Custom AlmaLinux 9.4 KDE Live ISO Files

What you​ really need to know about this 9.4 custom Live ISO

Although, just like the 9.3 build, this ISO includes both the official 5.14 kernel and kernel-lt from ELRepo (6.1.91), the live session will only use the 5.14 kernel.

Both kernels are properly installed in the live ISO and will be installed on the final system (should you choose to install from this ISO), with the 6.1 kernel being the default one. Unfortunately, the way this live system is built does not allow for selecting the kernel used to boot the live session, and the default 5.14 kernel is the only one used in isolinux.

Both scripts that can be used to build the ISO, livemedia-creator and livecd-creator, are pathetically improvised Python scripts that have multiple comments that support for more than one kernel should be added, but nobody did so. For 9.3, I managed to hack-patch livemedia-creator so that it boots the kernel-lt kernel. Sadly, livemedia-creator fails to work in 9.4, so I had to use livecd-creator, which is more difficult to modify. (Both tools are from EPEL, originally created for Fedora; both suck big time, but livecd-creator can at least use a package cache that speeds the rebuilding.)

In brief:

• The live session can be used to evaluate the functioning of AlmaLinux 9.4 with KDE, provided that the 5.14 kernel supports all your hardware.

• For some newer hardware (such as the Mediatek MT7663 Wi-Fi/BT combo), the support available in ELRepo’s kernel-lt will become available after you install the distro.

• Using ELRepo’s kernels requires you to disable Secure Boot! (They are not signed.)

• To update the kernels from ELRepo, you need to enable the elrepo-kernel repository, which is disabled by default (upstream).

• This ISO and the resulting installed system will benefit from some preinstalled useful programs, and also from some preinstalled repos: almalinux-synergy (an AlmaLinux exclusivity that provides e.g. dnfdragora), EPEL, ELRepo, RPM Fusion (for restricted codecs).

• The official AlmaLinux KDE Live ISO is smaller, and it lacks (in my opinion) many useful apps, even if they’re not restricted in any way. I found it too bland to my taste.

• The reason I’ll try to keep building such an ISO after each release is that I use this distro on a laptop that lacks an Ethernet port and whose Wi-Fi is not supported by kernel 5.14. Starting with version 9.4, the Live ISO cannot be used with the newer kernel, but after installing it, this kernel will be used.

Managing two different kernel lines

The official 5.14 kernel and ELRepo’s 6.1 kernel-lt will receive updates that are not in sync, and thus one or another might become the default kernel without your approval. After any kernel update, I advise you to use grubby to check and set (if needed) the default kernel.

Usage example:

• Query the default kernel:

$ sudo grubby --default-kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-427.16.1.el9_4.x86_64

• List all the kernels:

$ sudo grubby --info=ALL
index=0
kernel="/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64"
args="ro resume=UUID=2c3e81c3-bdae-4541-b8da-62ac9a4b0399 rhgb quiet $tuned_params"
root="UUID=2fc67c1c-edbf-438c-aadb-1b8e06f6d2b9"
initrd="/boot/initramfs-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64.img $tuned_initrd"
title="AlmaLinux (6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64) 9.4 (Seafoam Ocelot)"
id="7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64"
index=1
kernel="/boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-427.16.1.el9_4.x86_64"
args="ro resume=UUID=2c3e81c3-bdae-4541-b8da-62ac9a4b0399 rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M $tuned_params"
root="UUID=2fc67c1c-edbf-438c-aadb-1b8e06f6d2b9"
initrd="/boot/initramfs-5.14.0-427.16.1.el9_4.x86_64.img $tuned_initrd"
title="AlmaLinux (5.14.0-427.16.1.el9_4.x86_64) 9.4 (Seafoam Ocelot)"
id="7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493-5.14.0-427.16.1.el9_4.x86_64"
index=2
kernel="/boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64"
args="ro resume=UUID=2c3e81c3-bdae-4541-b8da-62ac9a4b0399 rhgb quiet $tuned_params"
root="UUID=2fc67c1c-edbf-438c-aadb-1b8e06f6d2b9"
initrd="/boot/initramfs-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64.img $tuned_initrd"
title="AlmaLinux (5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64) 9.4 (Seafoam Ocelot)"
id="7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64"
index=3
kernel="/boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493"
args="ro resume=UUID=2c3e81c3-bdae-4541-b8da-62ac9a4b0399 rhgb quiet"
root="UUID=2fc67c1c-edbf-438c-aadb-1b8e06f6d2b9"
initrd="/boot/initramfs-0-rescue-7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493.img"
title="AlmaLinux (0-rescue-7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493) 9.4 (Seafoam Ocelot)"
id="7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493-0-rescue"

• Set the default kernel to the desired one:

$ sudo grubby --set-default-index=0
The default is /boot/loader/entries/7708ad9ea1cb419ba2290d3a61227493-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64.conf with index 0 and kernel /boot/vmlinuz-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64

• Check again:

$ sudo grubby --default-kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.90-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64