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NAME

lh config − Create config directory

SYNOPSIS

lh config [live−helper options]

lh config

DESCRIPTION

lh config is a high−level command (porcelain) of live−helper(7), the Debian Live tool suite.

lh config populates the configuration directory for live−helper. By default, this directory is named ’config’ and is created in the current directory where lh config was executed.

Note: Currently lh config tries to be smart and sets defaults for some options depending on the setting of other options (e.g. which linux packages to be used depending on if a lenny system gets build or not). This means that when generating a new configuration, you should call lh config only once with all options specified. Calling it several times with only a subset of the options each can result in non working configurations. This is also caused by the fact that lh config called with one option only changes that option, and leaves everything else as is unless its not defined. However, lh config does warn about know impossible or likely impossible combinations that would lead to non working live systems. If unsure, remove config/{binary,bootstrap,chroot,common,source} and call lh config again.

OPTIONS

In addition to its specific options lh config understands all generic live−helper options. See live−helper(7) for a complete list of all generic live−helper options.
−−apt apt|aptitude

defines if apt−get or aptitude is used to install packages when building the image. When building etch images, this defaults to aptitude. Every other distribution defaults to apt.

−−apt−ftp−proxy URL

sets the ftp proxy to be used by apt. By default, this is empty but if the host has the environment variable ftp_proxy set, apt−ftp−proxy gets automatically set to the value of ftp_proxy.

−−apt−http−proxy URL

sets the http proxy to be used by apt. By default, this is empty but if the host has the environment variable http_proxy set, apt−http−proxy gets automatically set to the value of http_proxy.

−−apt−pdiffs true|false

defines whetever apt should use incremental package indices feature or not. This is true by default.

−−apt−options OPTION|"OPTIONS"

defines the default options that will be appended to every apt call that is made inside chroot during the building of the image. By default, this is set to −−yes to allow non-interactive installation of packages.

−−aptitude−options OPTION|"OPTIONS"

defines the default options that will be appended to every aptitude call that is made inside chroot during building of the image. By default, this is set to −−assume−yes to allow non-interactive installation of packages.

−−apt−pipeline DEPTH

sets the depth of the apt/aptitude pipeline. In cases where the remote server is not RFC conforming or buggy (such as Squid 2.0.2) this option can be a value from 0 to 5 indicating how many outstanding requests APT should send. A value of zero MUST be specified if the remote host does not properly linger on TCP connections − otherwise data corruption will occur. Hosts which require this are in violation of RFC 2068. By default, live−helper does not set this option.

−−apt−recommends true|false

defines if apt should install recommended packages automatically. By default, this is true except in emdebian mode.

−−apt−secure true|false

defines if apt should check repository signatures. This is true by default.

−a|−−architecture ARCHITECTURE

defines the architecture of the to be build image. By default, this is set to the host architecture. Note that you cannot crossbuild for another architecture if your host system is not able to execute binaries for the target architecture natively. For example, building amd64 images on i386 and vice versa is possile if you have a 64bit capable i386 processor and the right kernel. But building powerpc images on an i386 system is not possible.

−b|−−binary−images iso|iso−hybrid|net|tar|usb−hdd

defines the image type to build. By default this is set to iso to build CD/DVD images, for squeeze and newer it defaults to iso−hybrid.

−−binary−filesystem fat16|fat32|ext2

defines the filesystem to be used in the image type. This only has an effect if the selected binary image type does allow to choose a filesystem. For example, when selection iso the resulting CD/DVD has always the filesystem ISO9660. When building usb−hdd images for usb sticks, this is active. Note that it defaults to fat16 on all architectures except sparc where it defaults to ext2. Also note that if you choose fat16 and your resulting binary image gets bigger than 2GB, the binary filesystem automatically gets switched to fat32.

−−binary−indices true|false|none

defines if the resulting images should have binary indices or not and defaults to true. If set to none, no indices are included at all.

−−bootappend−install PARAMETER|"PARAMETERS"

sets boot parameters specific to debian−installer, if included.

−−bootappend−live PARAMETER|"PARAMETERS"

sets boot parameters specific to debian−live. A complete list of boot parameters can be found, for etch, in the manpage of casper, for all other distributions in the manpage of live−initramfs. On the images, a list of all parameters (without comments) is included in the /parameters.txt.

