Re: A bright idea...

Les Mikesell wrote:

Phil Meyer wrote:

Why not buy a 4 GB Flash USB device for around $50.00 and load F7 on that and then plug it into the USB port of the computer to upgrade and away you go. Cheaper than a DVD drive with a USB port :-)

Yup. My normal mode of operations. I carry around a 4GB USB thumb drive with two partitions: 1 = boot ; 2 = FAT32 with a custom (pungi rocks!) DVD image on it.

Is there a howto somewhere about the partitioning needed for this? Or is it just a matter of making the first partition large enough for a raw copy of the boot.img file, then reformatting what's left? Can you specify a kickstart file on the 2nd partition? How do you know where it will be mounted?

Two major issues there.

This is not such a simple task.

#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --driveorder=sda,sdb --location=mbr

So last week-end my son asks me to build him a media server. I travel to his place because I want to see my grand babies. No sweat. I pop out my thumb drive -- hmmm... won't boot usb. OK -- hmmm... can't burn a DVD for him, he doesn't have a DVD in that system. OK, mount the DVD image on my laptop and burn the diskboot.iso to a CDR. Plug in the USB to his system, boot the bootable CD and proceed to load from the USB stick via my custom kickstart scripts.

Whew!

The moral of the story?

Not all systems will boot from USB, and not all systems have DVD players. :) Keep a CDR in your laptop bag.

You could also export the dvd image via NFS from the laptop and install over the network.

I will post a link to it when its up.

If the kiskstart file in in the initrd image:

ks=file:/dir/kickstart.cfg

If the kickstart file is in the DVD iso:

ks=CDROM:/dir/kickstart.cfg

ks=hd:sdb2:/dir/kickstart.cfg

To add kickstart files to the initrd of the boot partition:

ASSUMPTIONS:

Thumb drive is /dev/sdc

---cut---
#!/bin/sh

KS="/var/www/html/ks"

mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt

rm -fr /tmp/img
mkdir /tmp/img
cd /tmp/img
gunzip -dc /mnt/initrd.img | cpio -icvdmu

# Copy kickstart files
# adjust below as needed (not everyone uses .ks extiention)
mkdir ks
cp ${KS}/*.ks ks
cp ${KS}/home* ks

# Now put the initrd.img back
find . |cpio --quiet -c -o |gzip -9 > ../initrd.img
cp ../initrd.img /mnt
cd
# rm -fr /tmp/img
umount /mnt

# Copy the DVD image to partition 2
mount /dev/sdc2 /mnt
cp /srv/pungi/F7Developer/7/Custom/i386/iso/F-7-i386-DVD.iso /mnt
umount /mnt

sync
sleep 2
---cut---

Here is my home.usb kickstart file -- you will need your own root password:

---cut ---
#Debug
# autostep
#System  language
lang en_US.UTF-8
#System keyboard
keyboard us
#Sytem timezone
timezone America/Denver
#Root password
rootpw --iscrypted $1$VKHcK4TU$Z12345BuA4/0q2b6xH7br/
#Reboot after installation
# reboot
#Install OS instead of upgrade
install
#Network
network --bootproto=dhcp --hostname=developer
#Use USB disk
harddrive --dir=/ --partition=sdb2
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --driveorder=sda,sdb --location=mbr
#Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr
#Partition clearing information
clearpart --drives=sda --all --initlabel
#Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 100 --ondisk=sda
part swap --size 2000 --ondisk=sda
part / --fstype ext3 --size 1000 --grow --ondisk=sda

#System authorization infomation
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5
#Firewall configuration
firewall --enabled --ssh
selinux --permissive
#
#Package install information
%packages

@ base
@ gnome-desktop
@ kde-desktop
@ base-x
@ editors
@ engineering-and-scientific
@ graphical-internet
@ text-internet
@ office
@ sound-and-video
@ graphics
@ games
@ authoring-and-publishing
@ development-tools
@ development-libs
@ x-software-development
@ gnome-software-development
@ kde-software-development
@ admin-tools
@ system-tools
@ printing
@ eclipse
@ java
@ java-development
@ mysql
@ ruby
@ legacy-software-development
@ other
tomcat5-admin-webapps
imlib
-julie

%post

cd /

# Set Up Applications for install from custom fjks package
mkdir /tmp/local
mv /ks/jdk*.rpm /tmp/local
mv /ks/livna*.rpm /tmp/local
mv /ks/phil*.rpm /tmp/local
mv /ks/codecs.tgz /tmp
mv /ks/fix_host /tmp

rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
rpm --import /ks/freshrpms-RPM-GPG-KEY.txt

tar xzPf /tmp/codecs.tgz

cat << _LOCAL > /tmp/S99Local_install
#!/bin/sh
# install local apps
echo "Installing Local Applications"
rpm -ihv /tmp/local/*.rpm
echo "Running depmod"
/sbin/depmod

exit 0
_LOCAL

chmod 755 /tmp/S99Local_install

cat << _EOF >> /etc/rc.local
# install Local Applications on first boot and run modem_check
if [ -f /tmp/S99Local_install ]
       then
       /tmp/S99Local_install
       mv /tmp/S99Local_install /tmp/S99Local-installed
fi
_EOF
#



# fix sshd_config
ed /etc/ssh/sshd_config << _EOF
/#Protocol 2,1
a
Protocol 2
.
/#PermitRootLogin
a
PermitRootLogin no
.
w
q
_EOF

# set run level to 5
ed <<_EOF /etc/inittab
/:initdefault:/
s/id:.:initdefault:/id:5:initdefault:/
w
q
_EOF

# set java alternatives
rm /var/lib/alternatives/java

# turn services on/off
chkconfig autofs off
chkconfig bluetooth off
chkconfig sendmail off
chkconfig isdn off
---cut---


Good luck!