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  The  host  system architecture needs to match that of the iso.
18       mkksiso will raise an error if it finds a .discinfo on the iso  with  a
19       mismatched arch.
20
21       As  of  version  37.1  mkksiso can be run by normal users. It no longer
22       needs to mount the iso to add the kickstart or edit  the  configuration
23       files so you do not need to be root.
24

MKKSISO CMDLINE ARGUMENTS

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

56       Create a kickstart like you normally would, kickstart documentation can
57       be  found here, including the url and repo commands.  If you are creat‐
58       ing a DVD and only need the content on the DVD you can  use  the  cdrom
59       command  to install without a network connection. Then run mkksiso like
60       this:
61
62          mkksiso /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
63
64       This will create a new iso with the kickstart in  the  root  directory,
65       and  the  kernel  cmdline  will have inst.ks=... added to it so that it
66       will be executed when the iso is booted (be careful not to  boot  on  a
67       system you don't want to wipe out! There will be no prompting).
68
69       By  default the volume id of the iso is preserved. You can set a custom
70       volid by passing -V and the string to set. The kernel cmdline  will  be
71       changes, and the iso will have th custom volume id.
72
73       eg.:
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75          mkksiso -V "Test Only" /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
76

ADDING PACKAGE REPOS TO A BOOT.ISO

78       You  can  add  repo  directories to the iso using --add /PATH/TO/REPO/,
79       make sure it contains the repodata directory by running createrepo_c on
80       it first. In the kickstart you can refer to the directories (and files)
81       on the iso using file:///run/install/repo/DIRECTORY/. You can then  use
82       these repos in the kickstart like this:
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84          repo --name=extra-repo --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/extra-repo/
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86       Run mkksiso like so:
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88          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/REPO/ /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
89

CREATE A LIVEIMG BOOT.ISO

91       You  can  use the kickstart liveimg command, to install a pre-generated
92       disk image or tar to the system the iso is booting on.
93
94       Create a disk image or tar with osbuild-composer or  livemedia-creator,
95       make sure the image includes tools expected by anaconda, as well as the
96       kernel and bootloader support.  In osbuild-composer use the  tar  image
97       type  and make sure to include the kernel, grub2, and grub2-tools pack‐
98       ages.  If you plan to install it to a UEFI machine make sure to include
99       grub2-efi and efibootmgr in the blueprint.
100
101       Add  the  root.tar.xz file to the iso using --add /PATH/TO/ROOT.TAR.XZ,
102       and in the kickstart reference it with the liveimg command like this:
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104          liveimg --url=file:///run/install/repo/root.tar.xz
105
106       It is also a good idea to use the --checksum argument to liveimg  to be
107       sure the file hasn't been corrupted:
108
109          mkksiso --add /PATH/TO/root.tar.xz /PATH/TO/KICKSTART /PATH/TO/ISO /PATH/TO/NEW-ISO
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111       When  this  iso is booted it will execute the kickstart and install the
112       liveimg contents to the system without any prompting.
113

HOW IT WORKS

115       mkksiso only depends on xorriso and isomd5sum. It  takes  advantage  of
116       xorriso's ability to extract files, replace files, and add files to the
117       iso without need to mount it.
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119       mkksiso extracts all of the config files it knows about, and then modi‐
120       fies  the  boot  configuration files to include the inst.ks command. It
121       adds any extra command line arguments you specify, and then builds  the
122       new iso with the configuration files replaced, and new files and direc‐
123       tories added.
124
125       The last step is to update the iso checksums so that booting with  test
126       enabled will pass. It uses implantisomd5 from the isomd5sum project.
127

AUTHOR

129       Weldr Team
130

132       2018, Red Hat, Inc.
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13737.1                             May 11, 2022                       MKKSISO(1)
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