Re: [gentoo-catalyst] Sort of Build Platform

[Peter Stuge <peter@stuge.se>]

Shinkan wrote:
> - I want to build barely-usable minimal systems that I call
> "guests" from my host. Guests would have to be setup on target
> machines using fdisk and tar only, or put on a Live{CD,DVD,USB}.
..
> Did I have to use Catalyst ? How can I do this if it's the clean
> way ?

You can certainly do it with a catalyst stage4 spec file. You'll also
need to prepare a kernel configuration for the guests, and reference
that in the spec file. You'll also spend some time on filling the
spec file with packages, files and directories that should be
unmerged and simply rm:ed from the final build.

To make changes (like add another package to a guest) you would run
catalyst again. It starts over, but keeps a cache of binpkgs that
have been built so it runs well under an hour even on oldish systems.

This is how I make custom distributions for customers.

Since the guests will be very different from a standard Gentoo system
it may also be worthwhile for you to create a new, custom, profile
for the guests.


//Peter