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<h1><span><em>live Arch Linux</em> builder</span></h1>
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<li><a href="index.html"><h6>Table Of Contents</h6></a></li>
<li><a href="larch_live_system.html"><h6>Next:</h6>
<div class="indent1">Structure of a larch live system</div></a></li>
<li><a href="medium.html"><h6>Previous:</h6>
<div class="indent1">Preparing the larch live medium</div></a></li>
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<h2 id="pagetitle" level="1">Profiles</h2>
<p>This feature of the <em>larch</em> build system allows bundling
all the configuration information for a particular <em>live</em> system
'design' into a single directory, a <em>larch profile</em>, and the
name of the profile is the directory's name. This directory includes
the list of packages to be installed, locale information and the
particular tweaks and additions needed
to customize the system, in particular a subdirectory containing the
'overlay' files - those files which have been changed from their initial
fresh state after installation and those which have simply been added.
</p>
<p>Note that of all the profile files and directories mentioned here
only 'addedpacks' is not optional.
</p>
<h3><a name="overlay"></a>The overlay directory</h3>
<p>One of the simplest features of the profile is perhaps the
'<em>rootoverlay</em>' subdirectory:
everything in this directory is copied directly to the
<em>live</em> system's overlay, so that the a file 'a/b/c' within this
directory will appear at '/a/b/c' in the <em>live</em> system, regardless
of whether this file previously existed. Note however that all ownerships
are changed to 'root:root'. The bulk of the customizations for the
<em>live</em> system would normally be placed in this directory.
</p>
<p>It would be possible to make the desired alterations directly to the
base system, and there are situations in which one would pretty well
have to do it this way (for example if a modified or added file was to
have some ownership other than 'root:root'). But another advantage (apart
from the encapsulation of the customizations in the profile directory) of
keeping the modifications in a separate directory is that the base
installation can be kept 'clean' and thus it is easily reusable.
</p>
<p>If you would like to have a look at a profile, look in the 'profiles'
directory in the 'larch-profiles' package (if you have downloaded
<em>larch</em> by means of the 'larch-setup' script that will be
'larch0/profiles'). Each of its subdirectories is a profile.
If you want to make your own profile, it is probably easiest to start with
one of the examples. Copy one of these directories to your working directory
and rename it (to avoid confusion). The GUI offers some help with profile
management.
</p>
<h3><a name="cd-root"></a>The <strong>cd-root</strong> directory</h3>
<p>This directory contains files that are intended for more or less
direct copying to the <em>larch</em> medium, without being incorporated in
the squashed archives. This only applies to the subdirectories 'boot0',
'boot' and 'larch'.
<h4>Boot files</h4>
Everything in the 'boot0' directory is copied to the medium's
'boot' directory. If this directory doesn't exist, the default version
supplied in the 'larch' package (at 'cd-root/boot0') is used.
</p>
<p>Subsequently everything in the 'boot' directory is copied to the medium's
'boot' directory, potentially overwriting what was there before.
</p>
<p>Files specific to the syslinux family of bootloaders are kept in the
medium's 'boot/isolinux' directory. <em>larch</em> provides a default version
(in 'cd-root/boot0/isolinux'. To extend this, or
replace individual files, read the description of boot directory handling
above.
</p>
<h4>Specification of boot options and choices</h4>
<p>The file which ends up on the medium as 'boot/bootlines' is an easily
parseable, bootloader independent representation of the boot menu choices
for the <em>larch</em> system. The default version is supplied in the 'larch'
package as 'cd-root/boot0/bootlines', but this can be overridden in the
profile, as described above. The gui provides a button to edit this file
(cd-root/boot/bootlines in the profile). To get an idea of what should be
in here look at the default version, or just click on the edit button.
</p>
<h3><a name="larch-dir"></a>Special files in the <strong>cd-root/larch</strong> directory</h3>
<p>This directory is copied as is to the medium. Only the files of interest
in connection with the profile are mentioned here. Those generated during
larchification and medium construction are documented in the corresponding
sections.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a name="delarch"></a><strong>delarch</strong>
<p>This bash script is run by the <em>larchin</em> installer during
the tidy-up phase. It should remove/undo any profile-specific elements
of the <em>live</em> system which should not be present in a normal
installation. It receives a single argument, the path to the new
installation.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="boot-init"></a><strong>boot-init</strong>
<p>Used in the 'larch' initramfs hook, this optional script allows
adjustment of the overlay handling during the boot process, e.g.
getting them from another path.
Note that the shell environment here is that of the initramfs and thus
very limited. This option is for experts only and it is assumed that
the user will be able to determine what is possible and necessary
by reading the corresponding code of the hook.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="other-files"></a>Other important files within a profile</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>addedpacks</strong> - This is the only compulsory file in
the profile (it must even be present if you are not using the
installation stage, but it can be empty in that case). It contains
a list of packages and package groups to be installed to the 'base'
system. Here you can enter all the applications
you would like in your <em>live</em> CD/USB system (and subsequently
installed to a hard disk partition, if that was your intention).
Thanks to <em>pacman</em> you don't need to sort out dependencies,
these should all be included automatically. See
<a href="archin.html#package_selection">here</a> for details.
