Monday, October 29, 2012

How to build Tribblix

The scripts and configuration files that I used to build Tribblix are now available on github.

There are currently two components available. There are some more bits and pieces that I'm still working on. (Specifically, the live image manifests and method scripts, and the overlay mechanism.)

First, the ips2svr4 repo contains the scripts used to create the SVR4 packages. The initial Tribblix prerelease was based on an OpenIndiana 151a7 install, I simply converted all the packages wholesale. One of the problems I had was that an installed system has had lots of configuration applied, so I needed to nullify many of the changes made to system files. There's also an equivalent script that can make SVR4 packages from an IPS on-disk repo; I've tested that I can make packages from an Illumos build, but haven't yet tried to build a system from them. (At least I know the OI binaries work on the system I'm testing.)

Next, the tribblix-build repo contains the scripts used to install the packages to a staging area, fix up that install, create the zlib files, build the boot archive, and create the iso, along with the live_install script that's used to install to hard disk.

The scripts are ugly. Mostly, I was doing the steps by hand and simply saved the commands into the scripts so I didn't have to type it next time. That they can be improved is undoubted. I hope I've taken most of the profane language in the comments I put in as I found out what worked and what didn't along the way.

The second problem anybody else is going to have with the scripts is that they have myself embedded in them. When I'm doing the construction, I'm always working from my own home directory, so it's currently hard-coded, as are all the other locations. That will get fixed, but it's more fun building a better distro than making the scripts suitable for a beauty contest.

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