[arch-dev-public] Bootstrap images for installing Arch from another system

[Dave Reisner]

On Jun 22, 2013 2:49 PM, "Thomas Bächler" <thomas at archlinux.org> wrote:
>
> Am 22.06.2013 20:10, schrieb Pierre Schmitz:
> > Am 22.06.2013 17:33, schrieb Thomas Bächler:
> >> Setting up Arch on a root server should be as easy as this:
> >> * Boot rescue system, make sure you have Linux 2.6.32 or later
> >> * Download tarball from Arch, extract to /tmp/root.x86_64/
> >> * Set up partitions and such, mount to /tmp/root.x86_64/mnt/
> >> * chroot /tmp/root.x86_64/ (well, also some bind-mounts)
> >> * pacman-key --populate archlinux
> >> * pacstrap /mnt base and follow the installation guide
> >>
> >> I'd like to generate such tarballs regularly (monthly like our ISOs?)
> >> and put them on our mirrors, unless there are objections.
> >
> > Good idea. I had something like this in mind for some time; I did not
> > think of putting only pacstrap and deps into the tar though.
>
> I think I tested this once and it is sufficient. As a plus, it has all
> dependencies so you can use pacman to install more packages into the
chroot.
>
> > I wonder if you could use arch-chroot isntead of just chroot here.
>
> It requires bash 4 - if that's not installed on the host, arch-chroot
> will not work. I would rather provide instructions involving manual
> bind-mounting and chroot.

If you think its worthwhile to make the install scripts bash 3 compat I can
look into doing this.

>
> > You
> > can also use the pacman.conf from the releng scripts.
>
> I pretty much used the default pacman.conf from our packages (also
> enabled Color, but that didn't do anything). Is the releng one different?
>
> > And to be safe you
> > should prefix pacstrap with a setarch call.
>
> Already done as per Gerardo's suggestion: https://paste.xinu.at/lNIrq/
>
> > I'd say we include this script into the releng scripts (either archiso
> > or create a nwe package; atm I use some additional script for releasing
> > an ISO image) and upload such a tar at the same time as the ISO image.
>
> I was thinking about including this into arch-install-scripts, but I am
> unsure if it really fits in there.
>
>