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Remote installation of a Slackware Linux

Hello,

Is there someone who already succesfully perfomed a remote Slackware installation over a previous existing Linux distro (random flavour)? I have a server running already a Debian and I want to install a Slackware 10.2 on it. The problem is that I can not physicaly access the server so none of the installation solution will work for me (floppies, CD-ROM, NFS).

I can boot the server on a busybox/rescue mode but I have no clue how can I launch a Slackware installation afterwards. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thank you,
G.

Interesting.....

I'll look into it. Some interesting issues here (starting the install, partitioning, etc...)

Look at thisb thread here. Doesn't look good.

From what I could gather, the install/setup program of Slackware doesn't make life easy.

There are some possible options:
Make a install partition on the remote machine, copy the Slackware files over to it, and boot to that partition (I think).

If you had access to the cdrom drive, it would be easy, but the setup you describe is not.

Good luck.

P.S. This is as far as I'll go on this subject.
Reason? It's getting dangerously close to 'Hacking into a remote system, and installing Slackware on it.'

Google is your friend. So is searching the forums here. All the info I got was from those two things.

remote slackware install to headless server

I have a 13.1 closet backup server and wanted to move to 1337 without
risk, so decided to do a fresh install in a spare partition instead of
upgrade in place. Being inherently efficient [lazy], I did not want to
mess with dragging it out of the closet, connecting a monitor, or PXE.

Thanks to AlienBoB
http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/remo...are-using-ssh/
for the seed idea.

Note that this method could be used to install slackware on any running
system that uses a bootloader.

1. Copy the installation tree to an existing file system on the
server. Note that '1337' is used here as the head and that most
commands must be done as root.

2. Recent lilo versions will not pass the string 'kbd=' as an
'append' or on the command line. The following work-around
prevents a Waiting for Godot scenario for the initial keyboard question
(non-US keyboard users should adjust as usual):

2a. Unpack the initrd install image:

Code:

cd 1337/isolinux

mkdir temp && cd temp

zcat ../initrd.img | cpio -i -d -H newc --no-absolute-filenames

2b. Modify the 'read' statement that's waiting for the keyboard answer:

Code:

sed -i 's/read ONE$/ONE=0/' etc/rc.d/rc.S

2c. Repack initrd:

Code:

find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > ../initrd.kbd.img

3. Back to the top of the tree and copy the relevant bits to the current /boot:

Code:

cd 1337

mv -v isolinux/initrd.kbd.img /boot/1337ins.initrd.img

zcat kernels/huge.s/System.map.gz > /boot/System.map.1337ins

cp -v kernels/huge.s/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-1337ins

4. Add the following to /etc/lilo.conf:

Code:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-1337ins

        initrd = /boot/1337ins.initrd.img

        label = 1337ins

        read-only

5. Now stage the next reboot and go. My DHCP server will re-assign
the current IP based on MAC address, or substitute an appropriate static address
in your subnet in place of "dhcp", such as "static:192.168.0.11:24"

Code:

lilo -v

lilo -R 1337ins nic=auto:eth0:dhcp

reboot

6. After ping response (meaning that the '1337ins' image+network+sshd has
started successfully) you'll be able to 'ssh root@<ip_address>'
and get the following greeting:

Code:

$ ssh root@192.168.0.11

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!    @

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!

Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!

...

Offending RSA key in /home/<your_user_name>/.ssh/known_hosts:2

...

Simply delete the "Offending" key (2 in this case) and try again:

Quote:

sed -i '2d' ~/.ssh/known_hosts
ssh root@192.168.0.11

Remember the 'source /etc/profile' hint shown and you are good to go.

Cheers,

I found a tutorial somewhere* on here, and successfully followed it, to install Slackware from within a running system (in my case Debian) by downloading a mirror and setting up a chroot for the install.
Something similar ought to work but obviously you may have more fun getting the bootloader set up (I just ran update-grub) and you'll need to set up SSH from within the chroot.

*my google-fu is failing but if it sounds feasible to anyone I'll keep trying.

I have never tried it in the flesh but have you given a look at this:

http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/remo...are-using-ssh/