bootcdwrite.conf(5)

Name
bootcdwrite.conf - bootcd utils

SYNOPSIS

/etc/bootcdwrite.conf

DESCRIPTION

bootcdwrite.conf is a configuration file used by bootcdwrite. The default path is /etc/bootcdwrite.conf.

This file will be sourced as shell file. The following Options can be used. Examples how to use the Options are shown.

OPTIONS

SRCDISK
        The Variables SRCDISK defines the root of the files that will be copied.

        For example, to build an image from a remote system, export root-directory with nfs, mount it locally to /mnt/remote and add:

                    SRCDISK=/mnt/remote

        It is added as prefix to KERNEL, INITRD, DISABLE_CRON and NOT_TO_CD, if this are relativ paths (without starting "/")

        Default:

                    SRCDISK=/

KERNEL
        This defines the kernel which is used. More kernels can be defined with KERNEL<number> The numbers have to start with 1 and can continue with 2, 3, 4 ...

                    KERNEL1=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-686-bigmem
                    KERNEL2=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-5-amd64

        Default:

                    KERNEL=vmlinuz

APPEND
        This can be used to define additional options for the kernel For more kernels APPEND<number> can be defined:

                    APPEND1="vga=normal nomodeset"
                    APPEND2=""

        Default:

                    APPEND=""

INITRD
        This defines the path to initrd. For more kernels INITRD<number> can be defined:

                    INITRD1=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686-bigmem
                    INITRD2="initrd.img"

        Default:

                    INITRD="initrd.img"

KLABEL
        This defines a label for the kernel to be choosen when booting from bootcd. Can defines multiple kernels with KERNEL<number> and label KLABEL<number>:

                    KLABEL1=686-3
                    KERNEL1=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-686-bigmem
                    INITRD1=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-3-686-bigmem
                    APPEND1=

        Default:

                    KLABEL=linux

DISPLAY
        Text files to display at boottime (see syslinux doku) When pressing F1 at boot time the file defined by DISPLAY is shown. F2 will show the file defined by DISPLAY2 and F3 will show the file defined by DISPLAY3 F10 lists all people mentioned in changelog.

        The text file kernelinfo is replaced with a file which includes kernelinfo.

        Default:

                    DISPLAY="/usr/share/bootcd/default.txt"
                    DISPLAY2="kernelinfo"

TYP
        TYP can be defined as CD or DVD to get a warning if the size of the image will be larger as the specified medium.

        Default:

                    TYP=DVD

CDDEV
        Specifies one or more CD devices to boot from. The first one is the default. auto tries to find the bootcd on all SCSI and IDE CDROMS

        Default:

                    CDDEV="auto /dev/hda /dev/hdb /dev/hdc /dev/hdd /dev/sr0 /dev/sr1"

DO_CHECK
        Enables some checks or not. To check for possible problems can take a long time, but it is recommended to do the checks.

        Default:

                    DO_CHECK=yes

NOT_TO_CD
        This variable can also contain special characters. See EVALVARS.

        Add directories which should be excluded from bootcd. Directories are separated by spaces. SRCDISK will be automatically added to each path that does not start with "/".

        Default:

                    NOT_TO_CD=""

SSHHOSTKEY
        If using ssh it is helpful to have a unique ssh hostkey for each CD. To be generated at burntime:: Default:

                    SSHHOSTKEY=yes

UDEV_FIXNET
        If the network interfaces are hardwired in /etc/udev/rules.d/xx_persistent-net.rules they can removed on bootcd, with: Default:

                    UDEV_FIXNET="yes"

VAR
        This defines the directoy where the image resists after build. Default:

                    VAR=/var/spool/bootcd

FLOPPY_RUNTIME_DEV
        When you booting from cd changes will be read from this device. Without a floppy:

                    FLOPPY_RUNTIME_DEV=""

        Default:

                    FLOPPY_RUNTIME_DEV=/dev/fd0

BOOTCDFLOPPY
        If the system should boot the kernel from floppy. This reduces space on floppy used by bootcdflopcp. For this to work FLOPPY_CREATE_DEV has to be specified:

                    BOOTFLOPPY=yes|no

        Default:

                    BOOTFLOPPY=no

BOOT_ONLY_WITH_FLOPPY
        If you several machines will be booted from the same bootcd, you must have each one can hav separat configuraiton (exp: /etc/network/interfaces) on floppy. If the floppy can not be mounted, it may be a good idea to stop booting with:

                    BOOT_ONLY_WITH_FLOPPY=yes

        Default:

                    BOOT_ONLY_WITH_FLOPPY=no

CLEAN_VAR
        delete some chached files in /var with: Default:

                    CLEAN_VAR=yes

TO_FSTAB
        To add addiditionel entries to fstab. Use for example:

                    TO_FSTAB="/dev/hdc1 /home ext3 defaults 1 1

        Default:

                    TO_FSTAB=""

NOTCOMPRESSED
        Files or Directory-Trees that should never be compressed on CD can be listed here. This can be used for documentation which should be visible without installing the bootcd. Default:

                    NOTCOMPRESSED=""

DISABLE_CRON
        Files listed will be on the cdrom with a .no_run_on_bootcd suffix so run-parts won't execute them. The original file will be a link to /bin/true. This is meant for cron maintenance scripts which are useless on a static cdrom. The default is to disable the daily find, standard and security scripts. With bootcd2disk this files will be reactivated again.

