An archiso profile consists of several configuration files and a directory for files to be added to the resulting image.
profile/
├── airootfs/
├── efiboot/
├── syslinux/
├── grub/
├── bootstrap_packages.arch
├── packages.arch
├── pacman.conf
└── profiledef.sh
The required files and directories are explained in the following sections.
This file describes several attributes of the resulting image and is a place for customization to the general behavior of the image.
The image file is constructed from some of the variables in profiledef.sh
: <iso_name>-<iso_version>-<arch>.iso
(e.g. archlinux-202010-x86_64.iso
).
iso_name
: The first part of the name of the resulting image (defaults tomkarchiso
)iso_label
: The ISO's volume label (defaults toMKARCHISO
)iso_publisher
: A free-form string that states the publisher of the resulting image (defaults tomkarchiso
)iso_application
: A free-form string that states the application (i.e. its use-case) of the resulting image (defaults tomkarchiso iso
)iso_version
: A string that states the version of the resulting image (defaults to""
)install_dir
: A string (maximum eight characters long, which must consist of[a-z0-9]
) that states the directory on the resulting image into which all files will be installed (defaults tomkarchiso
)buildmodes
: An optional list of strings, that state the build modes that the profile uses. Only the following are understood:bootstrap
: Build a compressed file containing a minimal system to bootstrap fromiso
: Build a bootable ISO image (implicit default, if nobuildmodes
are set)netboot
: Build artifacts required for netboot using iPXE
bootmodes
: A list of strings, that state the supported boot modes of the resulting image. Only the following are understood:bios.syslinux.mbr
: Syslinux for x86 BIOS booting from a diskbios.syslinux.eltorito
: Syslinux for x86 BIOS booting from an optical discuefi-ia32.grub.esp
: GRUB for IA32 UEFI booting from a diskuefi-ia32.grub.eltorito
: GRUB for IA32 UEFI booting from an optical discuefi-x64.grub.esp
: GRUB for x64 UEFI booting from a diskuefi-x64.grub.eltorito
: GRUB for x64 UEFI booting from an optical discuefi-ia32.systemd-boot.esp
: systemd-boot for IA32 UEFI booting from a diskuefi-ia32.systemd-boot.eltorito
: systemd-boot for IA32UEFI booting from an optical discuefi-x64.systemd-boot.esp
: systemd-boot for x64 UEFI booting from a diskuefi-x64.systemd-boot.eltorito
: systemd-boot for x64 UEFI booting from an optical disc Note that BIOS El Torito boot mode must always be listed before UEFI El Torito boot mode.
arch
: The architecture (e.g.x86_64
) to build the image for. This is also used to resolve the name of the packages file (e.g.packages.x86_64
)pacman_conf
: Thepacman.conf
to use to install packages to the work directory when creating the image (defaults to the host's/etc/pacman.conf
)airootfs_image_type
: The image type to create. The following options are understood (defaults tosquashfs
):squashfs
: Create a squashfs image directly from the airootfs work directoryext4+squashfs
: Create an ext4 partition, copy the airootfs work directory to it and create a squashfs image from iterofs
: Create an EROFS image for the airootfs work directory
airootfs_image_tool_options
: An array of options to pass to the tool to create the airootfs image.mksquashfs
andmkfs.erofs
are supported. Seemksquashfs --help
ormkfs.erofs --help
for all possible optionsbootstrap_tarball_compression
: An array containing the compression program and arguments passed to it for compressing the bootstrap tarball (defaults tocat
). For example:bootstrap_tarball_compression=(zstd -c -T0 --long -19)
.file_permissions
: An associative array that lists files and/or directories who need specific ownership or permissions. The array's keys contain the path and the value is a colon separated list of owner UID, owner GID and access mode. E.g.file_permissions=(["/etc/shadow"]="0:0:400")
. When directories are listed with a trailing backslash (/
) all files and directories contained within the listed directory will have the same owner UID, owner GID, and access mode applied recursively.
All packages to be installed into the environment of a bootstrap image have to be listed in an architecture specific
file (e.g. bootstrap_packages.x86_64
), which resides top-level in the profile.
