Fedora 9 Live DVD Problems

[timelessness]

I'll start off with that I'm so-so versed in Linux, mostly use Fedora, used Ubuntu a few times, used to use straight Unix in college, and once had the unfortunate experience of using Corel Linux.

I currently have a Fedora 10 install that I have installed Revisor on. Using Revisor I've tried creating a Fedora 10 Live DVD, but kept making coasters. (Tried four different machines, all would load the white bar across the bottom, then stop, even let them sit for hours, never got further.) So I decided instead to make a Fedora 9 Live DVD, since I'm don't need any particular version of Fedora, just particular functions.

I went through the whole Revisor process, chose my packages, etc, made the ISO file, burned it to DVD, computers boots it fine. It goes through loading, but only gets so far before it pops up "Text Mode Setup Utility 1.19.4" with choices of setting up authentication configuration, firewall configuration, keyboard configuration, network configuration, timezone configuration, and X configuration, then two buttons of Run Tool and Quit, either way, I end up with the same result. If I choose X Configuration it loads up X, asks me to set the resolution, click okay, drops me back down to the Text Mode Setup Utility, and I can then quit. Or I can just click quit to begin with, makes no difference. It'll exit and go to the command line, asking to login. I can only login as root, not as the user I setup in Revisor to auto-login (or not auto-login, tried that too).

Once I'm logged in as root, gives me bash, I can do your basic Unix commands, they work, but there's no directory structure, etc, though if I do fdisk -l it will at least see the drives in the system. Anyhow, if I do init 5, it'll load X, GUI comes up just dandy, asks me to login again. Again, I can only login as root, not as the user I set up in Revisor.

So, basically, I'm trying to figure out if there's something I'm doing wrong in Revisor that's keeping it from 1.) loading X on it's own, and 2.) Auto-logging in as/recognizing the user account setup in Revisor.

If you need any more information, please let me know.

[sideways]

To make a livecd you should use the livecd-tools package and the livecd-creator command, eg

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1198506&postcount=5

To get some other (more useful) example kickstart files with:

yum install spin-kickstarts

then there'll be loads in /usr/share/spin-kickstarts/

see also (a bit out of date but still a good starting point) http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1157197

[timelessness]

Alright, I've built my kickstart file for using livecd-creator. Only one problem, I'm behind a proxy, so whenever it tries to get to the repos, it errors out. I have the proxy setup in yum, and I had it setup in revisor when I was using revisor, so the new question is where do I setup the proxy info for livecd-creator?

[sideways]

I have the proxy setup in yum, and I had it setup in revisor when I was using revisor, so the new question is where do I setup the proxy info for livecd-creator?

Good question. :)

Have you tried setting the proxy manually using gconftool-2, there are 3 commands, see
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1195386&postcount=6.

If that fails, then I'm not sure, there's a post here from F7 where a workaround hack was suggested:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=156806

If that doesn't work, then this needs a bugzilla.

[timelessness]

Well, I got around the proxy issue (I just took my work laptop home, no proxy no problem). But I'm still having an issue with the LiveCDs. I used the example kickstart file "fedora-live-base.ks" and "fedora-livecd-desktop.ks" Which are part of the kickstart examples. Anyhow, the only change I had made was to include the software I needed, no biggie that's easy. Well, the LiveCD boots fine, loads the GUI, but if I login as the autocreated and autologging in user account, I can't su anything, because it says that su is not a recognized command. If I try sudo, it equally has a fit. So I tried logging out and logging in as the root account, it starts logging in, then logs right back out. So I tried make the liveCD again, but this time changed the kickstart file so that when it creates the user account it also adds the account to the root group. When trying this, it caused the account to do the same thing the root account does, it starts logging in and then logs right back out. Thanks for your help thus far, any ideas for this issue?

[sideways]

Hmm, it should create root account without a password, does /bin/su not even exist? That's part of coreutils package which should be include in fedora-live-base.ks. Did you copy fedora-live-base.ks to the same directory as fedora-livecd-desktop.ks before you edited it?

Does 'rpm -q coreutils' return anything?

In my really minimal kickstart file I create a root password with 'rootpw password', but that shouldn't be necessary if you're using the provided templates.

You probably need to recreate the livecd, but you can try emergency maintenance on the current one by pressing tab twice at the boot screen and adding '1' to the boot parameters, that should get you into single user mode, then see if you can create a root passwd with 'passwd', and then do 'init 5'

[timelessness]

I checked, su is definitely in /bin (even specifically put in coreutils in the .ks file, even through it should already be getting it, since it's doing all of core). When going into /bin and trying to access su, I get an access denied error. I tried single user mode, it allowed me to set the password without any problems, but as far as then being able to login as root or su from the user that auto logs in, it did the same as before.