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oclug-live-distro [2017/04/04 21:07] – [References] jcnashoclug-live-distro [2024/03/31 19:34] (current) – ↷ Links adapted because of a move operation scott5
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 Collected comments are on page(s) [[2017comments|2017comments]] in reverse date order. Collected comments are on page(s) [[2017comments|2017comments]] in reverse date order.
-==== Planning outline for OCLUG live USB distro ==== 
  
-Date: 17-3-4       John C. Nash+==== Live Distro Planning Document ====
  
-==== Goals: ====+   * [[livedistro:plan2017|livedistro:plan2017]]
  
-  * Unordered List Item"boot anywhere" -- legacy/UEFI, 32/64, non-pae 
-  * customizable 
-  * remasterable 
-  * installable 
-  * documented, both for "product" and how it has been built 
  
-==== Base ideas: ==== +==== EFI Booting ====
- +
-We have a preliminary liveUSB/iso that is +
-  * Arch based +
-  * boots UEFI or legacy +
-  * 32 or 64 bit, and boots on non-pae processor +
-  * This also boots in VirtualBox VM +
-     * can run startx to come up in openbox (manual start) +
-     * very minimal  +
- +
- +
-==== Tasks: ==== +
- A goal is to have these "bite sized" if possible +
- +
- * Graphical interface +
-      * openbox configuration +
-      * openbox add-ons such as  +
-         * tint2 - system panel and task bar +
-         * conky - system monitor and information center +
-         * nitrogen - for backgrounds +
-      * some documentation on install and configuration for above +
- +
- * Customizing the system +
-     * pacman installs +
-     * recommended and necessary tools +
-     * how to remove/reduce to keep things tight +
-     * checking and verifying system +
-     * documentation of the above +
- +
- * Remastering +
-     * getting a new live image from running virtual system +
-     * Are there choices we need to address? +
-     * Testing image in virtual environment +
-     * packaging image onto USB or other media +
-     * appropriate boot mechanisms in place +
- +
-  * Installer script +
-     * optional inclusion on the image +
-     * how to adjust / test +
- +
-===== Investigation of EFI boot (S Murphy) ===== +
- +
-==== Arch Installation Notes ==== +
- +
-Scott Murphy <scott.murphy@arrow-eye.com> +
-  * version: 1.0 +
-  * keywords: VMWare, Arch Linux, macOS, UEFI +
-  * 2017-03-21 +
- +
-==== Getting started ==== +
- +
-First, the Arch documentation is very good. You can get all of this directly +
-from it, however it makes a few assumptions that might trip you up if you are +
-new to arch, UEFI and running under VMWare. +
- +
-I'm using VMWare for my Arch install, so this is specific to installing under +
-VMWare Fusion 8 on macOS. This probably translates pretty much directly to other +
-installs if you leave out the VMWare items. The other thing is that my install +
-is the 64-bit install. I don't have a 32-bit system and was not interested in +
-trying it out in VMWare at this time. Maybe in a update. +
- +
-==== Get a copy of Arch ==== +
- +
-You can find the Arch distro links on the [https://www.archlinux.org|Arch Linux +
-website], in the https://www.archlinux.org/download/[Download] section. Select a +
-mirror or bittorrent link and get started. I selected the +
-https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/archlinux/iso/2017.03.01/[CS Club mirror] at +
-the university of Waterloo. I picked the +
-https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/archlinux/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso[2017-03-01] +
-image. Once it is downloaded, You can use the iso in whatever way you want. I'm +
-using it as is, in a virtual DVD drive. +
- +
-You can burn it to a DVD if you have something sufficiently old, however if your +
-device supports booting for USB, I'd go that route. +
- +
-NOTE: Add a link to the create a USB version instructions +
- +
-==== Create your VMWare VMX file ==== +
- +
-Create a new VMWare machine by selecting `New -> Create a custom virtual +
-machine` in the VMWare Library. Go through the full creation up to the point +
-where you start the VM to get the install going. My VM has  +
- +
-   * A 20GB disk +
-   * 1024MB RAM +
-   * A single processor +
- +
-==== Forcing UEFI Boot ==== +
- +
-In order to use UEFI, you need to edit the VMX file. Assuming you called the +
-machine `New Arch VM`, you would find the vmx file in the `~/Documents/Virtual +
-Machines.localized/New Arch WM.vmwarevm` directory. In this case, the file will +
-be called `New Arch VM.vmx`.  If there is an additional file with the same name +
-and a .lck extansion, the library has the file open. Make sure you have the +
-startup window closed. If there is no `.lck` file, then all you need to do is +
-edit the file and add the following line to it. +
- +
-<code> +
-// Interesting, when I reformat a long line to 80 columns, vi crashes on my mac +
-// I've noticed it before, but it seems to be an issue with lines that wrap +
-// longer than four lines. +
-</code> +
- +
-    firmware = "efi" +
- +
- +
-That was pretty straightforward. This will tell VMWare to use UEFI as the boot +
-method instead of legacy BIOS. +
- +
-==== The actual installation ==== +
- +
-This will go more like a series of steps. There will only be extra info where it +
-gets somewhat odd. +
- +
-Now that you have the blank VM created and the VMX file modified, it is time to +
-get started. +
