mirror of
https://git.launchpad.net/livecd-rootfs
synced 2026-04-15 21:41:08 +00:00
107 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
# Running livecd-rootfs builds locally
|
||
|
||
`livecd-rootfs` is notoriously known to be... difficult?
|
||
One question that often comes back is "how do I run that locally?".
|
||
Brace yourself, here is a short guide to help you through this.
|
||
|
||
## Where to run?
|
||
|
||
While you could do that directly on your host machine, likely your development
|
||
laptop, that would mean installing all the needed dependencies, and running
|
||
livecd-rootfs as root (because of some `mount` steps, `chroot`, etc...).
|
||
Not ideal.
|
||
What you more likely want, and is documented here, is to run that in a LXD VM
|
||
instead.
|
||
|
||
## Prerequisites
|
||
|
||
You need to have LXD installed and configured: https://canonical.com/lxd/install
|
||
A clone of this repository, that will be used directly in the VM so that
|
||
you can iterate and test changes easily before submitting them:
|
||
```
|
||
git clone https://git.launchpad.net/livecd-rootfs
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
## Build images
|
||
|
||
All the magic is done by the `./live-build/build-livefs-lxd` script. It will
|
||
basically perform the following actions for you:
|
||
* Launch (or re-start) a LXD VM on the `series` you're targetting.
|
||
* Install in there `livecd-rootfs` from the archive, to make sure all
|
||
dependencies are here and ready to use.
|
||
* Mount the `livecd-rootfs` sources in `/srv/livecd-rootfs`.
|
||
* Run `./live-build/build-livefs` with all the additional arguments you give.
|
||
That's what will build the ISO for you, take a lot of time, and bring your
|
||
machine down.
|
||
|
||
Depending on what you want to work on, the iteration time can be quite long.
|
||
Fortunately `livecd-rootfs` provides many different projects to work with,
|
||
providing various experiences in terms of load, space, bandwidth and running
|
||
time.
|
||
|
||
Very fast and lightweight "fake" ISO:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ ./live-build/build-livefs-lxd --suite resolute --arch amd64 --project ubuntu-test-iso
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
Ubuntu Desktop, the main flagship, and probably most complex ISO:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ ./live-build/build-livefs-lxd --suite resolute --arch amd64 --project ubuntu
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
Ubuntu Server Live, lighter ISO:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ ./live-build/build-livefs-lxd --suite resolute --arch amd64 --project ubuntu-server --subproject live
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
Xubuntu Minimal, lighter desktop ISO:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ ./live-build/build-livefs-lxd --suite resolute --arch amd64 --project xubuntu --subproject minimal
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
## Fetching the image
|
||
|
||
Obviously, the image has been built inside the LXD VM, so you then need to extract it. Examples:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ lxc file pull livefs-builder-resolute/root/livecd.ubuntu-test-iso.iso my_ubuntu-test-iso.iso
|
||
❯ lxc file pull livefs-builder-resolute/root/livecd.ubuntu.iso my_ubuntu.iso
|
||
❯ lxc file pull livefs-builder-resolute/root/livecd.ubuntu-server.iso my_ubuntu-server.iso
|
||
❯ lxc file pull livefs-builder-resolute/root/livecd.xubuntu.iso my_xubuntu.iso
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
The fetched ISO should normally boot and work just fine. For example with QEMU:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ kvm -m 3G -smp 2 -cdrom ./my_xubuntu.iso
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
## Clean up
|
||
|
||
This will leave you with a running VM eating some precious 8GB from your host.
|
||
You can stop and/or delete that VM with these:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ lxc stop livefs-builder-resolute
|
||
❯ lxc delete livefs-builder-resolute
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
## Speeding things up with `apt-cacher-ng`
|
||
|
||
All the previous steps work just fine, but when iterating, it's often very
|
||
useful to cache all the package downloads, which can speed things up a lot,
|
||
particularly if you don't live in one of Canonical's datacenters.
|
||
|
||
Basically, on your host:
|
||
```
|
||
❯ sudo apt install apt-cacher-ng
|
||
❯ cat ~/.config/livecd-rootfs/build-livefs.conf
|
||
[defaults]
|
||
mirror = http://192.168.0.42:3142/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
`~/.config/livecd-rootfs/build-livefs.conf` is indeed stored on your host, but
|
||
will be copied automatically at the right place if it exists.
|
||
|
||
There, `192.168.0.42` is your local network IP, reachable from the LXD VM, on
|
||
which `apt-cacher-ng` is listening.
|
||
Other `apt` caching solutions might be working, but are untested.
|
||
|