Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

meebo · 2012-02-12 06:42:45

I have followed along with the README included with Archiso, followed a few guides on the web, and read through the ArchWiki page as well. All went fine as far as creating a bootable disk. After installation to a virtual machine, neither the packages I had installed in the chroots (live32 and live64), nor the packages I put in the "packages" file, nor the files I had placed in skel were anywhere to be found. I had also made Zsh the default login shell instead of BASh, which did not work (presumably because none of my packages installed - including Zsh) but it also didn't give me an error. In the chroot environment it set fine with

chsh -s /bin/zsh

so if Zsh wasn't found it should have produced an error upon login (I've accidentally made typos when changing the shell so I know it kicks you back out and gives you an error). I've gone through the process a few times - each resulting in the same outcome: a bootable media; but a only for a basic Arch install.

Also, I noted that my final core ISOs were around 419MB, whereas a regual 64-bit core Arch ISO is 377MB. So what is accounting for the additional 42MB if none of my packages or files are there?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

kmason · 2012-02-12 07:09:14

The extra 42MB of stuff is likely the archiso stuff. As for none of your packages getting included, did you make sure to execute this command as soon as you got into chroot?

mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0

meebo · 2012-02-12 07:18:39

Yes, I am under the impression that needs to be done each time as soon as I enter the chroot to make any changes - so I have done it each and every time. Somewhere I had seen a variation of it (just different numbers instead of 0's) but I assume it does the same thing.

meebo · 2012-02-13 19:55:01

Are there any other obvious reasons this may happen? I was also wondering about adding packages from the AUR - is that possible - or only packages from the main repo? I didn't see additional information on that.

DSpider · 2012-02-13 21:31:56

Well, you could probably compile them with:

$ makepkg -s

And include them in the ISO.

Installing is easy:

$ cd /arch/aur/   (or whatever folder you want)
$ pacman -U *.xz

Last edited by DSpider (2012-02-13 21:32:04)

firecat53 · 2012-02-13 21:50:33

Well, IMHO the easiest way is to create a custom repository on your host system and add all of your pre-compiled aur packages to that repo (see the wiki for how to setup a custom repo). Don't forget to add this repo to your pacman.conf. Then you can just add the AUR package names to your packages list and process like normal:

other_packages="$(grep -v ^# ${script_path}/packages)"
mkarchiso -v -w "${work_dir}" -D "${install_dir}" -p "$other_packages" create

You can mount --bind your host repo to a directory inside the chroot (like /var/cache/pacman/custom) for updates or whatever. Just make sure to unmount your package --bind directories inside the chroot before you rebuild the sqashed filesystem with mkarchiso, because it cleans the pacman cache prior to starting...which means I inadvertently deleted almost a GB of downloaded packages a couple of times before I figured it out

Good luck!
Scott

meebo · 2012-02-13 22:36:55

Thanks DSpider - I already know how to compile packages from AUR, I was just wondering if there was any special things I had to do in the chroot to get them to copy over to the ISO.

Thanks firecat53 - that is a great idea. I hadn't thought of that. I will surely give that a try.

More info: I am working on a 64-bit host. The i686 ISO was able to create properly (both netinstall and core). The x86_64 ISO is still creating a regular bootable Arch media (without customizations or extra installed packages). Ideas? O_o Anyone else have an issue like this?

EDIT: Programs that I had I had put in "packages.i686" and installed in the chroot were coppied to the live ISO, but weren't found after installing that very ISO.
EDIT: firecat53 - I see that in the Wiki on the Archiso page now. I don't know how I missed it before. -_-

Last edited by meebo (2012-02-14 06:17:54)

meebo · 2012-02-23 22:40:58

I am still interested in finding a solution to getting the Live CD/DVD to install properly, if anyone else out there has any tips. I've managed to get a working Live ISO with all packages included - but upon installation gives me nothing more than a generic base Arch Linux system.

pirateofms · 2012-04-20 03:25:35

I was under the impression from reading the archiso article, that the installed packages would be usable in (or rather installed to) the live environment, but aren't automatically copied to the system you are installing to, unless marked for installation during package selection.

meebo · 2012-06-06 00:57:01

pirateofms wrote:

I was under the impression from reading the archiso article, that the installed packages would be usable in (or rather installed to) the live environment, but aren't automatically copied to the system you are installing to, unless marked for installation during package selection.

Yes, you're correct. They are installed on the LiveISO only. I've found a few places on the web which say you have to include AIF and possibly do some modifying, but none of them are informative enough - just theoretical guidelines.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-12 06:42:45

Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#2 2012-02-12 07:09:14

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#3 2012-02-12 07:18:39

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#4 2012-02-13 19:55:01

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#5 2012-02-13 21:31:56

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#6 2012-02-13 21:50:33

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#7 2012-02-13 22:36:55

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#8 2012-02-23 22:40:58

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#9 2012-04-20 03:25:35

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

#10 2012-06-06 00:57:01

Re: Can anyone lend a hand with Archiso, please?

Board footer