[Mageia-dev] drakxtools & drakx-installer-stage2 (mga#9428)

Fri Mar 22 19:37:49 CET 2013

On 22 March 2013 12:20, Glen Ogilvie <nelg at linuxsolutions.co.nz> wrote:
+> I've been trying to test the installer change below before RC4, thinking
+> that it might be quite helpful.
+>
+> I am having a little bit of trouble however.  Could someone point me in the
+> right direction on a couple
+> of things.
+>
+> 1. How does the src tar.xz file for drakx-installer-stage2 get created?   I
+> assume it comes from a
+> build of svn://svn.mageia.org/svn/soft/drakx/trunk, but can't find how it
+> ends up as a tar.xz
+>
+> 2. When I've built a new stage2, any tricks on getting it into an ISO?
+>
+> I tried building an ISO based on beta3, with the new stage2, using something
+> like:
+>   mkisofs -o
+> ~nelg/Mageia-3-beta3-x86_64-DVD/Mageia-3-beta3-x86_64-DVD-stage2.iso -b
+> x86_64/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot.catalog  -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size
+> 4 -iso-level 4 -J -R /tmp/tt/
+>
+> This is clearly not right.  Is the a documented method I should use to build
+> a new ISO with a modified stage2?
+> In the docs I have read:
+> https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Drakx-installer_tips_and_tricks#rebuild_the_stage_2
+> and svn://svn.mageia.org/svn/soft/drakx/trunk/docs/README, I have not been
+> able to find instructions on actually putting together an ISO.
+>
+> Is:
+> http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/How_to_remaster_a_personal_Mandriva-based_ISO
+> relevant for Mageia?  I guess not, as mkcd does not seem to exist in Mageia.
+>
+> So, a quick howto, or pointing me to the right documentation would be great
+> :)
+
+stage2 != ISO
+
+ISO is basically the stage1.
+stage1 is build by drakx-installer-images from:
+- some packages listed as BR, mainly the kernel drivers & firmwares
+- drakx-installer-binaries that provide the actual stage1 binary
+
+=> generates what is copied in isolinux/alt0 & in install/images/
+(*.img + *.iso)
+
+stage2 is build by drakx-installer-stage2
+
+=> generates what is in install/stage2: mdkinst.sqfs (a squashfs image)
+there's also rescue.sqfs there that is an alternate stage2 used when
+using the rescue.
+
+
+stage1 is basically a special initrd that loads the appropriate
+modules according to detected
+hardware and to what is specified on command line (eg: the DVD tells
+it to directly load
+stage2 from the DVD image).
+if not instructed to do sg, it displays the text menu asking from
+where to install (dvd, hard disk,
+network: http/ftp/nfs).
+It's a small statically linked program + init + a dhcp client +
+rescue-gui for the rescue menu
+
+it then loads stage2 (install/stage2/mdkinst.sqf or rescue.sqfs) from the URL
+
+stage2 is real system, with dynamic libraries, that starts:
+- an X11 server (if supported and if not asked for text mode)
+- udev
+and then go the install steps (language, license, partitionning,
+installing, summary, updates, ...)
+