Packages have to be listed one per line. Lines starting with a #
and blank lines are ignored.
This file is required when generating bootstrap images using the bootstrap
build mode.
All packages to be installed into the environment of an ISO image have to be listed in an architecture specific file
(e.g. packages.x86_64
), which resides top-level in the profile.
Packages have to be listed one per line. Lines starting with a #
and blank lines are ignored.
Note
The mkinitcpio and mkinitcpio-archiso packages are mandatory (see #30).
This file is required when generating ISO images using the iso
or netboot
build modes.
A configuration for pacman is required per profile.
Some configuration options will not be used or will be modified:
CacheDir
: the profile's option is only used if it is not the default (i.e./var/cache/pacman/pkg
) and if it is not the same as the system's option. In all other cases the system's pacman cache is used.HookDir
: it is always set to the/etc/pacman.d/hooks
directory in the work directory's airootfs to allow modification via the profile and ensure interoparability with hosts using dracut (see #73)RootDir
: it is always removed, as setting it explicitely otherwise refers to the host's root filesystem (seeman 8 pacman
for further information on the-r
option used bypacstrap
)LogFile
: it is always removed, as setting it explicitely otherwise refers to the host's pacman log file (seeman 8 pacman
for further information on the-r
option used bypacstrap
)DBPath
: it is always removed, as setting it explicitely otherwise refers to the host's pacman database (seeman 8 pacman
for further information on the-r
option used bypacstrap
)
This optional directory may contain files and directories that will be copied to the work directory of the resulting
image's root filesystem.
The files are copied before packages are being installed to work directory location.
Ownership and permissions of files and directories from the profile's airootfs
directory are not preserved. The mode
will be 644
for files and 755
for directories, all of them will be owned by root. To set custom ownership and/or
permissions, use file_permissions
in profiledef.sh
.
With this overlay structure it is possible to e.g. create users and set passwords for them, by providing
airootfs/etc/passwd
, airootfs/etc/shadow
, airootfs/etc/gshadow
(see man 5 passwd
, man 5 shadow
and man 5 gshadow
respectively).
If user home directories exist in the profile's airootfs
, their ownership and (and top-level) permissions will be
altered according to the provided information in the password file.
A profile may contain configuration for several boot loaders. These reside in specific top-level directories, which are explained in the following subsections.
The following custom template identifiers are understood and will be replaced according to the assignments of the
respective variables in profiledef.sh
:
%ARCHISO_LABEL%
: Set this using theiso_label
variable inprofiledef.sh
.%INSTALL_DIR%
: Set this using theinstall_dir
variable inprofiledef.sh
.%ARCH%
: Set this using thearch
variable inprofiledef.sh
.
Additionally there are also custom template identifiers have harcoded values set by mkarchiso
that cannot be
overridden:
%ARCHISO_UUID%
: the ISO 9660 modification date in UTC, i.e. its "UUID",%ARCHISO_SEARCH_FILENAME%
: file path on ISO 9660 that can be used by GRUB to find the ISO volume (for GRUB ``.cfg`` files only).
This directory is mandatory when the uefi-x64.systemd-boot.esp
or uefi-x64.systemd-boot.eltorito
bootmodes are
selected in profiledef.sh
. It contains configuration for systemd-boot.
Note
The directory is a top-level representation of the systemd-boot configuration directories and files found in the root of an EFI system partition.
The custom template identifiers are only understood in the boot loader entry .conf files (i.e. not in
loader.conf
).
This directory is mandatory when the bios.syslinux.mbr
or the bios.syslinux.eltorito
bootmodes are selected in
profiledef.sh
.
It contains configuration files for syslinux or isolinux , or pxelinux used in the resulting image.
The custom template identifiers are understood in all .cfg files in this directory.
This directory is mandatory when any of the following bootmodes is used in profiledef.sh
:
uefi-ia32.grub.esp
oruefi-ia32.grub.eltorito
oruefi-x64.grub.esp
oruefi-x64.grub.eltorito
It contains configuration files for GRUB used in the resulting image.