My Foo Is Strong

Create a Linux Boot ISO image to start via Kickstart

Getting tired of creating new VM’s, and don’t want to clone for a particular reason but want them standardized? Easy. By creating a boot image that immediately starts a kickstart installation, you can completely automate creating a VM regardless of virtualization solution your using.

To create the isolinux boot image:

Mount the DVD image.

mount -o loop /path/to/dvd.iso /mnt

Copy the data locally.

rsync -av /mnt/isolinux [where ever]

Edit the isolinux.cfg file to update and point to proper kickstart location, and make it auto start by setting prompt to 0.

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default linux
prompt 0
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
label linux
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img ks=nfs:192.168.0.1:/mnt/vg1/iso/kickstart/centos55_text.ks
label text
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img text
label ks
  kernel vmlinuz
  append ks initrd=initrd.img
label local
  localboot 1
label memtest86
  kernel memtest
  append -

Create a simple script in the isolinux directory to do the heavy lifting.

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#!/bin/sh
ISO_NAME=centos55_boot.iso
# Remove the old iso.
rm -f $ISO_NAME
# Make the image.
mkisofs -o $ISO_NAME -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T $PWD

Kick it off and you should now have a viable boot image. Once you boot the newly created guest, just boot using the new image and it will automatically start your kickstart installation.

20. January 2011 by Jason
Categories: Linux, Virtualization | Tags: CentOS, isolinux, kickstart | 3 comments