README for slink_cd v 1.13, released Mar 31 1999
(c) Steve McIntyre <stevem@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
What this program does
======================
It will create CDs of Debian from a local set of files. You will
probably need to mirror most of the Debian site; check out the Debian
mirror package for an example of how to this. A full mirror will take
about 7GB at the time of writing.
What this program doesn't do
============================
It does not fix world hunger or bring peace on earth. And it's not
guaranteed to work at all, in fact. But if you have any problems,
please contact me and tell me about them. I'll be glad to help and to
fix any bugs that you might find.
What it needs
=============
You will almost definitely need a Linux box to run the scripts here,
preferably a Debian one. I haven't had the chance to test on other
machines, but I'm fairly certain there are bits that won't run.
To make the full set of images you will need a lot of disk space -
each CD image will take up ~600MB. And of course you'll need the
mirror itself for the files. But this no longer has to be local - see
"Making a symlink-farm" below.
In terms of other software, you'll need
perl
bash
sed
awk (any awk should do)
These _should_ be standard on any Linux system. You'll also need:
mkisofs/mkhybrid (a recent version - the standard one in Debian slink
should do)
a PATCHED mkhybrid (if you want to use the symlink-farm method - see below)
slice (to create the slink1.needed file from master)
dpkg-multicd (VERY Debian-specific. Maybe it will work on other systems,
but I don't know and you'll probably have to play with it)
cdwrite/cdrecord (to write the images once you've created them. They will
be standard ISO images, so even most *spit* Windoze CD
creation programs should be able to write them at a
push.)
sysutils
pkg-order
dpkg-perl
unzip (for i386 bootable CDs)
lha (for m68k CDs)
silo (if you want to create sparc disks - this may be problematic
on non-sparc machines)
isomarkboot (for alpha CDs - source is in the aboot package, binaries
for i386 and alpha are contained in this tar file)
m68k-cd-misc.tar.gz (from the same place you got this package,
for m68k CDs. Copy it to $BASEDIR before you start.)
hfsutils (for Mac stuff on m68k CDs)
There may be other things too, but for now these are all I can think of.
How do I use it?
================
To be reading this, you must have extracted the tar file. Good
start. Next what you need to do is:
customise the file lists (slink<n>.{needed,useful,list}) if necessary
edit slink<n>.info (dselect multicd disk info)
list any extras in slink<n>.extras
edit slink<n>.volid (ISO VOLID)
edit mkisofsrc (other ISO headers)
list any packages to be excluded in exclude-$ARCH if necessary
set up parameters in slink_cd or in the environment
run slink_cd with appropriate parameters
Huh?
====
Customise the file lists if you want to. The lists distributed with
this program should work for most people, and will be the basis of the
official Debian slink CD images when they are made.
The (Debian) contents of discs 1 and 2 are calculated at run-time to
match as closely as possible the list of files needed by the Debian
install programs, and then the rest of the packages are split
(hopefully) sensibly. If you wish to produce a single standalone disc
of the key parts of Debian, this is easy - see "Single Debian discs"
below. If you want to create more complete sets, this is also easy.
The file "master" lists the packages that are REQUIRED for all the
standard suggested systems to work at first install. These packages
come to about 300MB in total. The file "slink1.useful" contains a list
of further packages that I and others thought should also go on the
first disc and these take about 220MB more. This second list can
easily be modified if you so desire, but if you do please be careful
that the dependencies are met, as I did. The package "pkg-order" is
very useful here. When the lists for disc 1 is created, these packages
plus any others of "important", "standard" or "required" priority will
be marked to go on disc 1. The rest of the binary packages from the
main section will go onto disc 2, taking about 325 MB.
And, finally, list the packages you want to _completely_ exclude from
the CDs in exclude-$ARCH. Reasons for doing this may include unmet
dependencies, broken packages, broken Packages files etc.
Beyond this list of packages, the rest of the specification is quite
easy. For each disc, a file slink<n>.list should contain a list of
files to go onto that disc. These can list directories or files,
either will work. The standard layout will look something like:
1: main binary-ARCH section 1
docs
install stuff
boot disks
2: main binary-ARCH section 2
contrib (binary-ARCH and source)
(OPTIONAL) non-US (binary-ARCH and source)
project
3: main source section 1
4: main source section 2
5: (OPTIONAL) non-free (binary-ARCH and source)
* ARCH is a special keyword - see below for more info.
=============================================================================
NOTE: The non-free section is not part of Debian and the programs contained
within are not endorsed by Debian, but they have been packaged as a
service to our users who may still need them until free alternatives
have been made available.
=============================================================================
The non-US section is slightly complicated by the fact that in most
cases it will have to be mirrored separately, as the main Debian
servers in the USA cannot legally export this software. <sigh> More on
the non-US configuration later.
To generate the 5th (non-free) CD you will need to specify "non-free"
as a command-line option when running slink_cd. To add the non-US
section on disk 2 you will need to specify "non-US" as an option.
Other things to be configured:
The dselect (installation) multi-cd install method uses the contents
of a file .disk/info on each CD when determining the contents of a
disc and in deciding which discs are needed. The .info file for each
disc will be created using slink<n>.info. Edit these accordingly, and
the date will automatically be added by the script when used.
Extra files may be added to each disc if you desire. Many OEM
producers of Debian CDs may want to use this - it allows you to
customise the contents of your CDs, for example if you wish to add
extra software of your own or other local content. Simply list them in
slink<n>.extras.
The CD Volume ID for each disk will be created from the contents of
slink<n>.volid.
If you wish to configure other options in the CD ISO headers, edit
mkisofsrc. See the mkhybrid/mkisofs documentation for more details.
