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.
First one was a trial and error on my part getting the first partition
just the right size. It ends up being 13MB, even though the actual
image is 7MB. This partion needs to be bootable.
The second issue is kickstart files. My original requirements were to
allow a level one tech to install our custom distro on a truck (small
embedded computer) in the field. I could not depend upon any resources
other than the thumb drive. Here is what I learned:
1. The USB driver NEVER loads in time to utilize a kickstart file on
the second partiton, including the DVD iso image. In fact, the iso gets
mounted AFTER the kickstart request.
2. The USB driver SELDOM (varies widely based upon hardware) loads in
time to totally prevent operator intervention -- the operator has to
answer the askmethod dialog, and has to wait 5-10 seconds before doing so.
3. The only reliable method for using kickstart files from a USB thumb
drive, is to put them inside the initrd image on the boot partition.
This is not such a simple task.
4. If you boot from a USB thumb drive, grub will ASSUME that you want
this drive as the bootable drive and will stomp on the MBR of the thumb
drive. To prevent this, you must have a driveorder argument on your
bootloader line. ie:
#System bootloader configuration
bootloader --driveorder=sda,sdb --location=mbr
None of these issues matter with an internal or external DVD, simply
because the ISO is mounted at boot time.
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.
Yes, and I could access my kickstart file over the net as well (which I
did) but I wanted to install it stand-alone in this instance because we
were doing some other network oriented maintenance.
As for a How To: Another son of mine and I are currently working one up.
He is smarter than I am, so if I can get him 'into' following up on a
project of mine, he always finds my 'holes'. The trick is to get him on
board with one of my interests. He asked me over this last weekend how
to do this very thing, so we have his attention now. A How To should
result, soonish.
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
If the kickstart file is on the second partition of the thumb drive (not
in the iso):
ks=hd:sdb2:/dir/kickstart.cfg
To add kickstart files to the initrd of the boot partition:
This is based upon a pungi build, and the names will vary depending upon
how you do things, but it may be useful. Don't do these commands unless
you know for sure ...
ASSUMPTIONS:
Thumb drive is /dev/sdc
---cut---
#!/bin/sh
KS="/var/www/html/ks"
dd if=/srv/pungi/F7Developer/7/Custom/i386/os/images/diskboot.img
of=/dev/sdc1
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
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_09/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
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
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java
/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java 1
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java
/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_09/bin/java 2
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac
/usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javac 1
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac
/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_09/bin/javac 2
# turn services on/off
chkconfig autofs off
chkconfig bluetooth off
chkconfig sendmail off
chkconfig isdn off
---cut---
Good luck!
