Anaconda: Install from live system to fake root

[Darragh Bailey]

What I'm trying to do is create a fresh fake root environment without
having to wipe a currently installed system, be in front of the
machine or have to take a snapshot of a running system environment.


The idea is to be able to install a fresh system, tar up the root of
this system and place it in a location that it can be retrieved from
when required.

While the easiest way of getting a system image like this is to have a
dedicated machine, but that unfortunately is not always available.


I think if I have a spare disk I can run anaconda from the live
machine and use the network install method to install from cd images
over the network to the extra harddrive without imaging the running
system. I have yet to try this out. Obviously I would perfer if
anaconda could be told not to reboot at the end.


I've been looking to see if it is possible using anaconda to get it to
install to a directory on the current system treating it as the root
directory without having to repartition or install over the existing
system. This would skip the requirement of a spare disk, but it looks
to me that anaconda will always request you to partition the disks and
select the partition to install to. Don't think this can be overriden
using kickstart files or any of the anaconda commandline options, but
correct me if I'm wrong.


The other alternative is to skip anaconda and write a small script to
do the basic steps manually.
1) Unpack the base system to the required location (is it the
stage2.img file thats used or something else as the base?)
2) Determine the required rpms to install from the comps file using
the various python scripts.
3) install all the rpms using --root to point to the correct directory.

-- 
Darragh Bailey
"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool"