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Old 05-16-2014, 03:08 AM   #1
slackgraham
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Registered: Apr 2012
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How to modify installation image?


Hi all,
I want to add a script to the standard install image, so that I can script lvm, luks etc at installation time. However, somehow I created an image that hangs during boot. Is there anything completely wrong in what I did? steps as below (this is for usb install):
  1. mount slack iso
  2. copy installation tree to hdd (so that it's writeable)
  3. extract initrd to some directory: zcat initrd.img | cpio -idv
  4. add bespoke installation scripts into the extracted initrd
  5. rebuild initrd.img & put back into the installation tree: find <tree> -print -depth | cpio -ov | gzip > initrd.img
  6. recreate iso acording to <slacktree>/isolinux/READMER.TXT (because I'm doing this on 13.36 for a 14.1 install I used the 13.37 mkisofs recipe (the newer -eltorito.. switches not available).
  7. isohybrid the iso and dd to usb memory stick.
  8. boot a machine from the mem stick and gaze in sadness as it hangs!

regards,
g.
 
Old 05-16-2014, 04:30 PM   #2
slackgraham
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Registered: Apr 2012
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a bit more detail: the boot hangs with the lines:
RAMDISK: gzip image found at block 0
RAMDISK: incomplete write (404 != 22929)
write error

somewhat inevitably, given the initrd is what I modified.
Presumably I've misunderstood something around the creation of the initrd.img ?
 
Old 05-16-2014, 05:26 PM   #3
Didier Spaier
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Registered: Nov 2008
Location: Paris, France
Distribution: Slint64-15.0
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Not sure that's the reason but in any case ishoybrid shipped in Slackware 13.37 don't work on big ISO images, so use that on Slackware 14.1 instead, or modify usbboot.img instead of initrd.img then use the dd command to put the image on an USB stick.
 
Old 05-22-2014, 06:35 AM   #4
slackgraham
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Registered: Apr 2012
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Thanks Didier.
I did use isohybrid (13.37) on the unmodified iso and was able to install that off the usb stick successfully. Would that have been good luck which ran out on my modified iso?
 
Old 05-23-2014, 04:11 AM   #5
Didier Spaier
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Registered: Nov 2008
Location: Paris, France
Distribution: Slint64-15.0
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FYI this is how I unpack an initrd (actually an initramfs):
Code:
mkdir $TMP/initrd
(cd $TMP/initrd
gunzip -cd <path to initrd.img> | cpio -i -d -m -H newc --no-absolute-filenames
)
Probably gzip -cd would give the same results, I didn't try yet. The "-m" option of cpio preserves the modification time.

Semi-blind guess: the command you use to repack the initrd is the culprit. Try this one instead:
Code:
( cd <tree>
find . -print | cpio -o --owner root:root -H newc | gzip -9 > ../isolinux/initrd.img
)
The option "-H newc" could be what you miss.

If that doesn't work, please post the full command you use to build the ISO and if possible upload your initrd on a publicly accessible server so we can have a look at it.

Last edited by Didier Spaier; 05-23-2014 at 09:06 AM.
 
  


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