USAGE.rst

mic

mic Means Image Creator for Linux distributions

Date:	2012-03-02
Copyright:	GPLv2
Version:	0.1
Manual section:	1
Manual group:	System

SYNOPSIS

mic create SUBCOMMAND <ksfile> [OPTION]

mic chroot [OPTION] <imgfile>

mic convert [OPTION] <imgfile> <format>

DESCRIPTION

The tools mic is used to create and manipulate images for Linux distributions. It is composed of three subcommand: create, convert, chroot.

USAGE

create

This command is used to create various images, including live CD, live USB, loop, raw.

Usage:

mic create(cr) SUBCOMMAND <ksfile> [OPTION]

Subcommands:

help(?) give detailed help on a specific sub-command

fs create fs image, which is also chroot directory

livecd create live CD image, used for CD booting

liveusb create live USB image, used for USB booting

loop create loop image, including multi-partitions

raw create raw image, containing multi-partitions

Options:

-h, --help	show the help message
--logfile=LOGFILE
	specify the path of logfile, save the output to logfile LOGFILE
-c CONFIG, --config=CONFIG
	specify configure file for mic, default is /etc/mic/mic.conf
-k CACHEDIR, --cachedir=CACHEDIR
	cache directory used to store the downloaded files and packages
-o OUTDIR, --outdir=OUTDIR
	directory used to locate the output image and files
-A ARCH, --arch=ARCH
	specify repo architecture, genarally mic would detect the architecture, if existed more than one architecture, mic would give hint to you
--local-pkgs-path=LOCAL_PKGS_PATH
	specify the path for local rpm packages, which would be stored your own rpm packages
--pkgmgr=PKGMGR
	specify backend package mananger, currently yum and zypp available
--record-pkgs=RECORD_PKGS
	record the info of installed packages, multiple values can be specified which joined by ",", valid values: "name", "content", "license"
--copy-kernel	Copy kernel files from image /boot directory to the image output directory.
--compress-disk-image=COMPRESS_DISK_IMAGE
	Sets the disk image compression. NOTE: The available values might depend on the used filesystem type.
--release=RID	Generate a release of RID with all necessary files, when @BUILD_ID@ is contained in kickstart file, it will be replaced by RID. sample values: "latest", "tizen_20120101.1"

Examples:

mic create loop tizen.ks

mic create livecd tizen.ks --release=latest

mic cr fs tizen.ks --local-pkgs-path=localrpm

chroot

This command is used to chroot inside the image, it's a great enhancement of chroot command in linux system.

Usage:

mic chroot(ch) <imgfile>

Options:

-h, --help	show the help message
-s SAVETO, --saveto=SAVETO
	save the unpacked image to specified directory SAVETO

Examples:

mic chroot loop.img

mic chroot tizen.iso

mic ch -s tizenfs tizen.usbimg

convert

This command is used for converting an image to another format.

Usage:

mic convert(cv) <imagefile> <destformat>

Options:

-h, --help	show the help message
-S, --shell	launch interactive shell before packing the new image in the converting

Examples:

mic convert tizen.iso liveusb

mic convert tizen.usbimg livecd

mic cv --shell tizen.iso liveusb

KNOWN ISSUES

Bug of latest syslinux package

In some new Linux distributions, the "syslinux" package in their official software repositories is the version 4.04. It will cause segment fault for a fatal bug, and mic will failed with syslinux installation errors.

The solution is to install the patched "syslinux" package in MeeGo or Tizen's tools repos, until the official released one being fixed.

Failed to create btrfs image in openSUSE

When creating btrfs image in openSUSE, it would hang up with showing image kernel panic. This issue impact all openSUSE distributions: 12.1, 11.4, 11.3, etc

REPORTING BUGS

The source code is tracked in github.com:

https://github.com/jfding/mic

Please report issues for bugs or feature requests.