- +
-   * Mount the DVD image and connect it to the VM +
-   * Power on the VM. It should autoboot into a root shell +
-   * Verify that you are in UEFI mode +
- +
-    ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars +
- +
-   * Make sure you can see the internet (The system should have dhcp'd an address) +
- +
-   ping archlinux.org +
- +
- +
-   * Enable network time protocol +
- +
-   timedatectl set-ntp true +
-   timedatectl status +
- +
- +
-   * Partition your disk. In this instance, you need to create at least three partitions: +
-       * Boot (512M, fat32) +
-       * Swap (I usually use 256M and hope I never start swapping) +
-      * / (The bulk of the disk) +
- +
-   * you can use `sgdisk` to create your partitions with the following commands, assuming your disk is /dev/sda: +
- +
-   sgdisk -p /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --new=0:0:+512M /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --new=0:0:+256M /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --new=0:0:0 /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --typecode=1:EF00 /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --typecode=2:8200 /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --change-name=1:"EFI System" /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --change-name=2:"Linux swap" /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk --change-name=3:"Linux filesystem" /dev/sda +
-   sgdisk -p /dev/sda +
- +
- +
-That should first show you a disk with no partition table, and then the disk with all +
-three partitions, something like this: +
- +
-   Disk /dev/sda: 41943040 sectors, 20.0 GiB +
-   Logical sector size: 512 bytes +
-   Disk identifier (GUID): 9E17A0DA-9DED-4E62-BAE7-076E1522C21B +
-   Partition table holds up to 128 entries +
-   First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 41943006 +
-   Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries +
-   Total free space is 4061 sectors (2.0 MiB) +
- +
-   Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name +
-      1            2048         1048576   511.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System +
-      2         1050624         1574911   256.0 MiB   8200  Linux swap +
-      3         1574912        41943006   19.2 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem +
- +
- +
-Now that the disk is properly partitioned, you will format the partitions: +
- +
-   mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 +
-   mkswap -L swap /dev/sda2 +
-   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 +
- +
- +
-NOTE: UEFI partitions are FAT32 formatted and the UEFI BIOS can read FAT32 partitions to locate +
-the correct `.efi` file to boot. This also makes it easy to mount that partition +
-to make fixes. +
- +
-What are we going todo? +
- +
-   . Mount the root partition on /mnt +
-   . Create a new directory to mount the boot partition on and mount it there +
-   . Use the pacstrap program to install the base operating system +
-   . Create a new fstab that reflects the mounted disks +
-   . Chroot to the newly installed OS so initial changes could be made  +
-   . Set the timezone +
-   . Set the hardware clock to the running OS +
-   . Enable the en_US locakle and set the system language to en_US UTF8 +
-   . Give the system a hostname +
-   . Let the system refer to itself in a zeroconf (bonjour) way +
- +
-In order to acomplish this, enter the following commands: +
- +
-   mount /dev/sda3 /mnt +
-   mkdir /mnt/boot +
-   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot +
-   pacstrap /mnt/base +
-   genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab +
-   arch-chroot /mnt +
-   ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Toronto /etc/localtime +
-   hwclock --systohc +
-   sed -i 's/#en_US/en_US/' /etc/locale.gen +
-   locale-gen +
-   echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf +
-   echo "myhostname" > /etc/hostname +
-   echo "127.0.0.1     myhostname.localdomain myhostname" >> /etc/hosts +
- +
- +
-==== Intel based System==== +
- +
-If this is an Intel based system, you will need to add the ability to perform +
-cpu microcode updates. I don't know if this even works under VMWare, but if I +
-have to install on a physical system, then I want to remember this part. +
- +
-You enable the updates that by adding the intel microcode package: +
- +
-   pacman -S intel-ucode +
- +
- +
-NOTE: Need to check this out on a test system. I'm not sure you need to perform +
-this step if you are not using grub. I'm not, so this might be useless. I +
-happen to like having grub in place, so this is not wasted documentation, just +
-potentially unused. +
- +
-In order to fix the bootloader to use the intel microcode upadtes, we need to +
-install the grub utilities and update the configuration: +
- +
-   pacman -S grub +
-   grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg +
- +
- +
-or you might need to do it inside the EFI setup. That will ne noted in the /boot +
-secting below. +
- +
-Now you should set the root password:  +
- +
-   passwd +
- +
- +
-Congratulations, the system has been installed. Unfortunately, it will not boot +
-just yet. +
- +
-==== The /boot Partition ==== +
- +
-This is where it tends to get a little harder to follow. At this point, you can +
-unmount the disks and reboot - you will not have a bootable system, but you will +