=============================================================================
Working examples for all of these files are given.
=============================================================================
* In ALL of these files, the keyword "ARCH" is magic and will be
replaced by the appropriate architecture (i386,m68k,powerpc,sparc,alpha)
when you run the scripts here. This makes it easier to produce images for
several platforms in one run.
e.g. in slink1.list:
dists/slink/main/binary-ARCH/Release
will become
dists/slink/main/binary-i386/Release
when run to produce i386 disks.
The other things to configure are found in the main slink_cd script itself:
ARCH - the target architecture
MIRROR - the location of your Debian mirror
NONUS - the location of the non-US part of your Debian mirror,
if applicable
MKISOFS - the location of your mkisofs/mkhybrid program
MKISOFS_OPTS - the options to use with your mkisofs/mkhybrid program
TDIR - the location of the temporary directory to use. This must be
on the same partition as your mirror, unless you use the
"genlinks" option to create a sym-link farm (below)
OUT - the directory in which we should write the completed images
BOOTDIR - (sparc specific) - where do we find silo?
All of these can be changed by using environment variables, which is
especially useful when making CDs for multiple architecture in one
run. See the "arch" script for an example of this.
Making a sym-link farm
======================
When slink_cd is run, temporary trees/files will be made under
$TDIR. This no longer MUST be on the same partition as the mirror,
for the hard-links hack to work. There is now a new option,
"genlinks", which will create a tree of sym-links for you from a
mirror elsewhere, be it scattered across several mount points (small
disks) or mounted readonly via NFS from another machine. The CD images
can then be created from the sym-link farm. There are a couple of
limitations to this method, so the original hard-links method will
still be preferred and is the default. These limitations are:
speed: the sym-links method is much slower, for a variety of reasons
reliability: the final "du" output of the script is no use with sym-links,
so you will probably have to create the CD images to make sure
all is well in testing.
compatibility: the hard-links method will work with any recent version of
mkhybrid/mkisofs, but to use the sym-links method you need a
specially patched version of mkhybrid.
There is a patch for mkhybrid 1.12a4.7 included with this
program. Grab the original source from
http://www.ps.ucl.ac.uk/~jcpearso/mkhybrid.html or
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~stevem/DebianCD/ . There is also a
statically-linked i386 binary at the latter site. You will also need
to add the "-F" option to the mkhybrid command line for this sym-links
hack to work.
Non-US
======
To make Debian CDs with the non-US section you will need to specify
the location of your non-US mirror, and also add "non-US" to the
slink_cd command line. The default place for the non-US stuff is on
disc 2, but this can be changed.
Non-free
========
To make a set of Debian CDs with the non-free section you will need to
add "non-free" to the slink_cd command line. This will create a tree
etc. for the fifth disc, containing non-free. Attempting to create the
fifth disc without specifying "non-free" will fail. See the earlier
disclaimer about the non-free section. CD producers should definitely
read the copyrights of non-free packages to check they can sell them on
CD before doing so. Debian packages contain copyright information in
/usr/doc/<package-name>/copyright.
Single Debian discs
===================
Some producers may want to make single Debian CDs that will work on
their own without mentioning packages that would be on the other
CDs. The "single_disk" option should work for these people. And check
the extras lists above if you want to add more of your own
software/data to this single disc - the layout has been specifically
optimised so you have ~100MB of space there for you. Of course, this
layout will mean that many of the Debian binary packages will not be
packaged up and also there will be no source. Check the GPL and other
licenses to see what this means to you...
Complete options list
=====================
You can specify any combination of steps to do on the command-line:
clean removes old link trees
genlist creates a list of files optimised to make disc#1 as standalone
as possible, with ~100MB spare for local customisations
(see "extras"). Check the contents of "slink1.useful" -
this lists the Priority: optional main binary-$ARCH packages
that will be moved to CD#1. Also checks that the Packages file
is up-to-date (maybe not on a borken mirror) and creates a new
one if not.
genlinks creates a sym-link farm in $TDIR/tmp-mirror to work from
tree creates new link trees
single_disk makes a single disc (#1) which will stand alone (SEE BELOW)
flatten goes through the trees removing sym-links outside of the
selected dist
md5check checks the md5sums of all the packages and boot disks
in the trees
packages creates Packages.cd files to go on each CD, and then checks them
for consistency of dependencies
boot adds the bootable CD and install tools as appropriate
extras adds specified extras to the CDs (see below)
md5list creates a complete md5sum of each CD tree to go on the disk
images actually create all the ISO images. Make sure all the necessary
steps above have been run first, or these images may be
complete garbage
image<x> Create image number x, where x is 1-4 or can also be 5 if
non-free is built.
imagesums Once the images are made, make md5sums of them into "MD5SUMS"
i386 targets binary-i386
m68k targets binary-m68k
alpha targets binary-alpha
sparc targets binary-sparc
powerpc targets binary-powerpc
non-free adds the stuff for CD #5 (non-free)
non-US adds the non-US stuff for CD #2.
-v increments the debug level. Default level is 0, maximum is 3
force_deps continue on even if the pkg-order check fails in "packages"
above. Use with care!
N.B. "single_disk" should now be obsoleted due to changes in the
layouts, but should still work.
If you specify no command-line options then the standard set of
commands (see below) will be done in order. THIS WILL NOT MAKE ANY
IMAGES.
Some options will not work together. Some options depend on others
Some of these combinations are obvious, but in particular:
"tree" needs "genlist"
"flatten" will not work with "genlinks"
"image5" needs "non-free"
"single_disk" will not work with "non-free" or "non-US"
"imagesums" needs at least one "image[12345x]"
END.
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