Re: Some of the parameters used in my genisoimage command don't produce a bootable ISO image

Hello.

I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 and I'm trying to extract all the files from a (bootable) Debian ISO,add some new files and then re-generate a bootable ISO image. I'm trying to accomplish this task using Cubic and without a graphical interface,but only giving the most appropriate commands on the terminal. Below you can see what I tried to do and the commands that I've issued. In both cases,for some unknown reasons,the preseed.cfg file that I have added does not stick. Can someone help me to understand why ? thanks.

1) Using Cubic. I've copied and pasted this preseed.cfg file :

d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string intel_iommu=on
d-i mirror/http/hostname string http.us.debian.org
d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian
d-i passwd/root-password password marietto
d-i passwd/user-fullname string marietto User
d-i passwd/username string marietto
d-i passwd/user-password password a
d-i passwd/user-password-again password a
d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak boolean true

inside the folder : /home/ziomario/Scrivania/PassT-Cubic/Debian-new/custom-disk/preseed/

and then I've checked if it has been recognized and yes,it has been,according with this picture :

https://ibb.co/JmT6G4V

I suspect that I should do something else,according to what I read on Cubic : "reference these files in the disk boot configurations by prefixing them with /cdrom" : what does it mean ? I don't understand what I should do. So,at the end,when I have generated the ISO image,the debian installer asks me every question as usual,ignoring the question that I want to skip,according to the preseed file.

2) manually,issuing the following commands on the terminal,like these ones :

chmod +w -R /home/ziomario/Scrivania/PassT-Cubic/ISO/debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/  

(I don't have a folder called install.386 or even install amd)gunzip debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/initrd.gz

echo preseed.cfg | cpio -H newc -o -A -F debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/initrd

gzip debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/initrd

chmod -w -R debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/

cd debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/


at this point,since I don't have any md5sum.txt inside the ISO image of the debian live,I have generated this file using this command :


find -type f -exec md5sum "{}" + > md5sum.txt

find -follow -type f ! -name md5sum.txt -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum > md5sum.txt

chmod -w md5sum.txt

at this point I ran this script to generate the ISO image :

script.sh

orig_iso=debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce.iso
new_files=debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce
new_iso=debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-mod-xfce.iso
mbr_template=isohdpfx.bin

# Extract MBR template file to disk
dd if="$orig_iso" bs=1 count=432 of="$mbr_template"

xorriso -as mkisofs \
-r -J --joliet-long \
-V 'd-live 11.5.0 xf amd64' \
-o "$new_iso" \
-isohybrid-mbr "$mbr_template" \
-partition_offset 16 \
-c isolinux/boot.cat \
-b isolinux/isolinux.bin \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
-eltorito-alt-boot \
-e boot/grub/efi.img \
-no-emul-boot -isohybrid-gpt-basdat -isohybrid-apm-hfsplus \
"$new_files"

The ISO image has been generated and it is able to boot,the preseed file is in the right place (I've looked inside the initrd file and I saw that it is there,you can see by yourself : https://ibb.co/J2sQZ6K) and then I've tried to install Debian,but again,the preseed.cfg file is ignored.

Il giorno lun 10 ott 2022 alle ore 19:59 Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup@gmx.net> ha scritto:

Hi,

i wrote:
> > ( cd /home/ziomario/Scrivania/PassT-Cubic/ISO/preseed/
> > echo preseed.cfg | cpio -H newc -o -A -F /home/ziomario/Scrivania/PassT-Cubic/ISO/debian-live-11.5.0-amd64-xfce/d-i/initrd )

Mario Marietto wrote in a mail Cc'ed to debian-user@lists.debian.org:
> ok. I did it. But it has been ignored. Please check the image below :
> Istantanea_2022-10-10_17-29-30.png

Your mail copies to debian-user@lists.debian.org don't arrive in my mail
box and don't show up in the archives. I guess that's because of the
attached images.
If you see the need for images instead of copied+pasted text, then you
will have to upload the images somewhere and include the links in your
mails.

Whatever, consider to ask at debian-live@lists.debian.org for contemporary
examples how to customize a live ISO by preseeding.

Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Mario.