1LORAX(1) Lorax LORAX(1)
2
6 lorax - Lorax Documentation
7 Authors
9 Brian C. Lane <bcl@redhat.com>
10 "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees [and images]."
12 The lorax tool is used to create the Anaconda installer boot.iso as
14 well as the basic release tree, and .treeinfo metadata file. Its depen‐
15 dencies are fairly light-weight because it needs to be able to run in a
16 mock chroot environment. It is best to run lorax from the same release
17 as is being targeted because the templates may have release specific
18 logic in them. eg. Use the rawhide version to build the boot.iso for
19 rawhide, along with the rawhide repositories.
20
22 Create the Anaconda boot.iso
23 usage: lorax [-h] -p PRODUCT -v VERSION -r RELEASE [-s REPOSITORY]
26 [--repo REPOSITORY] [-m REPOSITORY] [-t VARIANT] [-b URL]
27 [--isfinal] [-c CONFIGFILE] [--proxy HOST] [-i PACKAGE]
28 [-e PACKAGE] [--buildarch ARCH] [--volid VOLID] [--macboot]
29 [--nomacboot] [--noupgrade] [--logfile LOGFILE] [--tmp TMP]
30 [--cachedir CACHEDIR] [--workdir WORKDIR] [--force]
31 [--add-template ADD_TEMPLATES]
32 [--add-template-var ADD_TEMPLATE_VARS]
33 [--add-arch-template ADD_ARCH_TEMPLATES]
34 [--add-arch-template-var ADD_ARCH_TEMPLATE_VARS] [--noverify]
35 [--sharedir SHAREDIR] [--enablerepo [repo]]
36 [--disablerepo [repo]] [--rootfs-size ROOTFS_SIZE]
37 [--noverifyssl] [--dracut-arg DRACUT_ARGS] [-V]
38 OUTPUTDIR
39 Positional Arguments
41 Output directory
42 Named Arguments
44 V show program's version number and exit
45 required arguments
47 p, --product
48 product name
49 v, --version
51 version identifier
52 r, --release
54 release information
55 s, --source
57 source repository (may be listed multiple times)
58 Default: []
60 -repo source dnf repository file
62 Default: []
64 Named Arguments
66 m, --mirrorlist
67 mirrorlist repository (may be listed multiple times)
68 Default: []
70 t, --variant
72 variant name
73 Default: ""
75 b, --bugurl
77 bug reporting URL for the product
78 Default: "your distribution provided bug reporting tool"
80 -isfinal
82 Default: False
83 c, --config
85 config file
86 Default: "/etc/lorax/lorax.conf"
88 -proxy repo proxy url:port
90 i, --installpkgs
92 package glob to install before runtime-install.tmpl runs. (may
93 be listed multiple times)
94 Default: []
96 e, --excludepkgs
98 package glob to remove before runtime-install.tmpl runs. (may be
99 listed multiple times)
100 Default: []
102 -buildarch
104 build architecture
105 -volid volume id
107 -macboot
109 Default: True
110 -nomacboot
112 Default: True
113 -noupgrade
115 Default: True
116 -logfile
118 Path to logfile
119 Default: ./lorax.log
121 -tmp Top level temporary directory
123 Default: "/var/tmp"
125 -cachedir
127 DNF cache directory. Default is a temporary dir.
128 -workdir
130 Work directory, overrides --tmp. Default is a temporary dir
131 under /var/tmp
132 -force Run even when the destination directory exists
134 Default: False
136 -add-template
138 Additional template for runtime image
139 Default: []
141 -add-template-var
143 Set variable for runtime image template
144 Default: []
146 -add-arch-template
148 Additional template for architecture-specific image
149 Default: []
151 -add-arch-template-var
153 Set variable for architecture-specific image
154 Default: []
156 -noverify
158 Do not verify the install root
159 Default: True
161 -sharedir
163 Directory containing all the templates. Overrides config file
164 sharedir
165 -enablerepo
167 Names of repos to enable
168 Default: []
170 -disablerepo
172 Names of repos to disable
173 Default: []
175 -rootfs-size
177 Size of root filesystem in GiB. Defaults to 3.
178 Default: 3
180 -noverifyssl
182 Do not verify SSL certificates
183 Default: False
185 dracut arguments
187 -dracut-arg
188 Argument to pass to dracut when rebuilding the initramfs. Pass
189 this once for each argument. NOTE: this overrides the default.
