Bootable DVD
 

I am fairly new to Linux and I have been given a daunting task to take 4 RedHat CD's (RH3U8) and combine them into a bootable DVD. The purpose / goal is to distribute the DVD's to field sites to be used for "automated" configuration of some SUN test servers.

With help of great people and great forums such as this one, I was able to figure out how to create the ISO images and then port them to a Linux_DVD.iso file using make.dvdiso.sh (figuring out how to actually burn the DVD is a different story ... :study:

I've seen this topic adressed in several places, but none of those discussions helps me with the second part of my task :scratch: After the OS is installed, I need to reconfigure the kernel for customization. I need the following commands to be executed once the OS is in place:

1. cd /usr/src/linux-2.4
2. make mrproper
3. cp GS.config .config
4. make oldconfig
5. make depend
6. make -j 16 bzImage
7. make -j 16 modules
8. make modules_install
9. cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.4.21-47
10. cp System.map /boot/2.4.21-47-System.map
11. cp .config /boot/config-2.4.21-47
12. /sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.21-47 2.4.21-47.ELcustom
13. cd /boot/
14. rm -f System.map
15. ln -s 2.4.21-47-System.map System.map
16. Add the new kernel to the /boot/grub/grub.conf (add it as the first kernel to allow auto boot):
title GSKernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage-2.4.21-47 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47

If there is a way to get all of this to execute from my DVD, I would be extremely greatful for any help / ideas.

Jx2

If all machines are similiar as hardware goes and seems you are using the same config file then all you don't need to build on each machine. Why do it over and over and waste any down time if you have it built on one machine already.

You need to copy the kernel image and initrd file to /boot. Copy the modules to /lib/modules/kernel_version_number, add to the boot manager, and run ' depmod -a ' to generate a module map. I do this with three machine I have. Build on one and copy to the others. For the boot manager i just copy the modified grub.conf file over the old.

Brian

Brian1,
thanks for the reply. The problem I have here is two-fold:

1. The machines are straight out of the box and are not co-located; they are all over the country and a majority of the sites that will run these servers do not have admins available; the employees at the field sites would need to build the machines and my goal is to make it as "painless" as possible. This is just a Proof Of Concept for a major, nationwide rollout.

I like the idea of working with the grub.conf file; I actually gave that a bit of thought right after my initial post :-) I was toying with the idea of creating a custom grub.conf and adding it to the DVD. Then call a command in my script that would move the grub.conf to grub.conf.orig and put the new grub.conf in place.

Jx2