On Fri, 2002-06-07 at 13:57, Frank McPherson wrote: > Chad, > > Thanks for the reply. I've read this whole thread but still I have some > confusion. > > When you say you put ks=http://kickstart/fs.cfg on your startup image, > what do you mean by that? I assume you are passing that as a kernel > option somehow? Whenever I try to do that, using Ip addresses rather > than hostnames, my install skips my kickstart.cfg and goes interactive. I've done this two ways. First, I took bootnet.img, opened it up (mount -o loop bootnet.img /mnt/floppy) and modified syslinux.cfg so the default image used contained ks=http://kickstart/fs.cfg. Next I learned about doing it using NFS. Instead of using ks=http://x.x.x.x/fs.cfg I simply used ks. By only using ks the dhcp client will try and fetch two items from the dhcp server, next-server and the directory to mount via NFS where it will look for x.x.x.x-kickstart. I like the latter method as I can symlink x.x.x.x-kickstart to one of the many kickstart files I'll have. The problem is that the 7.2 installer does not understand the first method, where ks=http://x.x.x.x/ks.cfg is used. I do not know if the 7.2 installer works using the second method I described. > > I think I could easily solve all my location problems if I could > configure the local DHCP server with next-server directives so I may > pursue that route. If you've got 1U rack servers (I'd like one of the new Apple Xserve machines) that maybe you've got some switches and could create yourself a VLAN for the machines. If you can do that, even if just for the installs, then you could setup your own DHCP server w/o affecting others. Then again it would seem that what you need to have changed on the DHCP server is minor and those who administer it could accommodate you. Assuming of course that their DHCP indeed supports what you need. > > BUT, I am still interested in debugging my current approach of referring > to the kickstart config on the kernel boot options line, which is > retrieved through pxe, in the form of ks=nfs:192.168.1.160/rh-7.2/ks.cfg > or ks=http://192.168.1.160/rh-7.2/ks.cfg. I require the remote boot > method because the machines I'm installing are 1U rackmounts with no > floppy or CD-ROM. If I were to upgrade my pxe/nfs/http server to 7.3 > and begin installing 7.3, would the nfs or http kickstart method I just > described work, where it does not work in7.2? Not sure about upgrading PXE, never used it and just did a quick skim of what it provides. The important part is the installer that is part of 7.3. If you can get away with using RHL 7.3 on the new machines then great! If you have to use 7.2 then you'll probably need to use the second method I described above which means DHCP server stuff. Keep in mind that the server(s) from which you are installing the new hardware does not have to be a specific version or platform. My DHCP server is RHL 6.2 x86, my NFS|HTTP server for this exercise is RHL 7.1 Alpha. I don't recommend RHL 7.3 and Ximian Desktop at this time. I'm having some very bizarre problems on my laptop right now. Enough that I'm going to revert back to RHL 7.2 w/ Ximian Desktop this weekend. This was not even one of my custom installs, used a normal RedHat method. I think it is a Ximian problem but not sure. HTH, Chad > > Thanks again, > > Frank > > On Thursday, June 6, 2002, at 10:42 AM, Chad M. Stewart wrote: > > > I've done nearly what you want in the last few days using 7.3. I have > > the advantage of having control over my DHCP server. Though not a big > > deal. > > > > On my startup image I put ks=http://kickstart/fs.cfg This is easier and > > allows me to update on the fly but is hard coded to a specific file and > > if different profile machines are doing this at the same time... > > > > _______________________________________________ > Kickstart-list mailing list > Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list
