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. The host system  ar‐
19       chitecture  needs to match that of the iso. mkksiso will raise an error
20       if it finds a .discinfo on the iso with a mismatched arch.
21

MKKSISO CMDLINE ARGUMENTS

23       Add a kickstart and files to an iso
24          usage: mkksiso [-h] [-a ADD_PATHS] [-c  CMDLINE]  [--debug]  ks  in‐
25          put_iso output_iso
26
27   Optional arguments
28          -h, --help
29                 show this help message and exit
30
31          -a ADD_PATHS, --add ADD_PATHS
32                 File or directory to add to ISO (may be used multiple times)
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34          -c CMDLINE, --cmdline CMDLINE
35                 Arguments to add to kernel cmdline
36
37          --debug
38                 print debugging info
39
40          -V VOLID, --volid VOLID
41                 Set the ISO volume id, defaults to input's
42
43   Positional arguments
44          ks     Kickstart to add to the ISO
45
46          input_iso
47                 ISO to modify
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49          output_iso
50                 Full pathname of iso to be created
51

CREATE A KICKSTART BOOT.ISO OR DVD

53       Create a kickstart like you normally would, kickstart documentation can
54       be found here, including the url and repo commands.  If you are  creat‐
55       ing  a  DVD  and only need the content on the DVD you can use the cdrom
56       command to install without a network connection. Then run mkksiso  like
57       this:
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59          mkksiso /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
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61       This  will  create  a new iso with the kickstart in the root directory,
62       and the kernel cmdline will have inst.ks=... added to  it  so  that  it
63       will  be  executed  when the iso is booted (be careful not to boot on a
64       system you don't want to wipe out! There will be no prompting).
65
66       By default the volume id of the iso is preserved. You can set a  custom
67       volid  by  passing -V and the string to set. The kernel cmdline will be
68       changes, and the iso will have th custom volume id.  eg.:
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70          mkksiso -V "Test Only" /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
71

ADDING PACKAGE REPOS TO A BOOT.ISO

73       You can add repo directories to the  iso  using  --add  /PATH/TO/REPO/,
74       make sure it contains the repodata directory by running createrepo_c on
75       it first. In the kickstart you can refer to the directories (and files)
76       on  the iso using file:///run/install/repo/DIRECTORY/. You can then use
77       these repos in the kickstart like this:
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79          repo --name=extra-repo --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/extra-repo/
80
81       Run mkksiso like so:
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83          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/REPO/ /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
84

CREATE A LIVEIMG BOOT.ISO

86       You can use the kickstart liveimg command, to install  a  pre-generated
87       disk image or tar to the system the iso is booting on.
88
89       Create  a disk image or tar with osbuild-composer or livemedia-creator,
90       make sure the image includes tools expected by anaconda, as well as the
91       kernel  and  bootloader support.  In osbuild-composer use the tar image
92       type and make sure to include the kernel, grub2, and grub2-tools  pack‐
93       ages.  If you plan to install it to a UEFI machine make sure to include
94       grub2-efi and efibootmgr in the blueprint.
95
96       Add the root.tar.xz file to the iso using  --add  /PATH/TO/ROOT.TAR.XZ,
97       and in the kickstart reference it with the liveimg command like this:
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99          liveimg --url=file:///run/install/repo/root.tar.xz
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101       It is also a good idea to use the --checksum argument to liveimg  to be
102       sure the file hasn't been corrupted:
103
104          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/root.tar.xz /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
105
106       When this iso is booted it will execute the kickstart and  install  the
107       liveimg contents to the system without any prompting.
108

HOW IT WORKS

110       mkksiso  first  examines the system to make sure the tools it needs are
111       installed, it will work with xorrisofs or mkisofs installed. It  mounts
112       the  source iso, and copies the directories that need to be modified to
113       a temporary directory.
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115       It then modifies the boot configuration files to  include  the  inst.ks
116       command, and checks to see if the original iso supports EFI. If it does
117       it regenerates the EFI boot images with the new configuration, and then
118       runs  the available iso creation tool to add the new files and directo‐
119       ries to the new iso. If the architecture is x86_64 it  will  also  make
120       sure the iso can be booted as an iso or from a USB stick (hybridiso).
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122       The  last step is to update the iso checksums so that booting with test
123       enabled will pass.
124

AUTHOR

126       Weldr Team
127

129       2018, Red Hat, Inc.
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13436.5                             Dec 21, 2021                       MKKSISO(1)
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