        Default:

                    DISABLE_CRON="etc/cron.daily/find etc/cron.daily/standard etc/cron.daily/security"

MKISOFS_CHNG
        With this variable some options given to mkisofs by bootcdwrite can be changed.

        Example: To use -opt1 and -opt2 <value> and to not use any previous -opt1 [<value>...], -opt2 [<value...>] and -opt3 [<value>...] and to leave any other options as defined:

                    MKISOFS_CHNG="-opt1 -opt2 <value> !-opt3"

        Default:

                    MKISOFS_CHNG=""

extra_changes()
        It is possible to define a function called extra_changes to have some files modified on the ISO image. Here is an example:

                    extra_changes() {
                      bootcd_global VAR

                      echo "noname" >$VAR/changes/etc/hostname

                      mkdir -p $VAR/changes/etc/network
                      ( echo "auto lo"
                        echo "iface lo inet loopback"
                        echo "" echo "auto eth0"
                        echo "iface eth0 inet static"
                        echo "       address 0.0.0.0"
                        echo "       netmask 255.255.255.0"
                      ) >$VAR/changes/etc/network/interfaces

                      echo "127.0.0.1 localhost noname" >$VAR/changes/etc/hosts

                      cat $SRCDISK/etc/passwd |
                      grep -v -e "^bs:" -e "^bianca:" -e "^tim:" >$VAR/changes/etc/passwd

                      cat $SRCDISK/etc/shadow |
                      grep -v -e "^bs:" -e "^bianca:" -e "^tim:" >$VAR/changes/etc/shadow

                      cat $SRCDISK/etc/group |
                      grep -v -e "^bs:" -e "^bianca:" -e "^tim:" >$VAR/changes/etc/group
                    }

        Default:

                    # make sure the function is not defined
                    unset -f extra_changes

BOOTCDMODPROBE
        If booted from initrd bootcd has to load the necessary modules. If only modules provided by initramfs-tools are needed you can specify "standard" here:

                    BOOTCDMODPROBE=standard

        If bootcd should try extra hard to load neccessary modules you can specify "bootcd" here. Bootcd will use discover for this purpose. So discover has to be installed:

                    BOOTCDMODPROBE=bootcd

        If you specify auto, bootcd will check if discover is installed. If it is installed BOOTCDMODPROBE=bootcd will be set, if not BOOTCDMODPROBE=standard will be set. Be aware that people have reported, that sometimes BOOTCDMODPROBE=bootcd may not work but sometimes it is needed. Default:

                    BOOTCDMODPROBE=auto

EVALVARS
        Most variables listed in chapter OPTIONS can't contain special characters.

        It is not recommended to use special characters anyway, but the variable NOT_TO_CD may contain blank ( ), dollar ($), backslash (\), qoute (") and backquote (`). This variables are called EVALVARS in this manpage, because in shell script, the eval command can be used to easily read them.

        For example to define NOT_TO_CD with the files or directories "/etc/noblank", "/etc/blank name1" and "/etc/blank name2" the following config line would be possible:

                    NOT_TO_CD="/etc/noblank \"/etc/blank name1\" /etc/blank\ name2"

        Because all variables have to be readable by shell with the eval command, the syntax can be checked. if the config line above is entered in a shell with the test commands:

                    eval "set -- $NOT_TO_CD"
                    echo "#=<$#> 1=<$1> 2=<$2> 3=<$3> 4=<$4>"

        should print out the result:

                    #=<3> 1=</etc/noblank> 2=</etc/blank name1> 3=</etc/blank name2> 4=<>

ENVIRONMENT

ia_logfile
        The logfile of bootcdwrite is /var/log/bootcdwrite, if not overwriten with variable ia_logfile before.

Using functions
        Used functions listed in OPTIONS should declare all used variables listed in OPTIONS with the function bootcd_global <var1> [...].

        For example a function extra_changes() that wants to use variable VAR should start with:

                    extra_changes()
                    {
                      bootcd_global VAR

        see full example in OPTIONS/extra_changes()

        The function bootcd_global makes sure that all given variables are declared.

SEE ALSO

bootcd(7), bootcdwrite(1), bootcd2disk(1), bootcdflopcp(1), bootcdmk2diskconf(1), bootcd2disk.conf(5)

Author
bernd@bschu.de

License: GNU General Public License, version 3

Copyright
Bernd Schumacher <bernd@bschu.de> (2007-2026)