−−bootloader grub|syslinux|yaboot

defines which bootloader is beeing used in the generated image. This has only an effect if the selected binary image type does allow to choose the bootloader. For example, if you build a iso, always syslinux (or more precise, isolinux) is being used. Also note that some combinations of binary images types and bootloaders may be possible but live−helper does not support them yet. lh config will fail to create such a not yet supported configuration and give a explanation about it. For usb−hdd images on amd64 and i386, the default is syslinux. yaboot is only used on powerpc.

−−bootstrap cdebootstrap|cdebootstrap-static|debootstrap|copy

defines which program is used to bootstrap the debian chroot, default is debootstrap. Note that if you set the bootstrap program to copy, then your host system is copied. This can be useful if you want to convert/clone your existing host system into a live system, however, make sure you do have enough free space as this can, depending on your host system, get quite big.

−−bootstrap−config FILE

sets a custom configuration file for the boostrap programm of choice and is empty by default. Refere to the documentation of debootstrap or cdebootstrap for more information about that. When the bootstrap program is set to copy, this has no effect.

−f|−−bootstrap−flavour minimal|standard

defines if the bootstrap program should bootstrap the standard system (all packages of priority required and important, which is the default) or a minimal system (only packages of priority required, plus apt).

−−bootstrap−keyring PACKAGE

sets the archive keyring package to be used. Default is debian−archive−keyring.

−−cache true|false

defines globally if any cache should be used at all. Different caches can be controled through the their own options.

−−cache−indices true|false

defines if downloaded package indices and lists should be cached which is false by default. Enabling it would allow to rebuild an image completely offline, however, you would not get updates anymore then.

−−cache−packages true|false

defines if downloaded packages files should be cached which is true by default. Disabling it does save space consumtion in your build directory, but remember that you will cause much unnecessary traffic if you do a couple of rebuilds. In general you should always leave it true, however, in some particular rare build setups, it can be faster to refetch packages from the local network mirror rather than to utilize the local disk.

−−cache−stages true|false|STAGE|"STAGES"

sets which stages should be cached. By default set to bootstrap. As an exception to the normal stage names, also rootfs can be used here which does only cache the generated root filesystem in filesystem.{dir,ext*,squashfs}. This is useful during development if you want to rebuild the binary stage but not regenerate the root filesystem all the time.

−−checksums md5|sha1|sha256|none

defines if the binary image should contain a file called md5sums.txt, sha1sums.txt and/or sha256sums.txt. These lists all files on the image together with their checksums. This in turn can be used by live−initramfs’ built−in integrity−check to verify the medium if specified at boot prompt. In general, this should not be false and is an important feature of live system released to the public. However, during development of very big images it can save some time by not calculating the checksums.

−−build−with−chroot true|false

defines whetever live−helper should use the tools from within the chroot to build the binary image or not by using and including the host systems tools. This is a very dangerous option, using the tools of the host system can lead to tainted and even non-bootable images if the host systems version of the required tools (mainly these are the bootloaders such as syslinux, grub and yaboot, and the auxilliary tools such as dosfstools, genisoimage, squashfs-tools and others) do not exactely match what is present at build-time in the target distribution. Never do disable this option unless you are exactely sure what you are doing and have completely understood its consequences.

−−chroot−filesystem ext2|ext3|squashfs|plain|jffs2

defines which filesystem type should be used for the root filesystem image. If you use plain, then no filesystem image is created and the root filesystem content is copied on the binary image filesystem as flat files. Depending on what binary filesystem you have choosen, it may not be possible to build with a plain root filesystem, e.g. fat16/fat32 and plain don’t work as linux does not support to run on them.

−−clean

minimizes config directory by automatically removing unused and thus empty subdirectories.

−c|−−conffile FILE

using a user specified alternative configuration file in addition to the normally used one in the config directory.

−−debconf−frontend dialog|editor|noninteractive|readline

defines what value the debconf frontend should be set to inside the chroot. Note that setting it to anything by noninteractive, which is the default, makes your build asking questions during the build.

−−debconf−nowarnings true|false

defines if warnings of debconf should be displayed or not. Warnings from debconf are generally very rare and by default, we skipp them, if any, in order to keep the build process entirely non interactive.

−−debconf−priority low|medium|high|critical

defines what value the debconf priority shoul dbe set to inside the chroot. By default, it is set to critical, which means that almost no questions are displayed. Note that this only has an effect if you use any debconf frontend different from noninteractive.

