How to customize a release?

[John Baldwin]

On Thursday 02 September 2004 03:21 pm, ctodd at chrismiller.com wrote:
> I'm looking for information on how to properly customize a FreeBSD
> distribution when using the "make release" framework. Specifically I need
> to modify some config files to default to serial console and fast baud
> rate, and use a custom kernel configuration (not just hack the GENERIC
> conf file).
>
> The documentation on the FreeBSD site covers how to build a release, but
> other than a few hints I'm not finding and references on the correct way
> to _customize_ the release. I did find a site that discusses building a
> release, mirroring the usr/src tree from that release directory, modifying
> the source, then creating a diff patch that's used on a subsequent "make
> release". If it works as advertised, this is somewhat helpful other than
> waiting an entire day for multiple release builds to finish.
>
> Is there a way to populate the build area with the source, then apply my
> own patches prior to running a full "make release"? I tried "make
> release.1" but this totally ignored my CHROOTDIR and tried to create "/R"
> in my root partition :-(.
>
> Also I noted that "make rerelease" updates the source from CVS which is
> undesirable in my case since I already have fresh source that was used
> to create patches, and if any of those original files changed my patches
> could fail. Can CVS updates be turned off for subsequent builds?
>
> Lastly, KERNCONF seems to have no relevance in "make release". How can I
> force a non generic kernel to be used when building the release?

There is a 'KERNELS' variable that is helpful.  Also, look at LOCAL_PATCHES 
and LOCAL_SCRIPTS as far as how to patch a release build.  Note that you can 
include patches to src/release/Makefile in LOCAL_PATCHES if need be. :)

-- 
John Baldwin <jhb at FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve"  =  http://www.FreeBSD.org