445 Or you can use existing spin kickstarts to create live media with a few
447 changes. Here are the steps I used to convert the Fedora XFCE spin.
448 1. Flatten the xfce kickstart using ksflatten
450 2. Add zerombr so you don't get the disk init dialog
452 3. Add clearpart --all
454 4. Add swap partition
456 5. bootloader target
458 6. Add shutdown to the kickstart
460 7. Add network --bootproto=dhcp --activate to activate the network
462 This works for F16 builds but for F15 and before you need to pass
463 something on the cmdline that activate the network, like sshd:
464 livemedia-creator --kernel-args="sshd"
465 8. Add a root password:
467 rootpw rootme
469 network --bootproto=dhcp --activate
470 zerombr
471 clearpart --all
472 bootloader --location=mbr
473 part swap --size=512
474 shutdown
475 9. In the livesys script section of the %post remove the root pass‐
477 word. This really depends on how the spin wants to work. You could
478 add the live user that you create to the %wheel group so that sudo
479 works if you wanted to.
480 passwd -d root > /dev/null
481 10. Remove /etc/fstab in %post, dracut handles mounting the rootfs
483 cat /dev/null > /dev/fstab
485 Do this only for live iso's, the filesystem will be mounted read
487 only if there is no /etc/fstab
488 11. Don't delete initramfs files from /boot in %post
490 12. When creating live iso's you need to have, at least, these packages
492 in the %package section:: dracut-config-generic dracut-live -dra‐
493 cut-config-rescue grub2-efi syslinux
494 User created repositories
496 If you are using your own repositories and installing groups (eg.
497 @core) make sure you create the repodata with groups like this cre‐
498 aterepo -g /path/to/groups.xml /path/to/rpms
499 Using a Proxy with repos
501 One drawback to using qemu is that it pulls the packages from the repo
502 each time you run it. To speed things up you either need a local mirror
503 of the packages, or you can use a caching proxy. When using a proxy you
504 pass it to livemedia-creator like this:
505 --proxy=http://proxy.yourdomain.com:3128
506 You also need to use a specific mirror instead of mirrormanager so that
508 the packages will get cached, so your kickstart url would look like:
509 url --url="http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/develop‐
510 ment/rawhide/x86_64/os/"
511 You can also add an update repo, but don't name it updates. Add --proxy
513 to it as well. You can use all of the kickstart commands in your kick‐
514 start. Make sure there is only one url command, other repos have to use
515 the repo command and cannot be named updates which is reserved for Ana‐
516 conda's use. eg.:
517 url --url=PRIMARY-REPO-URL --proxy=PROXY-URL
519 repo --name="repo1" --baseurl=FIRST-REPO-URL --proxy=PROXY-URL
520 repo --name="repo2" --baseurl=SECOND-REPO_URL --proxy=PROXY-URL
521
523 You can create images without using qemu by passing --no-virt on the
524 cmdline. This will use Anaconda's directory install feature to handle
525 the install. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing
526 this:
527 1. It will be most reliable when building images for the same release
529 that the host is running. Because Anaconda has expectations about
530 the system it is running under you may encounter strange bugs if you
531 try to build newer or older releases.
532 2. It may totally trash your host. So far I haven't had this happen,
534 but the possibility exists that a bug in Anaconda could result in it
535 operating on real devices. I recommend running it in a virt or on a
536 system that you can afford to lose all data from.
537 The logs from anaconda will be placed in an ./anaconda/ directory in
539 either the current directory or in the directory used for --logfile
540 Example cmdline:
542 sudo livemedia-creator --make-iso --no-virt --ks=./fedora-livemedia.ks
544 NOTE:
546 Using no-virt to create a partitioned disk image (eg. --make-disk or
547 --make-vagrant) will only create disks usable on the host platform
548 (BIOS or UEFI). You can create BIOS partitioned disk images on UEFI
549 by using virt.
550 NOTE:
552 As of version 30.7 SELinux can be set to Enforcing. The current
553 state is logged for debugging purposes and if there are SELinux de‐
554 nials they should be reported as a bug.
555
557 Amazon EC2 images can be created by using the --make-ami switch and an
558 appropriate kickstart file. All of the work to customize the image is
559 handled by the kickstart. The example currently included was modified
560 from the cloud-kickstarts version so that it would work with liveme‐
561 dia-creator.
562 Example cmdline:
564 sudo livemedia-creator --make-ami --iso=/path/to/boot.iso
566 --ks=./docs/fedora-livemedia-ec2.ks
567 This will produce an ami-root.img file in the working directory.
569 At this time I have not tested the image with EC2. Feedback would be
571 welcome.
