Installation Images
Installation images are used to speed installation up. Each separate image contains a compact part of a filesystem. Several images can be combined together to finally create several different complete systems - the only unique image for each such system is a separate image containing RPM (plus other metadata) database for a particular system.
Example of images on media:
Available Images:
* Base_System
* Xorg
* Additional_Tools
* Metadata_image_*, one for each imageset
Example of imagesets (combinations of images):
Base System:
+ Base_System
+ Metadata_image_1 (Base_System.meta)
Advanced System:
+ Base_System
+ Xorg
+ Metadata_image_2 (Base_System.meta + Xorg.meta)
Superadvanced System
+ Base_System
+ Xorg
+ Additional_Tools
+ Metadata_image_3 (Base_System.meta + Xorg.meta + Additional_Tools.meta)
Supported Types of Images
*.lzma (((files)tar)lzma) - TAR* archive additionally compressed with LZMA
*.xz - (((files)tar)lzma) - TAR* archive additionally compressed with newer LZMA
*.tar.bzip2, *.tar.gz (((files)tar)bzip2/gzip) - TAR*/Bzip2; resp. TAR*/Gzip archive
* Each TAR archive is created with: --numeric-owner --checkpoint=400 --record-size=10240
Imagesets Description
If we want to use installation images, we have to describe them first. See the example of file stored on the first installation media:
This XML file describes sets of images from which an installation chooses the best-matching one according to <patterns>...</patterns> item defined in each imageset.
Images Details
Each imageset contains one or more images. To provide a useful feedback when deploying the images, they have to be described in /images/details-$ARCH.xml, respectively in file /images/details.xml stored on the first installation media:
$ARCH is any architecture recognized by Yast see Arch library in yast2. Mandatary items for each image (file name) are file and size (in bytes).