Make a bootable iso of a linux server

ceazar123 · 08-10-2010, 04:00 PM

Hi Guys,

I have a running CentOS (kernel version 2.6.29.6). I have configured it to act as a Firewall with iptables, snort-inline, zebrad, keepalived etc.

Now I want to make a bootable iso image of the same, so that I can boot other machine using the iso image.

I have already tried using isolinux and grub-install to configure the iso. It is able to boot the vmlinuz and initrd.img file and then is not able to locate the init script. Actually, it cannot find the root file system to boot to.

As far as I could figure out, the initrd.img is a small file system that unloads itself in the RAM, then it tries to find the root file system so that it can complete the boot procedure.

Can anyone please help me to create the root file system keeping all my configurations intact and then finally bind it with the vmlinuz and initrd.img files so that I can create a bootable iso image. I want to provide this iso to my friends/colleagues so that they can also use my firewall and I can develop this project further.

I have been trying quiet hard in vain, without success.

Thanks and Regards,
-=Srijan Nandi

yancek · 08-10-2010, 08:46 PM

Have you tried googling remaster CentOS? Seem to get a number of hits. Fedora has a program called revisor to do this type of thing though I'm not sure it is available or works w/CentOS? I don't use Red Hat or its derivatives so I have no experience with that but have done this with other distros.

ceazar123 · 08-11-2010, 04:18 AM

Hi yancek,

Remastering would be to make rpm's of packages and then creating a live CD. However, what I need to accomplish is to get the entire configuration along with all the packages (as they are configured) to boot onto another machine. People should be able to download the ISO, Live Image or maybe a bootable USB and boot from there and would be able to get a pre-configured device with my settings.

This is similar to pre-configured firewall's, where in you just download it, boot from there and have a working environment with all pre-configured settings.

Sorry, I have not tried it out with any other distro apart from CentOS.

Thanks and Regards,
-=Srijan Nandi