Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Pongracz Istvan]

2007. 04. 13, péntek keltezéssel 23.16-kor b.n. ezt írta:
> Hi,
> 
> I have looked a bit for this but I've found nothing.

> However I'd like to see some tutorial/advice/whatever about it.
> 
> m.

Hi,

Try out catalyst, which is part of portage.
It is easy to create a custom own livecd.

>From livecd, you can rsync its content (from /mnt/livecd/) to hdd and
you can customize.
For example my "distribution" is a customized livecd, which is capable
to install it to hdd (i686 optimized) and focused to server
functionalities. 
ftp://ftp.linuxforum.hu/magenta/releases/x86/livecd
here you can see glivecd.0.0.1.iso

The learning curve is funny ;)
With catalyst, you can make uptodate stages etc.
It is a really great tool. Everybody able to make an own release :)

Regards,
István

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[gentoo-user] Re: create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Marc Blumentritt]

b.n. schrieb:
> Hi,
> 
> I have looked a bit for this but I've found nothing.
> I'd like to create an installable disk ready-to-install on another old,
> low specs machine that cannot bear a Gentoo install by itself.
> 
> The logic would be:
> - create a chroot environment
> - install a subgentoo in it
> - emerge the needed sw in the subgentoo, tweak etc.
Then create a tarball from it. You could call this tarball a stage4
tarball, because it is a complete system (compared to a stage3 tarball).

To create the tarball, leave the chroot an run something like this:
tar -cjvpf /stage4.tar.bz2 /path/to/your/chroot

Boot your old machine with a gentoo live cd and create partitions
(follow the gentoo handbook to chapter 4) and copy your tarball to it.

After unpacking the tarball, your system is nearly finished. All you
need to do is to install grub (or your personal choice of bootloader)
and that's it.


For this method you do not need a special install medium. But you have
to find a way to copy the tarball to your system. Possible options are
scp or on cd (in this case you need a second drive or boot your cd with
the option to load the whole image to memory (I d'ont remember the name
for it), but since you said you have an old machine, the memory will be
small...).


Regards
Marc

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[purple]

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"in this case you need a second drive or boot your cd with
the option to load the whole image to memory (I d'ont remember the name
for it"

in boot prompt of livecd type:

# gentoo docache

greets :)

-- 
purple..

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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Michal 'vorner' Vaner]

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Hello

On Fri, Apr 13, 2007 at 11:16:58PM +0000, b.n. wrote:
>  Hi,
> 
>  I have looked a bit for this but I've found nothing.
>  I'd like to create an installable disk ready-to-install on another old, low 
>  specs machine that cannot bear a Gentoo install by itself.
> 
>  The logic would be:
>  - create a chroot environment
>  - install a subgentoo in it
>  - emerge the needed sw in the subgentoo, tweak etc.
>  - create an installable medium <--???
>  - install on the old box
> 
>  The "installable" needs not to be complete... I can install Grub by myself 
>  on the box, for example, and just copy the files of the subgentoo on the 
>  partitions.
> 
>  However I'd like to see some tutorial/advice/whatever about it.

This is not exactly what you have asked for, but I did install this way
on an old machine (1.5GB disc, 48MB ram) and it worked. You need to:

• Get some space for swap and create partitions
• Unpack the stage tarball (preferably stage3)
• Install nfs
	(that time, I had to compile kernel for it, but I hope the today
	livecd has one nfs-capable).
• Install distcc

Now you can mount /var remotely (portage compiles there and needs lots
of space) - this way you need only the space for installed programs, not
compiling and compile on other machine using distcc. It is more or less
install the usual way, but with a great help of other computer by
network. The advantage is, you can keep updating the system the same
way.

Have a nice day

-- 
This is a terroristic email. It will explode in 10 minutes, 
if you do not close it in the meantime.

Michal "vorner" Vaner

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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Neil Bothwick]

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Hello Michal 'vorner' Vaner,

> Now you can mount /var remotely (portage compiles there and needs lots
> of space) - this way you need only the space for installed programs, not
> compiling and compile on other machine using distcc.

portage can use any directory you like for its workspace, you don't have
to remote mount /var to achieve this. You could mount /var/tmp over NFS,
but setting PORTAGE_TMPDIR is less kludgy. 


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Data to Picard: 'No, Captain, I do NOT run WINDOWS!'

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[b.n.]

Marc Blumentritt ha scritto:

> Then create a tarball from it. You could call this tarball a stage4
> tarball, because it is a complete system (compared to a stage3 tarball).
> 
> To create the tarball, leave the chroot an run something like this:
> tar -cjvpf /stage4.tar.bz2 /path/to/your/chroot
> 
> Boot your old machine with a gentoo live cd and create partitions
> (follow the gentoo handbook to chapter 4) and copy your tarball to it.
> 
> After unpacking the tarball, your system is nearly finished. All you
> need to do is to install grub (or your personal choice of bootloader)
> and that's it.

Thanks a lot, that's more or less what I thought to do.
I hoped for some integrated solution that attached some kind of nice 
installer, but no problem.

> For this method you do not need a special install medium. But you have
> to find a way to copy the tarball to your system. 
 > Possible options are
 > scp or on cd (in this case you need a second drive or boot your cd with
 > the option to load the whole image to memory (I d'ont remember the name
 > for it), but since you said you have an old machine, the memory will be
 > small...).


