To create a bootable iso of a self made distro

ceazar123

Hello Everyone,

I have a CentOS Server, running 2.6.29. I have configured a small firewall, with iptables, snort_inline, zebra, keepalived etc. I wanted to make an iso image of my own distro, so that I can give it to my friends so that they can use a ready made Firewall.

To accomplish this, I created an initrd image using busybox that has an init file. The contents of the init file is:

#!/bin/nash

mount -t proc /proc /proc

setquiet

echo Mounting proc filesystem

echo Mounting sysfs filesystem

mount -t sysfs /sys /sys

echo Creating /dev

mkdir /dev/shm

mount -o mode=0755 -t tmpfs /dev/shm /dev/shm

mkdir /dev/pts

mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 /dev/pts /dev/pts

echo Creating initial device nodes

mknod /dev/null c 1 3

mknod /dev/zero c 1 5

mknod /dev/urandom c 1 9

mknod /dev/systty c 4 0

mknod /dev/tty c 5 0

mknod /dev/console c 5 1

mknod /dev/ptmx c 5 2

mknod /dev/rtc c 10 135

mknod /dev/tty0 c 4 0

mknod /dev/tty1 c 4 1

mknod /dev/tty2 c 4 2

mknod /dev/tty3 c 4 3

mknod /dev/ttyS0 c 4 64

mknod /dev/ttyS1 c 4 65

mknod /dev/ttyS2 c 4 66

mknod /dev/root c 3 1

mknod /dev/hdc b 22 0

mknod /dev/sda b 8 0

mknod /dev/sda1 b 8 1

mknod /dev/root b 8 1

echo Setting up hotplug.

hotplug

echo Creating block device nodes.

mkblkdevs

echo "Loading ehci-hcd.ko module"

insmod /lib/ehci-hcd.ko

echo "Loading ohci-hcd.ko module"

insmod /lib/ohci-hcd.ko

echo "Loading uhci-hcd.ko module"

insmod /lib/uhci-hcd.ko

mount -t usbfs /proc/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb

echo "Loading scsi_transport_spi.ko module"

insmod /lib/scsi_transport_spi.ko

echo "Loading mptbase.ko module"

insmod /lib/mptbase.ko

echo "Loading mptscsih.ko module"

insmod /lib/mptscsih.ko

echo "Loading mptspi.ko module"

insmod /lib/mptspi.ko

echo "Loading usb-storage.ko module"

insmod /lib/usb-storage.ko

mkblkdevs

echo My Shell

/bin/sh

Along with the initrd.img and vmlinuz, I have made an iso image.

Once I boot the iso image, it gives me the busybox shell. However it is still in initramfs state. Then I try to mount the files in the iso to a /mnt directory and chroot to the environment according to this script:

#!/bin/sh

echo Creating a mount point

mkdir /mnt

echo Mounting the Root File System

mount /dev/hdc /mnt ==> this mounts the iso image in the cd-rom to /mnt

echo changing Root

mount -o bind /proc /mnt/boot/proc/

mount -o bind /sys /mnt/boot/mnt/

export HOME=/root

chroot /mnt/boot

As I have a ram size of around 256Mb, mounting the entire contents of the cd in the ram and then copying from the ram would not be possible.

I cannot do much as the file system mounted is read only. I need a read write environment, so that I can get things modified and certain files that uses /var can write to it.

If possible can I have the entire file system as read only, however have certain directories such as /dev, /var, /proc as read write.

Thanks and Regards,

-=Srijan

masokis

Sorry for interuping...
are this is tutorial ? can i used to remaster other distro (i'm looking how to remaster bt4-r1)?
sorry again for this noob question. i still a newbies in linux

Manko10

When I understand you correctly you want to create custom bootable Linux images?
I would recommend to use ISOLINUX as most Linux distributors do. For a short introduction how to use this see here: http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/ISOLINUX

ceazar123

Hi masokis ,

I wish I could do it completely and give to you as a tutorial. However, at present, I am able to boot my distro, mount everything, however it is mounting as read only.

And that too because, after booting up, I get a busybox shell. from there I mount the cd-rom drive and then chroot to the environment. As cd-rom's contain the iso9660 file system, it is always read only. I just need to get a workaround wherein, I can make the /var, /tmp folder as read write, keeping everything else intact.

Thanks,
-=Srijan

ceazar123

Hi Manko10,


Yes, I am using ISOLINUX as the boot loader to create the iso image.

Thanks,
-=Srijan

ceazar123

Hi Robin,

I checked Remastersys out and it works well with Debian and Ubuntu. However, nothing much has been said about CentOS.

I also tried a workaround to resolve my initial issue. I have already made a initrd.img and a compressed linux kernel image (vmlinuz). In the initrd image, I use a very small file system that contains essential files that aid boot up. I have also configured a standalone busybox shell that I use here in the initrd image. This small file system is loaded to the RAM at boot up time. After that I get a busybox shell prompt.

Once I am here, I mount my cd-rom, that contains all the files and directories of my CentOS distro. Then I chroot into the mounted file system. My problem is that as the cd-rom contains iso9660 file system, which is essentially read only, some of my programs would not work as they require to touch certain files in /var and /tmp directories.

As a workaround, what I have done is, after I chroot into the mounted read only file system, I mount /dev and /tmp on the RAM by the following commands;

mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /var
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /tmp

As soon as these directories are loaded onto the RAM, they become read write and I am able to access them. Verified that by "Touch-ing" some files. This works absolutely fine.

A small glitch here is that as soon as I mount /var and /tmp as tmpfs, it removes the precious files there. So I have to manually recreate all the files needed. Can anyone point me a better/easier way to do the same. It would be very helpful as I have been on this issue for quiet some time, without a permanent solution.

Thanks,
-=Srijan

ceazar123

I got it to work....:-), though there are some rough edges, which I shall try to smoothen.

I already had the initrd image booting from the RAM, that gave me the busybox standalone shell. From this shell, I first mounted my hard drive to /root. Formatted it and changed the file system. Then I mounted my cd-rom to /mnt, which was after all a read only file system. Then I copied the contents of the /mnt to /root. Then I chroot-ed, into /root and that gave me a read write environment. So it's done.

The only thing that needs to be done now is that after chroot-ing in /root, I need to run /sbin/init....which is not happening as of now. As a workaround I have create a bash script, that manually starts the processes I need. As it is a Firewall that I have made, I just start ssh, iptables, snort_inline, zebra...to name a few.

Thanks and Regards,
-=Srijan