1MKKSISO(1)                           Lorax                          MKKSISO(1)
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NAME

6       mkksiso - Make Kickstart ISO Utility Documentation
7
8       Authors
9              Brian C. Lane <bcl@redhat.com>
10
11       mkksiso  is  a  tool for creating kickstart boot isos. In it's simplest
12       form you can add a kickstart to a boot.iso and the  kickstart  will  be
13       executed  when  the iso is booted. If the original iso was created with
14       EFI and Mac support the kickstart boot.iso will include this support as
15       well.
16
17       mkksiso  needs  to  be run as root, it depends on mounting the original
18       iso and you need to be root to be able to do that.
19

MKKSISO CMDLINE ARGUMENTS

21       Add a kickstart and files to an iso
22          usage: mkksiso [-h] [-a ADD_PATHS] [-c  CMDLINE]  [--debug]  ks  in‐
23          put_iso output_iso
24
25   Optional arguments
26          -h, --help
27                 show this help message and exit
28
29          -a ADD_PATHS, --add ADD_PATHS
30                 File or directory to add to ISO (may be used multiple times)
31
32          -c CMDLINE, --cmdline CMDLINE
33                 Arguments to add to kernel cmdline
34
35          --debug
36                 print debugging info
37
38          -V VOLID, --volid VOLID
39                 Set the ISO volume id, defaults to input's
40
41   Positional arguments
42          ks     Kickstart to add to the ISO
43
44          input_iso
45                 ISO to modify
46
47          output_iso
48                 Full pathname of iso to be created
49

CREATE A KICKSTART BOOT.ISO OR DVD

51       Create a kickstart like you normally would, kickstart documentation can
52       be found here, including the url and repo commands.  If you are  creat‐
53       ing  a  DVD  and only need the content on the DVD you can use the cdrom
54       command to install without a network connection. Then run mkksiso  like
55       this:
56
57          mkksiso /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
58
59       This  will  create  a new iso with the kickstart in the root directory,
60       and the kernel cmdline will have inst.ks=... added to  it  so  that  it
61       will  be  executed  when the iso is booted (be careful not to boot on a
62       system you don't want to wipe out! There will be no prompting).
63
64       By default the volume id of the iso is preserved. You can set a  custom
65       volid  by  passing -V and the string to set. The kernel cmdline will be
66       changes, and the iso will have th custom volume id.  eg.:
67
68          mkksiso -V "Test Only" /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
69

ADDING PACKAGE REPOS TO A BOOT.ISO

71       You can add repo directories to the  iso  using  --add  /PATH/TO/REPO/,
72       make sure it contains the repodata directory by running createrepo_c on
73       it first. In the kickstart you can refer to the directories (and files)
74       on  the iso using file:///run/install/repo/DIRECTORY/. You can then use
75       these repos in the kickstart like this:
76
77          repo --name=extra-repo --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/extra-repo/
78
79       Run mkksiso like so:
80
81          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/REPO/ /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
82

CREATE A LIVEIMG BOOT.ISO

84       You can use the kickstart liveimg command, to install  a  pre-generated
85       disk image or tar to the system the iso is booting on.
86
87       Create  a disk image or tar with osbuild-composer or livemedia-creator,
88       make sure the image includes tools expected by anaconda, as well as the
89       kernel  and  bootloader support.  In osbuild-composer use the tar image
90       type and make sure to include the kernel, grub2, and grub2-tools  pack‐
91       ages.  If you plan to install it to a UEFI machine make sure to include
92       grub2-efi and efibootmgr in the blueprint.
93
94       Add the root.tar.xz file to the iso using  --add  /PATH/TO/ROOT.TAR.XZ,
95       and in the kickstart reference it with the liveimg command like this:
96
97          liveimg --url=file:///run/install/repo/root.tar.xz
98
99       It is also a good idea to use the --checksum argument to liveimg  to be
100       sure the file hasn't been corrupted:
101
102          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/root.tar.xz /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
103
104       When this iso is booted it will execute the kickstart and  install  the
105       liveimg contents to the system without any prompting.
106

HOW IT WORKS

108       mkksiso  first  examines the system to make sure the tools it needs are
109       installed, it will work with xorrisofs or mkisofs installed. It  mounts
110       the  source iso, and copies the directories that need to be modified to
111       a temporary directory.
112
113       It then modifies the boot configuration files to  include  the  inst.ks
114       command, and checks to see if the original iso supports EFI. If it does
115       it regenerates the EFI boot images with the new configuration, and then
116       runs  the available iso creation tool to add the new files and directo‐
117       ries to the new iso. If the architecture is x86_64 it  will  also  make
118       sure the iso can be booted as an iso or from a USB stick (hybridiso).
119
120       The  last step is to update the iso checksums so that booting with test
121       enabled will pass.
122

AUTHOR

124       Weldr Team
125
127       2018, Red Hat, Inc.
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13235.7                             Oct 11, 2021                       MKKSISO(1)
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