three quick questions...

honda_ricer · 11-24-2005, 02:15 PM

I'm creating a boot CD for kickstart installation... i know its long look for BOLD

Section 9.8.2. Creating a Kickstart Boot CD-ROM of the RHEL-3 Sysadmin Guide states:

To perform a CD-ROM-based kickstart installation, the kickstart file must be named ks.cfg and must be located in the boot CD-ROM's top-level directory. Since a CD-ROM is read-only, the file must be added to the directory used to create the image that is written to the CD-ROM.
Refer to the Making an Installation Boot CD-ROM section in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide for instruction on creating a boot CD-ROM; however, before making the file.iso image file, copy the ks.cfg kickstart file to the isolinux/ directory.

so i went there...

Section 2.5.2. Making an Installation Boot CD-ROM of RHEL-3 x86and 64 Multi-Install Guide:

isolinux (not available for Itanium systems) is used for booting the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation CD. To create your own CD-ROM to boot the installation program, use the following instructions:

Copy the isolinux/ directory from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1 into a temporary directory (referred to here as <path-to-workspace>) using the following command:

cp -r <path-to-cd>/isolinux/ <path-to-workspace>

Change directories to the <path-to-workspace> directory you have created:

cd <path-to-workspace>

Make sure the files you have copied have appropriate permissions:

chmod u+w isolinux/*

Finally, issue the following command to create the ISO image file:

mkisofs -o file.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T isolinux/

Note: The above command was split into two lines for printing purposes only. When you execute this command, be sure to type it as a single command, all on the same line.

Burn the resulting ISO image (named file.iso and located in <path-to-workspace>) to a CD-ROM as you normally would.

Perfect so far... but then...

Section 9.9. Making the Installation Tree Available of the RH EL-3 Sysadmin Guide states

The kickstart installation needs to access an installation tree. An installation tree is a copy of the binary Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs with the same directory structure.

If you are performing a CD-based installation, insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROM #1 into the computer before starting the kickstart installation.

If you are performing a hard-drive installation, make sure the ISO images of the binary Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs are on a hard drive in the computer.

If you are performing a network-based (NFS, FTP, or HTTP) installation, you must make the installation tree available over the network. Refer to the Preparing for a Network Installation section of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide for details.

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So my questions are...
1) Do i end up with 5 Cd's?
2) Do i use the booting one i created or the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROM #1
3) Is the one i created a full image of the installation disk one or just the boot portion of it?

honda_ricer · 11-25-2005, 09:34 AM

please?

honda_ricer · 11-28-2005, 12:11 PM

bump?

Haystack · 11-28-2005, 01:14 PM

Can you be more specific in what you are trying to accomplish? What guide is this you're copy-pasting? Why do you start with section 9.8.2 instead of starting from the beginning?

1) I don't think so... why do you think so? I'm getting confused

2) Do you want a Kickstart cdrom, A Installation cdrom or a Kickstart-Installation cdrom? I guess the "booting one" and the "RHEL cdrom1" should be the same disk if you mean the latter.

3) Doesn't the manual say somethink about this?

tkedwards · 11-28-2005, 09:13 PM

I'll take a guess at this, although I've never kickstarted a machine like this before:

Quote:

1) Do i end up with 5 Cd's?

Yes

Quote:

2) Do i use the booting one i created or the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROM #1

The boot CD that you created. I think you need to have

Code:

install 
cdrom

in your kickstart file to tell it to install off the CDs (https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/...2-options.html)

Quote:

3) Is the one i created a full image of the installation disk one or just the boot portion of it?

No its just the boot portion of it.

honda_ricer · 11-29-2005, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haystack
Can you be more specific in what you are trying to accomplish? What guide is this you're copy-pasting? Why do you start with section 9.8.2 instead of starting from the beginning?

1) I don't think so... why do you think so? I'm getting confused

2) Do you want a Kickstart cdrom, A Installation cdrom or a Kickstart-Installation cdrom? I guess the "booting one" and the "RHEL cdrom1" should be the same disk if you mean the latter.

3) Doesn't the manual say somethink about this?

