I created my own elemental derivative image and I have the elemental cli tool installed on it. I can create a seed image iso with it and I am able to boot the iso, however on boot it doesn't seem to install anything. My custom iso just stays in live mode when I boot it. In a typical elemental installation it seems the elemental-register --install command is automatically triggered on boot, which installs the iso and reboots the machine. I am wondering what calls the elemental-register command? Is there something else I need to add on my custom iso instead of just the elemental cli?

It's normally done by a yip config in

/system/oem

: https://github.com/rancher/elemental/blob/v2.2.1/framework/files/system/oem/99_elemental-register-install.yaml

I am installing whatever the default features are for elemental-init

elemental init --debug --force

In my /system/oem/ folder on my livecd I only see these files

if you are making a derivative then the expected file should be there already, I think the elemental-setup feature is the only thing you miss, this feature creates all the systemd unit files so that the stages are executed, this is part of the init initialization process: https://github.com/rancher/elemental-toolkit/tree/main/pkg/features/embedded/elemental-setup/etc/systemd/system

I am not creating a derivative from the elemental os base image. I am using my own base image. Is this why I am missing the files? The systemd unit files you mentioned are on my livecd and in place, I dont think thats the issue I could be wrong though.

oh yes, then definitely you need to populate your /system/oem with the same file

ok so then how does that /system/oem files get triggered?

By default,

elemental

reads the yaml configuration files from the following paths in order:

/system/oem

,

/oem

and

/usr/local/cloud-config

. (ref)

ok cool that makes sense

the

if: '[ -f /run/elemental/live_mode ]'

will also make the yip run only in live mode, the file can continue to live in the filesystem but will just be skipped afterwards

ohh ok cool

you may want to check the other default files from the Elemental image, like this one to start the needed elemental-system-agent: https://github.com/rancher/elemental/blob/v2.2.1/framework/files/system/oem/99_elemental_system_agent.yaml

Ok sweet yeah I will be wanting to do that

actually, I missed part of the puzzle, you also may want to look at the services, the elemental-register-install.service for example used in the first yip I linked: https://github.com/rancher/elemental/tree/main/framework/files/usr/lib/systemd/system

I am running into an issue now where when elemental install runs I run out of space on some workingTree folder. Its something with the rsync, but I have my disk I am installing to 200GB. I feel like that should be plenty of space I can get error in a second here. Just wondering if you had any ideas.

may depend on the rootfs configuration: https://github.com/rancher/elemental/blob/main/framework/files/system/oem/01_elemental-rootfs.yaml

yeah I am trying to build another distribution