xref: /livemedia/livemedia

Welcome to the OpenSolaris Live Media kit.

This kit may be used to construct a live DVD or USB flash device from a Solaris
Express x86 installation DVD.  This kit contains the following:

build_live_dvd: main script which is executed to construct the Live DVD image
build_live_dvd.conf.sample: sample configuration file for build_live_dvd
bootcd_skel: directory hierarchy of modifications for Live DVD operation
packages: collection of additional pieces used in the live DVD, most notably
the compressed lofi driver.
usbcopy: utility to copy a live USB image to a designated device
usbgen: utility to generate a live USB image from a live DVD iso

To construct a live DVD or USB image:

0.  Install Solaris Express, Community Edition.  In general you should be using
the same (or close to the same) release as the version of the live DVD that
you want to build, as some of the system configuration is
pre-computed by build_live_dvd and may not work correctly on older releases.
In particular, Solaris 10 (any version) will not correctly execute the Gnome
pre-configuration steps.
1.  Obtain a Solaris Express x86 installation DVD image.  Using lofi to
mount up the .iso is recommended for speed of building.  A combined netinstall
image constructed from CD's will also work.  This kit is configured to work
correctly with build 70 and later.
2.  Copy build_live_dvd.conf.sample to build_live_dvd.conf and configure it
to use correct paths for its work.  Note that you'll need at least 5 GB
of free space in the area pointed to by BOOTCD_PROTO, more if you intend to also
build the USB images.
3.  Execute build_live_dvd as root.  The entire process will be logged to
build_live_dvd.log.  This will take roughly 1.5 hours on relatively new
hardware.
4.  Create your live media image:
	- For a DVD, burn the resulting solaris_live.iso using cdrw or cdrecord.
	- For a USB memory stick, run the included usbcopy program.  usbcopy
	takes one command-line argument, the path to the image built above.
	If you've chosen to use a ZFS volume for this by setting USB_ZVOL in
	build_live_dvd.conf, the path will be /dev/zvol/rdsk/$USB_ZVOL.
	Otherwise, the path is $USB_FILE.  And yes, you need to expand $USB_ZVOL
	and $USB_FILE yourself, usbcopy doesn't read build_live_dvd.conf at this
	time.
5.  Insert the DVD or USB stick and reboot; you may need to interrupt your BIOS
to select the correct boot device.  The GRUB menu offers both graphical
and text mode.
6.  You'll need to answer one question regarding keyboard layout.
7.  Login as root, password is solaris.
8.  If you'd like to install Solaris to a hard drivefrom the live image, you
first need to create a Solaris2 fdisk partition (using Solaris fdisk, or your
other favorite tool for doing so) and then double-click the "Install Solaris"
icon on the desktop.  This will install to a UFS root file system.

Known issues:
1.  build_live_dvd generates the following warning:
UX /usr/ccs/bin/tsort: INFORM: cycle in data
        SUNWdhcsr
        SUNWdhcsu
        SUNWwbcou
        SUNWwbapi
        SUNWj5rt
        SUNWmfrun
        SUNWcar
	
The warning is harmless and may be ignored.

Questions, comments, contributions to livemedia-discuss (a] opensolaris.org