Aloha!

I have successfully setup a FOG server to image my Windows clients, so I have tftp, pxe and anything else related to booting to a pxe server setup and rocking.

What I'm trying to do now, is use the CentOS net install files to setup CentOS on an old server with no USB boot option, and a broken scsi cdrom drive (it's a Dell PowerEdge 2400, with a single PIII 733 and 1.25GB ram).

Using the FOG Projects gparted wiki entry (adding gparted to the pxe boot menu) I was actually successfully able to pull the net install files over to the PE, and install CentOS 5.5 via local ftp server.

At first it kept erroring out (I kept picking and choosing individual packages from the package groups), so I thought it may be an issue with the GUI install (the python script kept spitting back errors forcing a reboot). In any case, I finally got through the GUI install, but now I need / want to know how to force a text mode install.

Here's the relevant section in my /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file:

the bolded "append" line is where I thought I could force the text mode install script, but that didn't work. The vmlinuz and initrd.img files were both pulled form the net install iso, NOT the livecd.

Would that have made a difference? If not, what / where / how should I force the text mode install script?

Mahalo!

It may not be a direct answer, but the DRBL project come with all netinstall preconfigured for PXE by default. It may be what you are looking for. It also include ghost and imaging capability.

now that sounds interesting, I'll have to check that software out also.

but, will it allow me to do what I want - force a text mode installation? Time to get my reading glasses on ...

I just tested, apparently text mode is the default

1 members found this post helpful.

NICE! Thank you for doing the leg work, time to fire up a VM and get some testing going.

Mahalo!