What I want to achieve:
I want to create an ISO image with a customised boot menu that will allow me to install a system via an autoinst.xml file and also allow me to specify a source (http) location for the installation.
Basically if I could edit the boot menu of a current installation ISO, this would be great. I know that I can do this manually when I boot from the distribution ISOs, but I would like to completely automate the installation.
I just need the ISO to be able to boot up the machine and then point to the autoinst.xml file and specify the source location of the installation files to complete the installation.
Would I need to use kiwi to do this, or is there another way?
If you are planning on UEFI installs, then the menu for booting the installer is editable already.
Make a boot USB, following the directions on the install page for Leap 15.1. The first partition on that USB drive is the EFI partition. Relative to that partition, the boot menu is “EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg”. As far as I know, it is safe to edit that, provided you don’t exceed the space available in that EFI partition (it is only a 3.8M partition).
A while ago, I experimented with the Leap 42.3 installer on a USB. I created a new, larger EFI partition toward the end of my 8G USB flash drive. I changed the partition type code of the original EFI partition, so that it just looked like an ordinary FAT partition. The I proceeded to make further useful changes to the larger EFI partition that I had created. That all worked, and I could still use it for installing.
If you simply want to install a system using UEFI,
As nrickert describes, you can do this with the regular DVD image,
When you arrive at your final “Installation Summary” screen, click on the “Boot” section (It’s a clickable hyperlink) and the YaST bootloader module will allow you to set up whatever you want.
If you’re looking to do an unattended install, then the AutoYaST tool can do that for you.
I’d have to think a bit whether a special ISO created using something like kiwi might be any advantage, my impression generally is that if your BIOS is configured for UEFI, the DVD should automatically detect that and install accordingly.
No need to create an ISO image, use installation by net (from server to machine that has no OS installed) or cloning disk with a installed system (also you can do it from server to machine that has no OS installed).
I have already created an autoinst.xml file for autoyast to use, so the installation of the OS sorted out.
I do understand that you can boot with with the installation DVD and then edit the grub boot menu to enter the location of the autoinst.xml file to do the installation.
What I am trying to achieve is not to have to edit the boot menu at boot time. I would like to ‘recreate’ the boot menu to have the location of the autoinst.xml included, so that I can just select the installation option on boot (or have it selected automatically on a timeout) and let the installation start from there without any other intervention. So basically, I am trying to build an ISO which can do the installation with no intervention.
I am putting together a home lab in a VM environment and would like to be able to deploy test VMs with the minimum of effort.