572
574 livemedia-creator can now replace appliance-tools by using the
575 --make-appliance switch. This will create the partitioned disk image
576 and an XML file that can be used with virt-image to setup a virtual
577 system.
578 The XML is generated using the Mako template from /usr/share/lorax/ap‐
580 pliance/libvirt.xml You can use a different template by passing
581 --app-template <template path>
582 Documentation on the Mako template system can be found at the Mako site
584 The name of the final output XML is appliance.xml, this can be changed
586 with --app-file <file path>
587 The following variables are passed to the template:
589 disks A list of disk_info about each disk. Each entry has the fol‐
591 lowing attributes:
592 name base name of the disk image file
593 format "raw"
595 checksum_type "sha256"
597 checksum sha256 checksum of the disk image
599 name Name of appliance, from --app-name argument
601 arch Architecture
603 memory Memory in KB (from --ram)
605 vcpus from --vcpus
607 networks list of networks from the kickstart or []
609 project from --project
611 releasever from --releasever
613 The created image can be imported into libvirt using:
615 virt-image appliance.xml
616 You can also create qcow2 appliance images using --image-type=qcow2,
618 for example:
619 sudo livemedia-creator --make-appliance --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks \
621 --image-type=qcow2 --app-file=minimal-test.xml --image-name=minimal-test.img
622
624 livemedia-creator can be used to create un-partitined filesystem images
625 using the --make-fsimage option. As of version 21.8 this works with
626 both qemu and no-virt modes of operation. Previously it was only avail‐
627 able with no-virt.
628 Kickstarts should have a single / partition with no extra mountpoints.
630 livemedia-creator --make-fsimage --iso=/path/to/boot.iso
631 --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks
632 You can name the output image with --image-name and set a label on the
634 filesystem with --fs-label
635
637 The --make-tar command can be used to create a tar of the root filesys‐
638 tem. By default it is compressed using xz, but this can be changed us‐
639 ing the --compression and --compress-arg options. This option works
640 with both virt and no-virt install methods.
641 As with --make-fsimage the kickstart should be limited to a single /
643 partition.
644 For example:
646 livemedia-creator --make-tar --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=./docs/fedora-minimal.ks \
648 --image-name=fedora-root.tar.xz
649
651 The --make-pxe-live command will produce squashfs image containing live
652 root filesystem that can be used for pxe boot. Directory with results
653 will contain the live image, kernel image, initrd image and template of
654 pxe configuration for the images.
655
657 The --make-ostree-live command will produce the same result as
658 --make-pxe-live for installations of Atomic Host. Example kickstart
659 for such an installation using Atomic installer iso with local repo in‐
660 cluded in the image can be found in docs/rhel-atomic-pxe-live.ks.
661 The PXE images can also be created with --no-virt by using the example
663 kickstart in docs/fedora-atomic-pxe-live-novirt.ks. This also works in‐
664 side the mock environment.
665
667 As of lorax version 22.2 you can use livemedia-creator and anaconda
668 version 22.15 inside of a mock chroot with --make-iso and --make-fsim‐
669 age.
670 NOTE:
672 As of mock version 2.0 you no longer need to pass --old-chroot. You
673 will, however, need to pass --enable-network so that the mock con‐
674 tainer can download packages.
675 Older versions of mock, between 1.3.4 and 2.0, will need to pass
677 --old-chroot with mock. These versions of mock now default to using
678 systemd-nspawn which cannot create the needed loop device nodes.
679 Passing --old-chroot will use the old system where /dev/loop* is
680 setup for you.
681 SELinux and mock do not work well together. Inside mock SELinux is
683 reported as disabled so the images produced will not have the cor‐
684 rect SELinux labels. If this is important you should run liveme‐
685 dia-creator on the host, or in a VM.
686 On the host system:
688 1. yum install -y mock
690 2. Add a user to the mock group to use for running mock. eg. builder
692 3. Create a new /etc/mock/ config file based on the rawhide one, or
694 modify the existing one so that the following options are setup:
695 config_opts['chroot_setup_cmd'] = 'install @buildsys-build anaconda-tui lorax'
697 # build results go into /home/builder/results/
699 config_opts['plugin_conf']['bind_mount_opts']['dirs'].append(('/home/builder/results','/results/'))
700 If you are creating images for a branched release of Fedora you
702 should also enable the updates-testing repository so that you get
703 the latest builds in your mock chroot.
704 The following steps are run as the builder user who is a member of the
706 mock group.
707 4. Make a directory for results matching the bind mount above mkdir
709 ~/results/
710 5. Copy the example kickstarts cp /usr/share/docs/lorax/*ks .