Guides are hyperlinked

... both are official RedHat Guides... the sections i use are the ones concerning kickstart CD creation and they instruct me to hop from section to section from one guide to the other...

What im trying to acomplish is a Kickstart-Installation cdrom...

The manual says that i should create the Kickstart boot CD but then tells me to use the RHEL cdrom1 before... so i dont see the point... im guessing instructions are incorrect in the guide or im reading them wrong...

honda_ricer · 11-29-2005, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tkedwards
I'll take a guess at this, although I've never kickstarted a machine like this before:

Yes

The boot CD that you created. I think you need to have

Code:

install cdrom

in your kickstart file to tell it to install off the CDs (https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/...2-options.html)

No its just the boot portion of it.

is there a way to end up with just 4 cds?
i allready have

Code:

install 
cdrom

in my ks.cfg and it works from http://

Code:

linux ks=http://server/path

that line is just so the installer doenst ask u where to install from...

if the cd is just the boot portion of it... why do i need to boot with the RHEL cdrom1? the guide says that i should boot with RHEL cdrom1... even if i have the boot-kickstart cdrom i just made... so its either a typo or i should boot from RHEL cdrom1 and the insert the boot-kickstart cd to load the ks.cfg... but that sound dumb since i could have just put the ks.cfg file in the cd with no configuration and no boot option...

isnt there a way just to make a new iso of the RHELcdrom1 with the ks.cfg file included? thats all i want to do...

honda_ricer · 11-29-2005, 06:46 AM

Code:

install
cdrom
lang en_US.UTF-8
langsupport --default en_US.UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
mouse generic3ps/2 --device psaux
xconfig --card "NVIDIA Quadro 4 (generic)" --videoram 131072 --hsync 30-81 --vsync 55-75 --resolution 1024x768 --depth 24 --startxonboot  --defaultdesktop gnome
network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp --hostname cambiar
rootpw --iscrypted xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
firewall --disabled 
auth  --enableshadow  --enablemd5 
timezone America/Caracas
bootloader --location=mbr --append hdc=ide-scsi 

%packages
@ everything
grub
kernel-smp
kernel

%post

just in case anyone need a sample one...

tkedwards · 11-30-2005, 12:20 AM

Quote:

if the cd is just the boot portion of it... why do i need to boot with the RHEL cdrom1? the guide says that i should boot with RHEL cdrom1... even if i have the boot-kickstart cdrom i just made... so its either a typo or i should boot from RHEL cdrom1 and the insert the boot-kickstart cd to load the ks.cfg... but that sound dumb since i could have just put the ks.cfg file in the cd with no configuration and no boot option...

I can't work it out exactly from the documentation either. Just try both - boot off the Boot CD that you created with your ks.cfg on it, if it works it should ask you for the CDs when it starts. If that doesn't work do it the other way round - boot off the Redhat install CD1.

Quote:

isnt there a way just to make a new iso of the RHELcdrom1 with the ks.cfg file included? thats all i want to do...

It doesn't seem to be in the doco so the only way to know is to give it a try.

I'd suggest just putting the kickstart files on your http server instead of fiddling around with CDs. That way you can give each machine an IP address through DHCP so that they will pickup the right kickstart file from the HTTP server. If you've got a lot of machines you should consider copying the ISO images to the web server and mounting them and having the kickstart pick it up off that - saves you having to change the CDs in each machine all the time.

honda_ricer · 11-30-2005, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tkedwards
I can't work it out exactly from the documentation either. Just try both - boot off the Boot CD that you created with your ks.cfg on it, if it works it should ask you for the CDs when it starts. If that doesn't work do it the other way round - boot off the Redhat install CD1.

It doesn't seem to be in the doco so the only way to know is to give it a try.

I'd suggest just putting the kickstart files on your http server instead of fiddling around with CDs. That way you can give each machine an IP address through DHCP so that they will pickup the right kickstart file from the HTTP server. If you've got a lot of machines you should consider copying the ISO images to the web server and mounting them and having the kickstart pick it up off that - saves you having to change the CDs in each machine all the time.

i allready did it from http... and i will mount all the isos in a server for nfs install but the cd was meant for comps without inet access..