Yes, this is quite boring, since I wouldn't like to rely on 
network/double drive. Wouldn't it be possible to use a multisession 
cd/dvd with the gentoo cd in the first session and the tarball in the 
second (or editing the gentoo cd ISO)?

m.
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[gentoo-user] Re: create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Marc Blumentritt]

b.n. schrieb:
> Yes, this is quite boring, since I wouldn't like to rely on
> network/double drive. Wouldn't it be possible to use a multisession
> cd/dvd with the gentoo cd in the first session and the tarball in the
> second (or editing the gentoo cd ISO)?


I d'ont know. I'm not good at this CD-ISO stuff, though I always use
network, if possible. What about a USB-Stick (if you have USB 2.0)? Or
possibly a second hard drive? Or you move the harddrive from your old
machine to your build machine and build everything on it? In this way
you do not need a tarball. OK, it is not very comfortable, but simple to
realize and quite fast to do.

Regards
Marc

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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Michal 'vorner' Vaner]

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Hello,

On Sat, Apr 14, 2007 at 09:53:54PM +0100, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> Hello Michal 'vorner' Vaner,
> 
> > Now you can mount /var remotely (portage compiles there and needs lots
> > of space) - this way you need only the space for installed programs, not
> > compiling and compile on other machine using distcc.
> 
> portage can use any directory you like for its workspace, you don't have
> to remote mount /var to achieve this. You could mount /var/tmp over NFS,
> but setting PORTAGE_TMPDIR is less kludgy. 

Well, seems on the same level for me, but that is only personal
preference. But the point with this one is - PORTAGE_TMPDIR (besides,
isn't it PORTAGE_WORKDIR?) is gentoo specific, but you can do the
mounting just anywhere.

Anyway, the point is probably clear…

With regards

-- 
Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
		-- Samuel Goldwyn

Michal 'vorner' Vaner

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[b.n.]

Marc Blumentritt ha scritto:
> I d'ont know. I'm not good at this CD-ISO stuff, though I always use
> network, if possible. What about a USB-Stick (if you have USB 2.0)? Or
> possibly a second hard drive? Or you move the harddrive from your old
> machine to your build machine and build everything on it? In this way
> you do not need a tarball. OK, it is not very comfortable, but simple to
> realize and quite fast to do.

Problem is, I'd like a general solution that can work on any kind of 
machine, no matter if it's network connected, it has 1 or 2 cd drives etc.

m.
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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:01:24 +0200, Michal 'vorner' Vaner wrote:

> > > Now you can mount /var remotely (portage compiles there and needs
> > > lots of space) - this way you need only the space for installed
> > > programs, not compiling and compile on other machine using distcc.  
> > 
> > portage can use any directory you like for its workspace, you don't
> > have to remote mount /var to achieve this. You could mount /var/tmp
> > over NFS, but setting PORTAGE_TMPDIR is less kludgy.   
> 
> Well, seems on the same level for me, but that is only personal
> preference.

It's not the same at all. you are advocating mounting the whole of /var
on a networked filesystem, which could affect the performance of the
system as a whole.

> But the point with this one is - PORTAGE_TMPDIR (besides,
> isn't it PORTAGE_WORKDIR?)

No, it's PORTAGE_TMPDIR, check your make.conf.

> is gentoo specific, but you can do the
> mounting just anywhere.

The last time I looked, portage compiles were Gentoo-specific too. If you
want to change where portage uses for its workspace, it is much safer to
use the provided configuration settings than move the whole of a
system-critical directory to an unreliable medium.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

User-friendly: (adj.) trivialized, slow, incapable, and boring.

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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Tuesday 17 April 2007, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> The last time I looked, portage compiles were Gentoo-specific too. If
> you want to change where portage uses for its workspace, it is much
> safer to use the provided configuration settings than move the whole
> of a system-critical directory to an unreliable medium.

Going slightly OT here, but does anyone know which ebuilds are the big 
ones using lots of space in /var/tmp when compiling? Apart from OOo 
that is :-)

alan


-- 
Optimists say the glass is half full,
Pessimists say the glass is half empty,
Developers say wtf is the glass twice as big as it needs to be?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five
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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Michal 'vorner' Vaner]

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Hello

On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 11:35:25PM +0100, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:01:24 +0200, Michal 'vorner' Vaner wrote:
> > > portage can use any directory you like for its workspace, you don't
> > > have to remote mount /var to achieve this. You could mount /var/tmp
> > > over NFS, but setting PORTAGE_TMPDIR is less kludgy.   
> > 
> > Well, seems on the same level for me, but that is only personal
> > preference.
> 
> It's not the same at all. you are advocating mounting the whole of /var
> on a networked filesystem, which could affect the performance of the
> system as a whole.

Yes, which I was glad - the NFS filesystem was faster than local disk :D

But that is not the point, as nothing run at the time (the machine had
enough anyway).

Have a nice day

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Wait few minutes before opening this email. The temperature difference 
could lead to vapour condensation.

Michal "vorner" Vaner

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Re: [gentoo-user] create an installable custom distro with gentoo?

[Michal 'vorner' Vaner]

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Hello

On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 11:00:51AM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > The last time I looked, portage compiles were Gentoo-specific too. If
> > you want to change where portage uses for its workspace, it is much
> > safer to use the provided configuration settings than move the whole
> > of a system-critical directory to an unreliable medium.
> 
> Going slightly OT here, but does anyone know which ebuilds are the big 
> ones using lots of space in /var/tmp when compiling? Apart from OOo 
> that is :-)

Depends what is big for your machine. gcc was huge for that machine,
xorg too, mutt was only big…

Have a nice day

-- 
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Michal 'vorner' Vaner

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