-have a fully functional system if it could only boot. If you mess +
-around enough, it will boot, but you may not know what you did or why it works. +
-I like to compare this to the first time you use grub or PXE boot a system. You +
-are not sure what is happening under the hood, even though you edited those +
-files. +
- +
-If you rebooted, you will need to boot from your install media again. Don't +
-bother with the selection 'Boot from Installed System' or whatever version it +
-offers, it will not boot. +
- +
-If you reboot, you need to mount the disks again and chroot again. Once that has +
-happened, you can continue on and make a bootable system. +
- +
-You are going to need some more tools installed, so fire up `pacman` +
- +
-   pacman -S efibootmgr efitools +
- +
-You can check to see if the system is effectively ready for this by running the +
-`efivar` command and seeing the output +
- +
-   efivar -l +
- +
-This should give you a list of "things" that look like a bunch of GUIDs followed +
-by a readable word. If so, everything you need is in place. +
- +
-This is the secret sauce for making the system bootable: +
- +
-   efibootmgr -d /dev/sda -p 1 -c -L "Arch Linux" -l '\vmlinuz-linux' -u "root=/dev/sda3 rw initrd=/initramfs-linux.img" +
- +
- +
-NOTE: Intel microcode updates may require the previous line to include two +
-`initrd=` sections, so the previous line would have `-u "root=/dev/sda3 rw initrd=/intel-ucode.img initrd=/initramfs-linux.img"` +
- +
-==== Enabling the network ==== +
- +
-This is for a wired connection, however the procedure is similar for wireless. +
-Look at this first and then check out the wireless section of the networking +
-reference below. +
- +
-The legacy `net-utils` have been fully deprecated in the current version of Arch, +
-so you will be using the `ip` command +
- +
-Get the name of the wired interface. It will not be eth0. +
- +
-   ip link +
- +
- +
-The output will be like: +
- +
-   1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 +
-    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 +
-   2: ens33: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 +
-    link/ether 00:0c:29:dc:56:64 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff +
- +
-The wired interface is **ens33**. +
- +
-Assuming you will be using dhcp for your networking, this is how you get it +
-working. Enter the following commands: +
- +
-<code> +
-cd /etc/systemd/network +
-echo > local.network<<EOF +
-[Match] +
-Name=ens33 +
- +
-[Network] +
-DHCP=ipv4 +
-EOF +
-systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service +
-ip a +
-</code> +
- +
-If this is a system you rebooted before you configured the network, you can +
-enable the networking using the command: +
- +
-    systemctl start systemd-networkd.service +
- +
- +
-The final command, `ip a`, should show that you now have an address on your +
-local network. This should come up after a reboot. +
- +
-==== Final Steps ==== +
- +
-At this point, you should be golden. exit from the chrooted system by typing +
-`exit` and then unmount the disk partitions using the command `umount -R /mnt` +
-and then enter `reboot` +
- +
-==== TODO ==== +
- +
-  * X11 Setup +
-  * Window Manager installation +
-  * TBD +
- +
-==== References ==== +
- +
-The following pages (mostly from the Arch Wiki) were used to make these notes. +
- +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide|Installation guide - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface|Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_System_Partition | EFI System Partition - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Talk:EFISTUB#ESP_mount_points | Talk:EFISTUB - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFISTUB | EFISTUB - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration#Check_the_connection | Network configuration - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode#Enabling_Intel_microcode_updates | Microcode - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-networkd#Basic_DHCP_network | systemd-networkd - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VMware/Installing_Arch_as_a_guest#VMware_Tools_versus_Open-VM-Tools | VMware/Installing Arch as a guest - ArchWiki]] +
-  * [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository | Arch User Repository - ArchWiki]] +
- +
-Also looked at: +
- +
-  * [[https://blog.uncooperative.org/blog/2014/02/06/the-efi-system-partition/ | The EFI System Partition and the Default Boot Behavior - The Uncoöperative Organization]] +
-  * [[https://github.com/rasa/vmware-tools-patches | rasa/vmware-tools-patches: Patch and build VMware tools automatically] +
-  * [[http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=2730 | Boot via EFI firmware - PlanetVM]] +
- +
-For creating that USB stick, you can use the traditional `dd` method or try out +
-[[https://etcher.io/ | Etcher]] if you are command line weary. +
- +
-==== Extra Information ==== +
- +
-Of course if you would prefer to do the install, including the GUI desktop and +
-software selection the easy way, there are two projects of note that can help you out. +
- +
-They are: +
- +
-  * [[https://arch-anywhere.org | ArchAnywhere]] +
-  * [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/revenge-installer | Revenge Installer]]+
  
 +  * [[livedistro:scottmurphy20170321|livedistro:SMurphy170321]]
  
  
oclug-live-distro.1491340055.txt.gz · Last modified: by jcnash