−−debian−installer true|cdrom|netinst|netboot|businesscard|live|false

defines which type, if any, of the debian−installer should be included in the resulting binary image. By default, no installer is included. All available flavours except live are the identical configurations used on the installer media produced by regular debian−cd. When live is choosen, the live−installer udeb is included so that debian−installer will behave different than usual − instead of installing the debian system from packages from the medium or the network, it installs the live system to the disk.

−−debian−installer−distribution daily|CODENAME

defines the distribution where the debian−installer files should be taken out from. Normally, this should be set to the same distribution as the live system. However, some times, one wants to use a newer or even daily built installer.

−−debian−installer−preseedfile FILE|URL

sets the filename or URL for an optionally used and included preseeding file for debian−installer.

−−debian−installer−gui true|false

defines if the debian−installer graphical GTK interface should be true or not. In Debian mode and for most versions of Ubuntu, this option is true, whereas otherwise false, by default.

−d|−−distribution CODENAME

defines the distribution of the resulting live system.

−−dump

prepares a report of the currently present live system configuration and the version of live−helper used. This is useful to provide if you submit bug reports, we do get all informations required for us to locate and replicate an error.

−e|−−encryption false|aes128|aes192|aes256

defines if the root filesystem should be encrypted or not. By default, this is false.

−−fdisk fdisk|fdisk.dist

sets the filename of the fdisk binary from the host system that should be used. This is autodetected and does generally not need any customization.

−−grub−splash FILE

defines the name of an optional to be included splash screen graphic for the grub bootloader.

−−gzip−options OPTION|"OPTIONS"

defines the default options that will be appended to (almost) every gzip call during the building of the image. By default, this is set to −−best to use highest (but slowest) compression. Dynamically, if the host system supports it, also −−rsyncable is added.

−−hooks FILE

defines which hooks available in /usr/share/live−helper/examples/hooks should be activated. Normally, there are no hooks executed. Make sure you know and understood the hook before you enable it.

−−hostname NAME

sets the hostname of the live system.

−−ignore−system−defaults

lh config by default reads system defaults from /etc/default/live−helper when generating a new live system config directory. This is useful if you want to set global settings, such as mirror locations, and don’t want to specify them all of the time.

−−includes PATH

sets the path to the includes that live−helper is going to use, e.g. additional minimal documentation that you want to have on all live systems. By default, this is set to /usr/share/live−helper/includes/.

−−initramfs auto|live−initramfs|casper

sets the name of package that contains the live system specific initramfs modification. By default, auto is used, which means that at build time of the image rather than on configuration time, the value will be expanded to casper when building etch systems and to live−initramfs for all other systems.

−−interactive shell

defines if after the chroot stage and before the beginning of the binary stage, a interactive shell login should be spawned in the chroot in order to allow you to do manual customizations. Once you close the shell with logout or exit, the build will continue as usual. Note that it’s strongly discouraged to use this for anything else than testing. Modifications that should be present in all builds of a live system should be properly made through hooks. Everything else destroys the beauty of being able to completely automatise the build process and making it non interactive. By default, this is of course false.

−−iso−application NAME

sets the APPLICATION field in the header of a resulting CD/DVD image and defaults to "Debian Live" in debian mode, and to "Emdebian Live" in emdebian mode, and "Ubuntu Live" in ubuntu mode.

−−iso−preparer NAME

sets the PREPARER field in the header of a resulting CD/DVD image. By default this is set to "live−helper VERSION; http://packages.qa.debian.org/live−helper";, whereas VERSION is expanded to the version of live−helper that was used to build the image.

−−iso−publisher NAME

sets the PUBLISHED field in the header of a resulting CD/DVD image. By default, this is set to ’Debian Live project; http:/live.debian.net/; debian−live [AT] lists.org’. Remember to change this to the appropriate values at latest when you distributing custom and unofficial images.

−−iso−volume NAME

sets the VOLUME field in the header of a resulting CD/DVD and defaults to ’(MODE) (DISTRIBUTION) (DATE)’ whereas MODE is expanded to the name of the mode in use, DISTRIBUTION the distribution name, and DATE with the current date and time of the generation. When running in debian−release mode however, it will instead default to ’Debian (VERSION) (ARCHITECTURE) live’ where VERSION becomes the numerical version of the release being built and ARCHITECTURE becomes the name of the architecture.

−−jffs2−eraseblock SIZE

sets the eraseblock size for a JFFS2 (Second Journalling Flash File System) filesystem. The default is 64 KiB. If you use an erase block size different than the erase block size of the target MTD device, JFFS2 may not perform optimally. If the SIZE specified is below 4096, the units are assumed to be KiB.