190 (default: )
191
193 Run this as root to create a boot.iso in ./results/:
194 dnf install lorax
196 setenforce 0
197 lorax -p Fedora -v 23 -r 23 \
198 -s http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/23/Everything/x86_64/os/ \
199 -s http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/23/x86_64/ \
200 ./results/
201 setenforce 1
202 You can add your own repos with -s and packages with higher NVRs will
204 override the ones in the distribution repositories.
205 Under ./results/ will be the release tree files: .discinfo, .treeinfo,
207 everything that goes onto the boot.iso, the pxeboot directory, and the
208 boot.iso under ./images/.
209
211 If you are using lorax with mock v1.3.4 or later you will need to pass
212 --old-chroot to mock. Mock now defaults to using systemd-nspawn which
213 cannot create the needed loop device nodes. Passing --old-chroot will
214 use the old system where /dev/loop* is setup for you.
215
217 Lorax uses dnf to install packages into a temporary directory, sets up
218 configuration files, it then removes unneeded files to save space, and
219 creates a squashfs filesystem of the files. The iso is then built
220 using a generic initramfs and the kernel from the selected reposito‐
221 ries.
222 To drive these processes Lorax uses a custom template system, based on
224 Mako templates with the addition of custom commands (documented in
225 pylorax.ltmpl.LoraxTemplateRunner). Mako supports %if/%endif blocks as
226 well as free-form python code inside <% %> tags and variable substitu‐
227 tion with ${}. The default templates are shipped with lorax in
228 /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic/ and use the .tmpl extension.
229 runtime-install.tmpl
231 The runtime-install.tmpl template lists packages to be installed using
232 the installpkg command. This template is fairly simple, installing
233 common packages and architecture specific packages. It must end with
234 the run_pkg_transaction command which tells dnf to download and install
235 the packages.
236 runtime-postinstall.tmpl
238 The runtime-postinstall.tmpl template is where the system configuration
239 happens. The installer environment is similar to a normal running sys‐
240 tem, but needs some special handling. Configuration files are setup,
241 systemd is told to start the anaconda.target instead of a default sys‐
242 tem target, and a number of unneeded services are disabled, some of
243 which can interfere with the installation. A number of template com‐
244 mands are used here:
245 · append to add text to a file.
247 · chmod changes the file's mode.
249 · install to install a file into the installroot.
251 · mkdir makes a new directory.
253 · move to move a file into the installroot
255 · replace does text substitution in a file
257 · remove deletes a file
259 · runcmd run arbitrary commands.
261 · symlink creates a symlink
263 · systemctl runs systemctl in the installroot
265 runtime-cleanup.tmpl
267 The runtime-cleanup.tmpl template is used to remove files that aren't
268 strictly needed by the installation environment. In addition to the
269 remove template command it uses:
270 · removepkg remove all of a specific package's contents. A package may
272 be pulled in as a dependency, but not really used. eg. sound support.
273 · removefrom Removes some files from a package. A file glob can be
275 used, or the --allbut option to remove everything except a select
276 few.
277 · removekmod Removes kernel modules
279 The squashfs filesystem
281 After runtime-*.tmpl templates have finished their work lorax creates
282 an empty ext4 filesystem, copies the remaining files to it, and makes a
283 squashfs filesystem of it. This file is the / of the boot.iso's in‐
284 staller environment and is what is in the LiveOS/squashfs.img file on
285 the iso.
286 iso creation
288 The iso creation is handled by another set of templates. The one used
289 depends on the architecture that the iso is being created for. They are
290 also stored in /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic and are named
291 after the arch, like x86.tmpl and aarch64.tmpl. They handle creation of
292 the tree, copying configuration template files, configuration variable
293 substitution, treeinfo metadata (via the treeinfo template command).
294 Kernel and initrd are copied from the installroot to their final loca‐
295 tions and then mkisofs is run to create the boot.iso
296
298 The default set of templates and configuration files from the
299 lorax-generic-templates package are shipped in the
300 /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic/ directory. You can make a copy
301 of them and place them into another directory under templates.d and
302 they will be used instead if their sort order is below all other direc‐
303 tories. This allows multiple packages to ship lorax templates without
304 conflict. You can (and probably should) select the specific template
305 directory by passing --sharedir to lorax.
306
308 Weldr Team
309
311 2018, Red Hat, Inc.
31228.14.21 Jan 09, 2019 LORAX(1)