** 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), 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. - master.tar is an archive of the "master" directory on the debian6500 repository, unpacked during install (NOT PROVIDED) - 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 The files marked (NOT PROVIDED) were not included. It's up to you to put them together. ** How build-simple-cdd works The build-simple-cdd program is to be called like this : build-simple-cdd --dist wheezy --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 .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 ownsimple_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="," 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. ** Regarding install vectors To set up a bootable USB key : cp /dev/ && sync 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 ** Additional documentation /usr/share/simple-cdd /usr/share/doc/simple-cdd /usr/share/doc/installation-guide-amd64 (talks about preseeds)