712 6. Make sure tar and dracut-network are in the %packages section and
714 that the url points to the correct repo
715 7. Init the mock mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --init
717 8. Copy the kickstart inside the mock mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64
719 --copyin ./fedora-minimal.ks /root/
720 9. Make a minimal iso:
722 mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --enable-network --chroot -- livemedia-creator --no-virt \
724 --resultdir=/results/try-1 --logfile=/results/logs/try-1/try-1.log \
725 --make-iso --ks /root/fedora-minimal.ks
726 Results will be in ./results/try-1 and logs under /results/logs/try-1/
728 including anaconda logs and livemedia-creator logs. The new iso will be
729 located at ~/results/try-1/images/boot.iso, and the ~/results/try-1/
730 directory tree will also contain the vmlinuz, initrd, etc.
731
733 Version 25.0 of livemedia-creator switches to using qemu for virtual‐
734 ization. This allows creation of all image types, and use of the KVM
735 on the host if /dev/kvm is present in the mock environment.
736 On the host system:
738 1. yum install -y mock
740 2. Add a user to the mock group to use for running mock. eg. builder
742 3. Create a new /etc/mock/ config file based on the rawhide one, or
744 modify the existing one so that the following options are setup:
745 config_opts['chroot_setup_cmd'] = 'install @buildsys-build lorax qemu'
747 # build results go into /home/builder/results/
749 config_opts['plugin_conf']['bind_mount_opts']['dirs'].append(('/home/builder/results','/results/'))
750 If you are creating images for a branched release of Fedora you
752 should also enable the updates-testing repository so that you get
753 the latest builds in your mock chroot.
754 The following steps are run as the builder user who is a member of the
756 mock group.
757 4. Make a directory for results matching the bind mount above mkdir
759 ~/results/
760 5. Copy the example kickstarts cp /usr/share/docs/lorax/*ks .
762 6. Make sure tar and dracut-network are in the %packages section and
764 that the url points to the correct repo
765 7. Init the mock mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --init
767 8. Copy the kickstart inside the mock mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64
769 --copyin ./fedora-minimal.ks /root/
770 9. Copy the Anaconda boot.iso inside the mock mock -r fe‐
772 dora-rawhide-x86_64 --copyin ./boot.iso /root/
773 10.
775 Make a minimal iso:
776 mock -r fedora-rawhide-x86_64 --enable-network --chroot -- livemedia-creator \
778 --resultdir=/results/try-1 --logfile=/results/logs/try-1/try-1.log \
779 --make-iso --ks /root/fedora-minimal.ks --iso /root/boot.iso
780 Results will be in ./results/try-1 and logs under /results/logs/try-1/
782 including anaconda logs and livemedia-creator logs. The new iso will be
783 located at ~/results/try-1/images/boot.iso, and the ~/results/try-1/
784 directory tree will also contain the vmlinuz, initrd, etc.
785 This will run qemu without kvm support, which is going to be very slow.
787 You can add mknod /dev/kvm c 10 232; to create the device node before
788 running lmc.
789
791 OpenStack supports partitioned disk images so --make-disk can be used
792 to create images for importing into glance, OpenStack's image storage
793 component. You need to have access to an OpenStack provider that al‐
794 lows image uploads, or setup your own using the instructions from the
795 RDO Project.
796 The example kickstart, fedora-openstack.ks, is only slightly different
798 than the fedora-minimal.ks one. It adds the cloud-init and
799 cloud-utils-growpart packages. OpenStack supports setting up the image
800 using cloud-init, and cloud-utils-growpart will grow the image to fit
801 the instance's disk size.
802 Create a qcow2 image using the kickstart like this:
804 sudo livemedia-creator --make-disk --iso=/path/to/boot.iso
805 --ks=/path/to/fedora-openstack.ks --image-type=qcow2
806 NOTE:
808 On the RHEL7 version of lmc --image-type isn't supported. You can
809 only create a bare partitioned disk image.
810 Import the resulting disk image into the OpenStack system, either via
812 the web UI, or glance on the cmdline:
813 glance image-create --name "fedora-openstack" --is-public true --disk-format qcow2 \
815 --container-format bare --file ./fedora-openstack.qcow2
816 If qcow2 wasn't used then --disk-format should be set to raw.
818
820 Use lmc to create a tarfile as described in the TAR File Creation sec‐
821 tion, but substitute the fedora-docker.ks example kickstart which re‐
822 moves the requirement for core files and the kernel.
