update to Debian 12

[debian6500.git] / simple-cdd / readme.txt

** Introduction

This uses the simple-cdd package (available on the official Debian repository) to create a custom install CD for the master blade of the TRC6500 system's computing cluster. A number of components are installed automatically (either during install or on first boot) ; the CD also includes useful files for subsequent configuration.


** What the built CD includes

- a selection of useful/required packages
- a selection of custom packages scarcely available elsewhere
- unpacking of config files and scripts during install
- automatic execution of some configuration options

This CD does NOT create an usable operating system. All included systems should be reviewed, but particularly the network configuration (/etc/hosts, DHCP config, TFTP config..), which is partly automated thanks to scripts provided by the TRC6500 exploitation software, which is NOT bundled with this CD. 


** What files we'll be using

- simple-cdd.conf (name is clear enough) should be passed to the build-simple-cdd program
- the entire profiles/ directory is used by build-simple-cdd
- myrc.local is the script executed on first boot
- the local_packages/ directory contains packages not available on the regular repository, or more recent versions of packages available there. 
- the deb_build/ folder contains the necessary stuff to build the trc6500-master-files deb package which contains a collection of scripts, config files and config instructions
- TRC6500.pub is a GPG public key added to the OS's keyring during install, corresponding to a makeshift Debian repo from T. Pérennou
- splash-thales.png is a 640*480 image used for the splashscreen


** Setup build environment

- some packages need to be installed:
  apt  build-essential debhelper simple-cdd
- user must have a GPG private key to sign trc6500master package (check name in changelog)
- unfortunatly some GPG public keys are missing for bookworm distribution (A7236886F3CCCAAD148A27F80E98404D386FA1D9 4D64FEC119C2029067D6E791F8D2585B8783D481 4CB50190207B4758A3F73A796ED0E7B82643E131 ED541312A33F1128F10B1C6C54404762BBB6E853 B0CAB9266E8C3929798B3EEEBDE6D2B9216EC7A8), they can be retrieved and install into user trusted key ring.
  for key in $list; do gpg --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys $key; done
- to use the user trusted key ring, add the option --keyring ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
- last thing, there's a bug and dep11 repository is not retrieved:
  source debian6500/simple-cdd/simple-cdd.conf
  wget ftp://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/dep11/Components-amd64.yml.gz
  mkdir -p $working_dir/simple-cdd/tmp/mirror/dists/bookworm/main/dep11/
  mv Components-amd64.yml.gz $working_dir/simple-cdd/tmp/mirror/dists/bookworm/main/dep11/


** How build-simple-cdd works

The build-simple-cdd program is to be called like this :
build-simple-cdd --dist bookworm --conf ./simple-cdd.conf

Most options described in the documentation are included in the simple-cdd.conf file. The program will use those (in addition to the default settings) to build a list of what is to be included on the CD. Primarily, it includes itself, profile(s) scripts, and pulls packages (from the <profile>.packages list) from whatever repositories are in /etc/apt/sources.list, or from the ./tmp folder if the packages have already been fetched. 

Additional packages are to be put in the local_packages directory (which is specified in our own simple_cdd.conf). It should be noted that packages placed there simply join the pool of available packages : to actually include them on the CD, they should be added in an itself included profile's packages list (say, profiles/trc6500.packages). The list of packages added this way is :
cpumon dce firmware-bnx2 libcalloc1 libcycle1 libdebug1 libmcore1 raf swb webconfig xcfe

Additional files are included with the all_extras="<path>,<path>" option in our simple-cdd.conf file.

You should look into the provided simple-cdd.conf file ! It is tailored to a quite specific use case, and making your own should be easy enough since the simple-cdd package contains a detailed config file.


** Building the trc6500-master-files deb packages

This package has been put together in replacement of an earlier tarball ; the main benefit to using a deb being easier upgrade of existing systems.

Check out the deb_build/ folder to learn more ; most of it is done by the Makefile.


** Regarding install vectors

To set up a bootable USB key : 
cp <iso file> /dev/<key> && sync
<key> should be the device, not a partition of it. The key will get partitioned like the CD (and how the CD is partitioned is a whole other topic).

To burn your ISO to a CD :
xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=as_needed <iso file>


** Additional documentation
/usr/share/simple-cdd
/usr/share/doc/simple-cdd
/usr/share/doc/installation-guide-amd64 (talks about preseeds)