We are using PowerQuest DriveImage(Imaging software) to load the software via the network(via non *nix servers) onto the configured machines. The image is simply an active Fat32 partition with an autoexec.bat file to kick off loadlin and point to the RedHat directory which is also part of this image. After the image is loaded, it reboots and continues to install Linux. Again we can't modify the servers (ie installing via NFS or http) and the solution must be able to detect what kind of hard drive is attached to it. Thanks again, Dave >***How are you getting the Linux images to these machines? > Greetings, > > In my environment, we have been tasked to have kickstart be used to automate > the setup of our Linux boxes. The interesting twist is that nobody will be > at the consoles to insert disk media (cd-roms nor floppy) and the entire > installation has to kick off from the first partition (Fat32) of the hard > drive. > > The hard drives arcitecture varies (Some machines may have 1 IDE, Some have > 1 SCSI) so we need to make sure the process can detect which type of hard > drive it is loading from. > > In addition, the kickstart file needs to be called from the hard drive via > loadlin.exe (Fat32 partition...sda1 or hda1...) and not initially enclosed > in an initrd until loadlin boots the kernel. > > > My current batch file runs the following: > loadlin vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=7192 ks=hd:hda1/ks.cfg > > which, of corse works great on IDE machines since I'm specifying that it's > IDE. > > Is is possible to, say, package a dummy ks.cfg file in the initrd, use > ks=file:ks.cfg as the parameter and before the installer reads the ks file, > get the initrd to detect whither the hd is scsi or ide (maybe by issuing a > mount /dev/hda1 attempting to copy/mnt/hda1/ks.cfg, umount hda1, mount sda1 > attempt to copy /mnt/sda1/ks.cfg.. and append it's findings to ks.cfg? > > > Again, we have a Fat32 bootable partition which boots linux via loadlin and > must detect the hard drive just like it can when linux is installed via > CD...(If it sees a scsi drive, it defaults to sda...etc). > > Many thanks for your sugesstions and assistance, > > Dave >