−−keyring−packages PACKAGE|"PACKAGES"

sets the keyring package or additional keyring packages. By default this is set to debian−archive−keyring.

−l|−−language LANGUAGE

sets the language of a live system by installing l10n related packages. It doesn’t enable generation of the correct locales through setting the right boot parameters, those need to be done through the bootappend−live parameter.

−k|−−linux−flavours FLAVOUR|"FLAVOURS"

sets the kernel flavours to be installed. Note that in case you specify more than that the first will be configured the default kernel that gets booted.

−−linux−packages "PACKAGES"

sets the internal name of the kernel packages naming scheme. If you use debian kernel packages, you will not have to adjust it. If you decide to use custom kernel packages that do not follow the debian naming scheme, remember to set this option to the stub of the packages only (for debian this is linux−image−2.6), so that STUB-FLAVOUR results in a valid package name (for debian e.g. linux−image−2.6−486). Preferably you use the meta package name, if any, for the stub, so that your configuration is ABI independent. Also don’t forget that you have to include stubs of the binary modules packages for unionfs or aufs, and squashfs if you built them out-of-tree.

−−losetup losetup|losetup.orig

sets the filename of the losetup binary from the host system that should be used. This is autodetected and does generally not need any customization.

−−memtest memtest86+|memtest86|none

defines if memtest, memtest86+ or no memory tester at all should be included as secondary bootloader configuration. This is only available on amd64 and i386 and defaults to memtest86+.

−m|−−mirror−bootstrap URL

sets the location of the debian package mirror that should be used to bootstrap from.

−−mirror−binary URL

sets the location of the debian package mirror that should end up configured in the final image and which is the one a user would see and use. This has not necessarily to be the same that is used to build the image, e.g. if you use a local mirror but want to have an official mirror in the image. By default, ’http://cdn.debian.net/debian/’ is used.

−−mirror−binary−security URL

sets the location of the debian security package mirror that should end up configuered in the final image. By default, ’http://cdn.debian.net/debian-security/’ is used.

−−mirror−chroot URL

sets the location of the debian package mirror that will be used to fetch the packages in order to build the live system. By default, this points to http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ which may not be a good default if you live outside the U.S.

−−mirror−chroot−security URL

sets the location of the debian security package mirror that will be used to fetch the packages in order to build the live system. By default, this points to http://security.debian.org/debian/.

−−mirror−debian−installer URL

sets the location of the mirror that will be used to fetch the debian installer images. By default, this points to the same mirror used to build the live system.

−−mode debian|emdebian|ubuntu

defines a global mode to load project specific defaults. By default this is set to debian.

−−net−root−filesystem nfs|cfs

defines the filesystem that will be configured in the bootloader configuration for your netboot image. This defaults to nfs.

−−net−root−mountoptions OPTIONS

sets additional options for mounting the root filesystem in netboot images and is by default empty.

−−net−root−path PATH

sets the file path that will be configured in the bootloader configuration for your netboot image. This defaults to /srv/debian−live in debian mode and to /srv/emebian-live when being in emdebian mode, and /srv/ubuntu-live when in ubuntu mode.

−−net−root−server IP|HOSTNAME

sets the IP or hostname that will be configured in the bootloader configuration for the root filesystem of your netboot image. This defaults to 192.168.1.1.

−−net−cow−filesystem nfs|cfs

defines the filesystem type for the copy−on−write layer and defaults to nfs.

−−net−cow−mountoptions OPTIONS

sets additional options for mounting the copy−on−write layer in netboot images and is by default empty.

−−net−cow−path PATH

defines the path to client writable filesystem. Anywhere that client_mac_address is specified in the path live−initramfs will substitute the MAC address of the client delimited with hyphens.

/export/hosts/client_mac_address
/export/hosts/00−16−D3−33−92−E8

−−net−cow−server IP|HOSTNAME

sets the IP or hostname that will be configured in the bootloader configuration for the copy−on−write filesystem of your netboot image and is by default empty.

−−net−tarball bzip2|gzip|tar|none

defines the format of the netboot image. Choosing tar results in a not compressed tarball, bzip2 and gzip in a bzip2 resp. gzip compressed tarball. Choosing none leads to no tarball at all, the plain binary directory is considered the output in this case. Default is gzip.

−p|−−packages−lists LIST|"LISTS"

defines which lists available in /usr/share/live−helper/lists should be used. By default, this is set to standard. Note that in case you have local packages lists, you don’t need to list them here. Putting them into config/chroot_local-packageslists is enough (the filename needs to have the .list suffix though).

