1.6 Customizing an Installation Boot Image

The software described in this documentation is either in Extended Support or Sustaining Support. See https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/enterprise-linux-support-policies-069172.pdf for more information.
Oracle recommends that you upgrade the software described by this documentation as soon as possible.

1.6 Customizing an Installation Boot Image

You can write the kickstart file to a modified installation boot image, which you can use to install a guest machine under Oracle VM or Oracle VM Virtualbox. Alternatively, you can burn the image to a bootable CD or DVD.

For information about using kickstart for automated installation, see Chapter 3, Installing Oracle Linux by Using Kickstart.

To customize an installation boot image:

On another Oracle Linux 6 system, mount the installation CD, DVD, or boot ISO image on a suitable mount point, for example /media/Oracle\ Linux\ Server.
Copy the isolinux directory to a temporary directory such as /tmp:
```
# cp -r /media/Oracle\ Linux\ Server/isolinux /tmp
```
Copy the kickstart file to /tmp/isoimage, for example:
```
# cp /root/ks.cfg /tmp/isoimage
```
Change the mode on the files in /tmp/isoimage to be writable by root:
```
# chmod u+w /tmp/isoimage/*
```
Edit /tmp/isoimage/isolinux.cfg and change the setting for append in the label linux menu entry to use the kickstart file, for example:
```
label linux
  menu label ^Install or upgrade an existing system
  menu default
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg
```
If required, specify the method that should be used for the installation together with any other parameters. For example, use DHCP to configure the network interface and install the system from an HTTP server on which the installation image is available:
```
  append initrd=initrd.img ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg ip=dhcp repo=http://192.168.1.100/OL6.6
```

Create the ISO image file:

# mkisofs -o /tmp/boot.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot \ 
  -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T /tmp/isolinux

In Oracle VM VirtualBox or Oracle VM, you can make the boot.iso file available to a guest machine via a virtual CD-ROM device, and boot the machine from this device.
To write the image to a CD or DVD that you can use to boot a physical system, use a command such as cdrecord, for example:
```
# cdrecord -v -eject speed=16 dev=ATA:0,2,0 boot.iso
```
You can use the cdrecord -scanbus command to display the SCSI subsystem and device that corresponds to the CD or DVD writer.