Arch Linux

climatewarrior

Member

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 23

Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

I'm attempting to create a simple live cd (no aufs or union fs, no squashfs, not installable) based on a minimal installation of Open Suse. This are the steps I'm taking to create it:

Created the appropriate directory structure... iso/isolinux. Then I made a minimal installation of OpenSuse to a partition. Then Took the initrd and the kernel from the minimal installation and copied them to the isolinux directory. Also I copied over the isolinux binary and made a isolinux.cfg that looks like this:

default vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 initrd=intrdfile
        timeout 1

Where vmlinuz is the kernel, and initrdfile is the initrd.

Then I created a file

dd if=/dev/zero of=fs.img bs=1024 count=4096

(Actually the file was much larger, like 3 gigs)
and associated a loop device with the file (/dev/loop7). 

losetup /dev/loop7 fs.img

Then I created a file system on it and then I mounted the file system.

mke2fs -F /dev/loop7
mount /dev/loop7 /mnt

Then I copied the whole installed file system to this new file system ( I didn't modify anything in the filesystem of the suse minimal install).

cp -R /media/minimalInstall/* /mnt

After it finished copying I unmount the file system and dissasociated the file from the loop device. Finally a took this file that contains the whole file system and moved it to isolinux. After this I ran mkisofs.

mkisofs -R -r -no-emul-boot -b isolinux/isolinux.bin  -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -l  -c isolinux/boot.catalog -o ../bootable.iso .

Currently the kernel starts booting up but it says it can't find the device ram0 and drops to a shell, the file system available in the shell is the initrd. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm extremely frustrated with this, I've already spent too much time on trying to get it working.

P.S. I know there are tons of scripts and guis out there to do this automatically, I need to get this working and I can't use any of those tools. This is for a very specific need, also it needs to be Open Suse. I wish it could be Arch, but it is not a choice (not because Arch is lacking something, I just need it to be Open Suse).

SamC

Member

From: Calgary

Registered: 2008-05-13

Posts: 611

Website

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

Why don't you ask on the opensuse forum? I would presume that they would be better able to help you.

climatewarrior

Member

Registered: 2009-04-23

Posts: 23

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

I think Arch people are smarter haha well I was about to post this there too.

sirius

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2008-12-25

Posts: 68

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

Too bad http://susestudio.com/ is still beta ;-)

mike_93

Member

Registered: 2009-01-31

Posts: 60

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

Too bad http://susestudio.com/ is still beta ;-)

You just have to sign up and a little while later they send you an invite. It's pretty cool, but comes by default with some bloat.

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Double booting Arch Linux and Linux Mint
Reader of XKCD

sirius

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2008-12-25

Posts: 68

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

Too bad http://susestudio.com/ is still beta ;-)

You just have to sign up and a little while later they send you an invite. It's pretty cool, but comes by default with some bloat.

Yep, I've tested it. It's a nice service - what about making archstudio.com? :-)

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,497

Website

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

Why don't you ask on the opensuse forum? I would presume that they would be better able to help you.

Agreed...  this is an Arch Linux forum.  Closing.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Help with creating live cd from scratch using Open Suse as a base

<mod_abuse>This is THE Arch Linux forum</mod_abuse>