Welcome to the VMware Photon Linux Release!

Introduction

Photon is a Linux Distribution that uses RPM as its packaging system.

Folder Layout

photon/
├── Makefile
├── README
├── SPECS # RPM SPEC files
├── cloud-init.md
├── gce.md
├── installer # Installer used at runtime
└── support

How to build the ISO?

Assuming you checked out the workspace under $HOME/workspaces/photon.

cd $HOME/workspaces/photon
sudo make iso

Deliverable will be created at $HOME/workspaces/photon/stage/photon.iso

How to use cached toolchain and RPMS?

mkdir $HOME/photon-cache
sudo make iso PHOTON_CACHE_PATH=$HOME/photon-cache

Directory format of PHOTON_CACHE_PATH is as follows.

photon-cache/
├──tools-build.tar.gz
├──RPMS/x86-64/*.rpm
└──RPMX/noarch/*.rpm

How to use cached sources?

mkdir $HOME/photon-sources
sudo make iso PHOTON_SOURCES_PATH=$HOME/photon-sources

Directory format of PHOTON_SOURCES_PATH is as follows.

photon-sources/
├──src1.tar.gz
├──src2.tar.gz
└──...

How to build the toolchain?

1. Check toolchain pre-requisites

$HOME/workspaces/photon/support/toolchain/version-check.sh

2. Make toolchain

$HOME/workspaces/photon
sudo make toolchain

Pre-requisites :

• Build O/S : Ubuntu 14.04 (or later) 64 bit
• Packages: bison, gawk, g++, createrepo, python-aptdaemon, genisoimage, texinfo, python-requests

sudo apt-get -y install bison gawk g++ createrepo python-aptdaemon genisoimage texinfo python-requests

Settings:

Make sure /bin/sh is a symbolic link pointing to /bin/bash

If /bin/sh is pointing /bin/dash, execute the following:

rm -f /bin/sh
ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

Where are the build logs?

$HOME/workspaces/photon/stage/LOGS

Complete build environment using Vagrant

A Vagrantfile is available to ensure a quick standup of a development/build environment for Photon, this Vagrantfile uses a box called photon-build-machine box that is created through a Packer template available under support/packer-templates, see the README.md for more information on how to build photon-build-machine.

Photon Vagrant box

As with the build-machine a Packer template is available under support/packer-templates to build a Photon based Vagrant box running Docker, see the README.md for more information on how to build.

Automated build environment and Vagrant boxes

Convenience make targets also exist to build both the photon-build-machine and the photon Packer templates as well as building a fresh ISO using the photon-build-machine. See the README.md for more details.