I don't get what you are trying to say, you mean you don't have acces to
ooutput from rpm -qla? That is a social problem, not a technical, so you need
a social solution.
well, I can do rpm -qla & get a huge list of rpms. But I don't know what rpms must be contained in the basic rootfs.
Still don't get it all :-( Anyway, the list what makes up a base install can
be found somewhere on the installation media. do some googling on making your
own installation media from redhat 8 or RHEL*.
The problem to me is I don't have installation media. That's why I use rpmrebuild to generate the .rpm files based on installed files. (something like repackaging but without erasing intalled rpm)
Maybe you could try this: boot into a uml with a similar rpm-based rootfs.
Have a separate ubd that is going to hold your new RHEL rootfs, and make sure
you have acces from inside the UML to your installation media. then do some
trickery with rpm to use an alternate root and rpm-db on the new rootfs, and
install the minimal system and the base system. There may be a specific order
you need to use. You will end up with a unconfigured pristine install. add
you UML kernel modules to it and try to boot it. You will probably need to
tweak the initscripts and the initrd.
That should all be doable without root acces(but with a loot of resources),
but you will need root acces to connect it to the outside network.
connect to outside network of UML probably need root access to set up.
Another solution is to install on a separate machine you have root on(like
your desktop :-) copy your root image to a normal file and you are good too.
I don't have root access to other machines. My desktop is not helpful - he is a windows xp. :-(
thanks,
--xinhuan
