Build Machine for Amahi Express
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Work In Progress |
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Please Note:
- Since this article is a "work in progress", information in this article will be fluid for sometime, your patience will be appreciated. The author has never been down this path before.
- Any advice or suggestions you may have please post to the Amahi Wiki "Express Disc" Forum.
- The "Category" link, "Amahi Express Collection", at the bottom of this page provides links to other reference information relating to the "Amahi Express" subject area.
This article contains specifications, construction steps, and implementation information for a "build machine" for the "Amahi Express Installation Disc". The intent of the machine is to aid in the development and building of new Amahi Express Installation disc images.
Recommended Configuration
- Latest full version of the Fedora ( this article will reference Fedora 18 ) DVD.
- As modern of a computer as possible ( machine for this article used: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.0 GHz, 4GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Disk ).
- External storage facility ( i.e. external USB drive (1 TB?), Amahi share, Amahi ownCloud directory) with storage greater that the size of the build machine.
- Backup software ( author used CloneZilla Livd CD with 1TB external drive) to store last working build machine image.
- Lots of patience, a meticulous nature, know how to consult "Dr. Google" (a lot).
Fedora Installation
When installing Fedora it will be assumed that a "Desktop installation" path will be performed. Following are recommendations to be considered during the installation process.
- During the installation select the GNOME GUI environment, at some point it will be required in the disc build process.
- Highly recommend installing some GNOME extensions (GNOME Extensions) in order to provide a "classic windowing" environment.
- The Fedora "Anaconda Installer" has changed completely since Fedora 14. A "Hub and "Spoke" node model is used for it now instead of a "wizard-like" install. Please make sure all nodes (i.e. network config.) are properly configured before proceeding with the installation.
- Here is a disk partitioning plan to consider:
/boot partition: "standard partition"(no LVM), ext3 format, size 250 MB ( Fedora recommendation). swap partition: "standard swap (no LVM)", swap format, size 2 times existing system RAM ( i.e. 2 x 4GB = 8GB ). /(root partition): LVM partition, ext4 format, size set to the remaining space for the hard drive(s).
- Ensure that Fedora updates are done after the DVD installation.
Local Fedora Repositories
In order to reduce the amount of software packages that might have to be downloaded during a disc build process, local Fedora "base" and "updates" repositories should be used. These local repositories (repos) have an added advantage as the build machine can receive its' software updates ( i.e. yum -y update ) from them.
The repos in this example will be stored in the "/opt" directory. What is this directory normally used for? I am so glad you asked.
According the the "Filesystem Hierarchy Standard" (FHS) definition: "The root directory for Software Collections is normally located in the "/opt/ directory" to avoid possible conflicts between Software Collections and the base system installation." It is recommended to have the file system hierarchy conform to the following layout:
/opt/provider/application-version/
where: - "provider" is the provider (vendor) name registered with the Linux Foundation.
- "application-version" indicates the software collection version. This can be done via one name
or an ordered organization of subdirectories.
Construct the Repositories
Test the Repositories
Refreshing a Repository
