Find a new ISO generator

[gmpinder]

The current ISO generator that we make use of is only compatible with Fedora Atomic. The idea is that we are going to be updating the bluebuild system to be able to work with multiple distros, not just Fedora. Here are some basic requirements that we're looking for:

• able to run locally
• has a live option
• allows pre-installing flatpaks
• doesn't require downloading the image during install time

[white-gecko]

Would the bootc-image-builder (https://osbuild.org/docs/bootc/) help?

Quote from the page:

A container to create disk images from bootc container inputs, especially oriented towards Fedora/CentOS bootc or derivatives.

[tulilirockz]

bootc-image-builder needs to work with other distributions as well if we don't want specifically fedora as the ISO environment. Maybe someone should investigate that

[jokokucing]

Here is another reference for live iso build (but fedora is the only option)
https://github.com/ublue-os/titanoboa

[ExistingPerson08]

Here is another reference for live iso build (but fedora is the only option)
https://github.com/ublue-os/titanoboa

It's supports also Alma Linux and CentOS

[gmpinder]

Think I found one https://github.com/Zeglius/cuckoo-iso-builder

[tulilirockz]

these are what I know currently:

• https://github.com/osbuild/bootc-image-builder with the type: anaconda-installer backend (it creates a separate rootfs from the container being used)
• https://github.com/osbuild/bootc-image-builder with the type: bootc-installer backend (uses a special flag to specify a container that already has anaconda on it, same idea as anaconda-installer though)
• https://osbuild.org/ directly, super hard to generate your stuff, bootc-image-builder is based on it
• https://github.com/ublue-os/titanoboa what universal blue in general is using right now, its a bit hacky but it does the job. generates live images off of whatever container you have and mutates them during the ISO build
• https://github.com/Zeglius/cuckoo-iso-builder its... like a cuckoo! - it gets your image, generates a live ISO with a different root filesystem (i think its a fedora one?) then deploys your actual image on it
• feat!: Only use container images as the only source of truth ublue-os/titanoboa#138 titanoboa but it doesn't mutate your image at ISO build time, it just generates an ISO based off of data inside of your container image instead of installing and doing some stuff then
• then i'm writing a new one (not published just yet) that literally just gets your rootfs, puts it into an ISO with systemd-boot and thats it, nothing else

then for the non-bootc-specific tooling:

• https://software.opensuse.org/package/kiwi - generic image builder, they seem to have a LOT of stuff going on there, including ISO building somewhere
• https://github.com/FyraLabs/katsu - ultramarine's image builder, same-ish idea as kiwi

[butrejp]

bootc-image-builder needs to work with other distributions as well if we don't want specifically fedora as the ISO environment. Maybe someone should investigate that

I was previously using bootc-image-builder for a centos base (via bluefin gdx) here:
https://github.com/butrejp/butrelinux/blob/d32b00b641b7ca4d049eb7d10fdd4c383e8a1a7a/.github/workflows/build_iso_legacy.yml

if by not fedora you mean outside the red hat ecosystem I'd say I doubt it, but bootc-image-builder absolutely works for anything in the red hat ecosystem. the caveat is that if you alter /etc/os-release it doesn't know what it's looking at, but as you can see you can see from my workflow you can just spoof it. if I recall I pulled that method from almalinux, though I was looking at quite a few different build workflows while putting it together.

my workflow isn't for every use case but what it gives you is a fully interactive anaconda installer for a frozen release that you can rebase to the signed registry if you want to receive updates. it could be altered for a more typical installation though.

EDIT:

currently I'm using mkksiso
https://github.com/butrejp/butrelinux/blob/main/.github/workflows/build_iso.yml
these ISOs haven't gone through the full smoke test yet so I haven't published them, but so far so good it seems