</li>
<li><strong>vetopacks</strong> - Allows 'vetoing' of packages included
indirectly in the installation list from 'addedpacks'. See
<a href="archin.html#package_selection">here</a> for details.
</li>
<li><strong>pacman.conf.repos</strong> - Set the repository part of
'pacman.conf' for the <em>live</em> system, and possibly also for
installation of the base system (See
<a href="archin.html#pacman_conf">here</a> for further details).
The default version will be adequate for many situations, but you
will need to supply this file if you use the 'testing' repository,
for example.
</li>
<li><strong>pacman.conf.options</strong> - Set the options part of
'pacman.conf' for the <em>live</em> system and for
installation of the base system (See
<a href="archin.html#pacman_conf">here</a> for further details).
This will generally not be needed as the default version will be
adequate for most purposes.
</li>
<li><strong>rootoverlay/etc/rc.conf</strong> - As a major point of
configuration in an <em>Arch</em> system this is important enough
to get a button in the <em>larch</em> gui to edit it.
</li>
<li><strong>rootoverlay/etc/locale.gen</strong> - For convenience, the
<em>larch</em> gui provides a button to edit this file, which determines
which glibc locales are supported in the <em>live</em> system. The
corresponding files are generated (to the overlay) by the 'larchify'
script, which has an option (for experts only) to reuse the locale
files from a previous run (in order to reduce generation time in
cases where the locales are unchanged).
</li>
<li><strong>rootoverlay/etc/mkinitcpio.conf.larch</strong> - Again for
convenience, the <em>larch</em> gui provides a button to edit this file,
which allows you to tweak the <em>initramfs</em>. This is a special version of
'/etc/mkinitcpio.conf' which is used to generate the <em>initramfs</em> for the
<em>larch live</em> system. The default version is supplied as
'/etc/mkinitcpio.conf.larch' in the 'larch-live' package. Whatever else
you change, don't change the larch hook.
</li>
<li><strong>rootoverlay/etc/inittab.larch</strong> - If this file is
present it will cause the original /etc/inittab to be saved with a
'.larchsave' suffix, and this new version will be used for the
<em>live</em> 'inittab'. This allows a special version of this file to
be used just for the <em>live</em> system, an installer
can replace it by the original during the installation process.
</li>
<li><strong>users</strong> - It is possible to add user accounts to the
system during building. See below.
</li>
<li><strong>skel_*</strong> (directory) - Customized '/etc/skel' substitutes
for use at build time only. See below.
</li>
<li><strong>kernel</strong> - If a kernel other than the standard
<em>Arch</em> 'kernel26' is used the name of the kernel binary in '/boot'
and of the <em>mkinitcpio</em> preset file in '/etc/mkinitcpio.d' need
to be supplied in this file, in the form 'kernel-binary preset-name'
(the default value is supplied in the 'larch' package as 'data/kernel').
</li>
<li><strong>vetodirs</strong> - Do not use this unless you really know what
you are doing. Each directory listed in this file (one entry per line,
comment lines start with '#') will be excluded from the live system. The
directories are relative to the installation root.
</li>
<li><strong>build-tweak</strong> - Do not use this unless you really know
what you are doing. It is a program (script) - so it must be executable -
to customize the construction of the overlay (to a certain extent). It gets
two arguments on the command line: the path to the installation being
larchified, and the (full) path to the directory in which the overlay is
being constructed. It is called just before 'mods.sqf' is squashed, but
also before users are added.
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="users"></a>Adding user accounts</h3>
<p>
The construction details should be provided in the 'users' file in the
profile directory. It is an 'ini'-style configuration file, the sections
being the user names. Here is an example:
<pre>[DEFAULT]
pw =
expert =
skel =
maingroup =
uid =
xgroups = video,audio,optical,storage,scanner,power,camera
[u1]
uid = 999
skel =
[u2]
pw = p1
expert =
skel =
maingroup =
uid =
xgroups = video,audio,optical,storage
</pre>
The 'DEFAULT' section is not necessary, but is generated automatically
by the gui user-table editor. Only entries which differ from the default
values need be present.
</p>
<p>The default primary group is defined by settings in '/etc/login.defs'
and '/etc/default/useradd' ('USERGROUPS_ENAB yes' in 'etc/login.defs'
causes this to be a group with the same name as the user). You can
override this by adding an 'expert' option, or by placing modified versions
of these files in the profile's 'rootoverlay' directory.
</p>
<p>The additional groups should be comma-separated and without spaces.
</p>
<p>If no 'skel'-file is specified, the default ('/etc/skel') is used, including
anything in the overlay. To use a custom 'skel'-file, place the directory
in the profile, giving it a name starting with 'skel_', and place the rest of
the name (the part after '_') in the configuration line.
</p>
<p>A password can be set for the new user by entering this (plain text -
I'm guessing this is alright in this situation ...). An empty password
field will allow passwordless logins (at least on the console).
</p>
<p>By default the UID number will be chosen automatically, but a specific
number may be entered here. In <em>Arch Linux</em> the UIDs normally start
at 1000.
</p>
<p>Users are added by means of 'useradd', so anything placed in the 'expert'
field should be a valid option to that command. If a user-name already exists
in the system to be larchified, it will be ignored (it does not count as
an error).
</p>
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