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Removing packages from a CentOS/RHEL ISO

Hi,

A little background first - at work, we are migrating from Solaris to Red Hat. Because of where I work, I am unable to install Red Hat using the network. So, what I'm trying to do is create a bootable Red Hat ISO that contains only the packages I want on it, kind of a 'minimal install'.

The Red Hat DVD contains many packages on it, and the whole DVD is around 4 GBs. I want to remove the packages I will not need, reducing the size of the DVD. However, when I remove packages from it, I get errors when installing. I am using a kickstart file to install, and the installation gives me errors like "Error populating transaction, retrying 1/10".

I have done a lot of research on this problem, and have found out that I need to recreate the repo on the disc. Everything that I have tried has failed. I am using the createrepo command:

Code:

createrepo -g comps.xml -o /path/to/save/the/repo /path/to/packages

This command creates a 'repodata' directory in my ISO directory. I get the comps.xml file from the repodata directory on the Red Hat/CentOS disc, and just rename it 'comps.xml'.

If you can't download Red Hat, CentOS can be used in the same way, and it comes with similar files.

I think what I'm trying to do is create a 'custom spin' with only the packages I want (I saw that on a Fedora site).

Does anyone have any experience doing this, and can you offer me some help? I can post my kickstart file, or whatever you need to see.

The procedure described in the Red Hat Deployment Guide (Section 8.4.6), seems to be much easier that what you have done.
1, create a folder and populate it with the packages you want from the repo.
2. cd to that folder and run createrepo --datebase (your folder path here) to create the database for the .iso.
3. go through the remaining sections of that guide for instructions on adding optional material
4. make your .iso
https://access.redhat.com/documentat...epository.html

Thanks, that worked. I still don't know why I can't use the -g parameter to specify a comps.xml file though. I'm copying the comps.xml file directly from the disc.