−−packages PACKAGE|"PACKAGES"

defines one or more packages to be installed in the live system. This is a quick and convenient place to add a few packages when building an image (limited by the max length of shell). Packages that should be permanently installed should be put into a local packages list.

−r, −−repositories REPOSITORY|"REPOSITORIES"

enables one of available third-party repository configurations in /usr/share/live−helper/repositories.

−−root-command sudo

controls if live−helper should use sudo internally to build the live image. Note that this is not well tested and that you should, when relying on sudo, call the individual live−helper command with sudo itself.

−−use-fakeroot true|false

controls if live−helper should utilize fakeroot and fakechroot to try and avoid requiring root privillages where possible. By default, this option is false.

−−archive−areas ARCHIVE_AREA|"ARCHIVE_AREAS"

defines which package archive areas of a debian packages archive should be used for configured debian package mirrors. By default, this is set to main. Remember to check the licenses of each packages with respect to their redistributability in your juristiction when enabling contrib or non−free with this mechanism.

−−security true|false

defines if the security repositories specified in the security mirror options should be used or not.

−−source true|false

defines if a corresponding source image to the binary image should be build. By default this is false because most people do not require this and would require to download quite a few source packages. However, once you start distributing your live image, you should make sure you build it with a source image alongside.

−s|−−source−images iso|net|tar|usb−hdd

defines the image type for the source image. Default is tar.

−−symlinks true|false

defines if the symlink hack should be true or false. The symlink hack converts all absolute symlinks to relative ones. By default this is false and in general there is no need or gain to enable it. If you are in a special situation that requires this, you will know.

−−syslinux−splash FILE

defines the file of the syslinux splash graphic that should be used instead of the default one.

−−syslinux−timeout SECONDS

defines the timeout the syslinux bootloader should wait for input from the user at the bootprompt prior booting the default kernel. This defaults to 0 which means it will wait forever.

−−syslinux−menu true|false

defines if syslinux should be make use of the vgamenu capabilities or not.

−−sysvinit true|false

defines if the sysvinit hack should be true or false. The sysvinit hack disables all non−essential services from starting up at bootup in order to reduce overall boottime. By default this is false and in general there you don’t want to enable it.

−−tasksel aptitude|tasksel

selects which program is used to install tasks. By default, this is set to tasksel.

−−tasks TASK|"TASKS"

defines one or more package tasks to be installed in the live system. This is a quick and convenient way to get a reasonable default selection of packages suitable for most users when building an image, but it results in quite big images. If you want to have finer grained package selections, local packages lists should be used instead.

−−templates PATH

sets the path to the templates that live−helper is going to use, e.g. for bootloaders. By default, this is set to /usr/share/live−helper/templates/.

−−virtual−root−filesystem ext3

defines what filesystem to format the root filesystem when building virtual−hdd images.

−−virtual−root−size MB

defines what size the virtual−hdd image should be. Note that although the default is set to 10000 (= 10GB), it will not need 10GB space on your harddisk as the files are created as sparse files.

−−exposed−root true|false

defines whether to expose the root filesystem as read only and not covered by the union filesystem. This has useful implications for certain speciality setups such as LTSP. By default, this option is false.

−−username NAME

sets the name of the account of the default user in the live system.

−−win32−loader true|false

defines if win32−loader should be included in the binary image or not.

ENVIRONMENT

All command line switches can also be specified through the corresponding environment variable. Environment variables are name LH_FOO, means, e.g. −−apt−ftp−proxy becomes LH_APT_FTP_PROXY. However, this generally should not be used.

FILES

auto/config
/etc/default/live−helper

An optional, global configuration file for lh config variables. It is useful to specify a few system wide defaults, like LH_MIRROR_BOOTSTRAP. This feature can be false by specifying the −−ignore−system−defaults option.

SEE ALSO

live−helper(7)

This program is a part of live−helper.

HOMEPAGE

More information about live−helper and the Debian Live project can be found on the homepage at <http://live.debian.net/> and in the manual at <http://live.debian.net/manual/>.

BUGS

Bugs can be reported by submitting a bugreport for the live−helper package in the Debian Bug Tracking System at <http://bugs.debian.org/> or by writing a mail to the Debian Live mailing list at <debian−live [AT] lists.org>.

AUTHOR

live−helper was written by Daniel Baumann <daniel [AT] debian.org> for the Debian project.