adding commands to installer image

[Larry Brigman]

On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Michael DeHaan<mdehaan at redhat.com> wrote:
> On 08/04/2009 01:00 PM, Larry Brigman wrote:
>>
>> I have a need to run some standard commands during the kickstart
>> install some during
>> the pre script some after.
>> These programs are not in the current installer images.  Is there a
>> way to add custom
>> programs or applications to the installer image?
>>
>
> Are you doing network installs?
Sometimes.  I have to support both CD and network installs.
>
> In which case, with EL 5 and later you can just add "repo" lines to attach
> yum repositories (you can also put these on the CD)
> and then install that software in %packages, and then call it in %post.
The problem with the CD install is that it needs to be totally
self-contained.  Cannot point
off the CD for files.
>
> Also the old "wget the RPM" trick can also work depending on the
> environment.
>
>> Reasoning behind the request (so maybe someone can come up with a
>> better method).
>>
>> 1) The systems that are being installed arrive with the time set to
>> some local time that is unknown but we want it set
>>    to UTC.  This needs to be set prior to installing any RPM packages
>> as some of the post install creates files that
>>    are timestamped in the future.
>>
>
> Hmm, I see.   So you want to run ntp in %pre basically.
That is true.  rdate only sets the system to localtime not UTC.
Scripting around that
is cumbersome but doable.
>
>> 2) We have a vendor supplied tool that runs under Linux that allows us
>> to set the BIOS and ipmi settings from a script.
>>     We use bootloader settings that if the BIOS settings don't match
>> it hangs in the Grub loader.
>>
>>
>
> A simple alternative might be to do a two-pass install.
>
> You have one cobbler profile for the "setup" setups that installs ntp and
> the bios scripts and runs them in %post.
>
> In %post, you run koan --replace-self to launch into the "second stage"
> install, run through Anaconda a seperate time, this time for the OS that you
> actually
> are installing.

Not currently running cobbler but have wanted to switch our network
installs over to it.

>
> This could be done via cobbler system records to make sure each system got
> the right profile, even though they were installed off of a "stock"
> preparation
> profile.
>
> If you're not using Cobbler, yes, you'd want to crack open the initrd, I
> believe, and add things.  Perhaps someone else can offer a better
> suggestion.  However
> the double-install thing would most defintely work with the stock initrd
> set.

Looks like I will have to look at the contents of the initrd.