{"id":64,"date":"2008-03-05T16:37:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T16:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.danplanet.com\/wordpress\/?p=64"},"modified":"2011-11-29T16:54:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T16:54:52","slug":"making-a-kvm-bootable-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/05\/making-a-kvm-bootable-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a KVM-bootable image"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to re-learn how to create a bootable image from a filesystem tree (such as a tarball of a root filesystem, or a Xen partition image).\u00a0 If for no other reason than recording it for next time, here it is.<\/p>\n

Create an image file (lets assume 4MB will do it), partition it, mount the partition, and copy in the root filesystem<\/p>\n

% dd if=\/dev\/zero of=test.img bs=1M count=4
\n% parted test.img mklabel msdos
\n% parted test.img mkpart primary 0 4
\n% losetup \/dev\/loop0 test.img
\n% kpartx -a \/dev\/loop0
\n% mount \/dev\/mapper\/loop0p1 \/mnt
\n% cp -rav \/path\/to\/root \/mnt\/<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, you need to put a kernel and an initrd on it.\u00a0 Assuming a RedHat-like system:<\/p>\n

% mkdir -p \/mnt\/boot\/grub
\n% cp \/boot\/vmlinuz-`uname -r` \/mnt\/boot\/vmlinuz
\n% mkinitrd –with ata_piix –with rtl8139 \/mnt\/boot\/initrd `uname -r`<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next, you need a bootloader:<\/p>\n

% cat >\/mnt\/boot\/grub\/grub.conf <<EOF
\ndefault 0
\ntimeout 5
\ntitle My System
\nkernel \/boot\/vmlinuz root=\/dev\/sda1
\ninitrd \/boot\/initrd
\nEOF
\n% cat >\/tmp\/grub_setup <<EOF
\ndevice (hd0) \/path\/to\/image\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 # NB: Put your full path here
\nroot (hd0,0)
\nsetup (hd0)
\nEOF
\n% grub < \/tmp\/grub_setup<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s it!\u00a0 Now you can unmount your image:<\/p>\n

% umount \/mnt
\n% kpartx -d \/dev\/loop0
\n% losetup -d \/dev\/loop0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The resulting image should boot normally in QEMU, KVM, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to re-learn how to create a bootable image from a filesystem tree (such as a tarball of a root filesystem, or a Xen partition image).\u00a0 If for no other reason than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[43,46],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-codemonkeying","category-linux","tag-linux-2","tag-virtualization"],"yoast_head":"\nMaking a KVM-bootable image - Right Angles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/05\/making-a-kvm-bootable-image\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making a KVM-bootable image - 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