[arch-general] Building netboot images

[Piyush P Kurur]

Hi,

	I would like to create a (custom) netboot install image of 
archlinux to facilitate installation within our department. I have
few queries regarding the corresponding mkinitcpio.conf.

1. How do I use custom hooks together with standard hooks *without*
   installing them in /lib/initcpio/install. Or in other words can I
   configure mkinitcpio to look for hooks in other locations besides
   the standard locations.

   There are two options that I can think of both of which looks
   ugly to me.

   * install custom hooks in the standard location
     /lib/initcpio/install.  I would don't like this because I don't
     want to mess up the standard directory for testing these hooks.

   * copy all the hooks in the standard location to a new
     location. Install the custom hooks there as well and set the
     mkinitcpio to look at this new location. There does not seem to
     be an option for this, I might be stupid not to spot it, but
     appropriate fakeroot + chroot can make this work

2. I would like to have the minimal set of packages on the netboot image to
   reduce size. The actual installation will be from the local mirror of course
   but some packages are needed to start the process. What is the suggested 
   package set ? Is the whole of base okey or is it an overkill?

3. How does one provide standard packages on the rootdir. I would
   assume the initial ramdisk should act as the actual root during the
   entire installation process (I don't want the NFS mounting mess). 

   The algorithm seems like

   (1) install the appropriate packages via pacman --root /foo

   (2) get the entire subtree on to the initial ramdisk.

   For step 2, I would need to set BINARIES and FILES of
   mkinitcpio.conf appropriately. I would rather enjoy Vogon
   poetry. Is there a better way?


Regards,

ppk