Distro CD Builds

building Freekbox3 Install CDs with simple-cdd.

these instructions assume a current, working debian sarge system.

getting simple-cdd with packages:

stick a line in your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://debian-np.alioth.debian.org/debian unstable main

and then:

apt-get update
apt-get install simple-cdd

this will likely pull in debpartial-mirror in addition to simple-cdd, as well as a few other programs if you don't already have them installed. (once simple-cdd is installed, you may then comment out the debian-np line in your /etc/apt/sources.list)

create your working copy:

cp -a /usr/share/simple-cdd/ ~/my-custom-cdd

getting simple-cdd with subversion:

install subversion:

apt-get install subversion

create your working copy from the development version:

svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/debian-np/people/vagrant/simple-cdd ~/my-custom-cdd

making a CD image:

cd ~/my-custom-cdd
./build-simple-cdd --profiles freekbox3

(note: you may need to download the freekbox3 packages, and modify local_packages to find them in ~/my-custom-cdd/profiles/freekbox3.conf)

this will download the packages for a freekbox3 (defined in ~/my-custom-cdd/profiles/freekbox3.*), other components required for a debian-installer CD, and finally create the CD image in ~/my-custom-cdd/images/ directory with debian-cd.

Multi-Profile CD image:

with older versions of simple-cdd (0.2.0 and older):

./build-simple-cdd --profiles freekbox3,fg-baseserver

with newer versions of simple-cdd (0.2.1 and greater), it is possible to use "build-profiles"

./build-simple-cdd --build-profiles freekbox3-multi

the freekbox3-multi build-profile is a multi-profile installer CD that can install freekbox3, as well as some additional experimental profiles, like freekbox3-gnome, freekbox3-laptop, and fg-baseserver.

Testing the image:

install qemu:

apt-get install qemu

the qemu-test script is a wrapper around build-simple-cdd that also runs a virtual machine with qemu to boot the CD and install it. any options you can pass to build-simple-cdd should also work for qemu-test.

use the qemu-test script:

./qemu-test --profiles freekbox3

for serial console only (useful for remote setups):

./qemu-test --serial --profiles freekbox3

after the initial install, when it says "rebooting", you may need to manually exit qemu:

ctrl-a c
q

then the initial system boot should be started.

More info:

check out the simple-cdd README, or:

./build-simple-cdd --help