823 You can then import the tarfile into docker like this (as root):
825 cat /var/tmp/fedora-root.tar.xz | docker import - fedora-root
826 And then run bash inside of it:
828 sudo docker run -i -t fedora-root /bin/bash
829
831 The OCI is a new specification that is still being worked on. You can
832 read more about it at the Open Container Initiative website. You can
833 create OCI images using the following command:
834 sudo livemedia-creator --make-oci --oci-config /path/to/config.json --oci-runtime /path/to/runtime.json \
836 --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=/path/to/fedora-minimal.ks
837 You must provide the config.json and runtime.json files to be included
839 in the bundle, their specifications can be found on the OCI github
840 project output will be in the results directory with a default name of
841 bundle.tar.xz
842 This will work with --no-virt and inside a mock since it doesn't use
844 any partitioned disk images.
845
847 Vagrant images can be created using the following command:
848 sudo livemedia-creator --make-vagrant --vagrant-metadata /path/to/metadata.json \
850 --iso=/path/to/boot.iso --ks=/path/to/fedora-vagrant.ks
851 The image created is a vagrant-libvirt provider image and needs to have
853 vagrant setup with libvirt before you can use it.
854 The --vagrant-metadata file is optional, it will create a minimal one
856 by default, and if one is passed it will make sure the disk size is
857 setup correctly. If you pass a --vagrant-vagrantfile it will be in‐
858 cluded in the image verbatim. By default no vagrantfile is created.
859 There is an example Vagrant kickstart file in the docs directory that
861 sets up the vagrant user with the default insecure SSH pubkey and a few
862 useful utilities.
863 This also works with --no-virt, but will not work inside a mock due to
865 its use of partitioned disk images and qcow2.
866
868 Partitioned disk images can only be created for the same platform as
869 the host system (BIOS or UEFI). You can use virt to create BIOS images
870 on UEFI systems, and it is also possible to create UEFI images on BIOS
871 systems using OVMF firmware and qemu.
872 Install the lorax-lmc-virt package, this will install qemu and the OVMF
874 firmware files.
875 Now you can run livemedia-creator with --virt-uefi to boot and install
877 using UEFI:
878 sudo livemedia-creator --make-disk --virt-uefi --iso=/path/to/boot.iso \
880 --ks=/path/to/fedora-minimal.ks
881 Make sure that the kickstart you are using creates a /boot/efi parti‐
883 tion by including this:
884 part /boot/efi --fstype="efi" --size=500
886 Or use reqpart in the kickstart and Anaconda will create the required
888 partitions.
889 NOTE:
891 The --virt-uefi method is currently only supported on the x86_64 ar‐
892 chitecture.
893
895 Sometimes an installation will get stuck. When using qemu the logs will
896 be written to ./virt-install.log and most of the time any problems that
897 happen will be near the end of the file. lmc tries to detect common er‐
898 rors and will cancel the installation when they happen. But not every‐
899 thing can be caught. When creating a new kickstart it is helpful to
900 use vnc so that you can monitor the installation as it happens, and if
901 it gets stuck without lmc detecting the problem you can switch to tty1
902 and examine the system directly.
903 If you suspect problems with %pre or %post sections you can redirect
905 the output to the terminal and examine it by logging into the VM. eg.:
906 %pre
908 chvt
909 exec < /dev/tty3 > /dev/tty3 2>/dev/tty3
910 #do stuff
911 echo hello world
912 %end
913 If it does get stuck the best way to cancel is to use kill -9 on the
915 qemu pid, lmc will detect that the process died and cleanup.
916 If lmc didn't handle the cleanup for some reason you can do this: 1.
918 sudo umount /tmp/lmc-XXXX to unmount the iso from its mountpoint. 2.
919 sudo rm -rf /tmp/lmc-XXXX 3. sudo rm /var/tmp/lmc-disk-XXXXX to remove
920 the disk image.
921 Note that lmc uses the lmc- prefix for all of its temporary files and
923 directories to make it easier to find and clean up leftovers.
924 The logs from the qemu run are stored in virt-install.log, logs from
926 livemedia-creator are in livemedia.log and program.log
927 You can add --image-only to skip the .iso creation and examine the re‐
929 sulting disk image. Or you can pass --keep-image to keep it around af‐
930 ter the iso has been created.
931 Cleaning up aborted --no-virt installs can sometimes be accomplished by
933 running the anaconda-cleanup script. As of Fedora 18 anaconda is
934 multi-threaded and it can sometimes become stuck and refuse to exit.
935 When this happens you can usually clean up by first killing the ana‐
936 conda process then running anaconda-cleanup.
937
939 Development on this will take place as part of the lorax project, and
940 on the anaconda-devel-list mailing list, and on github
941 Feedback, enhancements and bugs are welcome. You can use bugzilla to
943 report bugs against the lorax component.
944
946 Weldr Team
947
949 2018, Red Hat, Inc.
95038.8 Feb 20, 2023 LIVEMEDIA-CREATOR(1)