On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Mike Smith wrote: > All, > > I'm new to the list. However I'm not new to kickstart. > > I'm not too sure why the boot disks were changed away from boot.img and > bootnet.img. If you can make me see the light, then cool. But from where I sit, it > seems like a bad idea! Too much stuff for the floppy image. You can (I think) use a CD. > > Now for my issue. I've always thought of kickstart as a way to automate the install > process by answering some of the questions from anaconda. That being said, we have > been using it to allow for a SINGLE boot floppy to re-image machines when they > break or have some other major problem. The nice thing about this is you can have > any bone head stick in the floppy and reboot with out having them swap disks and > answer a bunch of questions. A SINGLE disk worked for some (most) cases, but not all, without some of the fiddling you've been doing. > > Now with RH 9 everything is broke unless you use 2 install disks. This kinda blows > the whole automation thing out the window. > > Here is what I did to TRY and get around the shortcomings of this NEW KICKSTART. > > I rebuilt my initrd.img from the bootdisk.img and I added 3c59x.o to the the > modules.cgz and updated the pcitable, module-info, and modules.dep. After checking > the docs for kickstart I added the following to ks.cfg > > device eth 3c59x > > Well, this caused anaconda to blow up and crash the install. If I remove that line > from the ks.cfg then I get prompted to select a driver for the ftp install. I see > the driver I added to the disk and it loads fine and the install continues on as > normal. A good alternative is to build a kernel with the driver builtin, not as a module. While you're at it, turn it for your specific requirements. There's also a better chance you'll get what you want on ne floppy. > > I'd like to see someone fix this issue. I know I'm not the only person that likes > the SINGLE floppy install method. From a quick look, it doesn't seem like it would > be very hard to keep this in play for us that CAN build our own initrd images. I said as much wrt an earlier release. > > Someone in an earlier thread stated the following. > > "Depends on what one defines the purpose of kickstart to be. If it's to > automate the Q+As in the install and allow for custom scripting, then > that still works. If it's to allow single-floppy full automated > installs, then no, that's not provided any more." > > My question is....Who should define how the kickstart is to be used. Shouldn't it > be us users that actually use it? Or is this something that someone is trying to > cram down our throats to make us use kickstart they way THEY want it to be. Hmmm > Microsoft comes to mind. > > Enough of my ranting. Like I said. If I'm way off base here then please let me > know. I'm open to hear why this was changed when it was working so well. I'm past caring: I've moved most of my stuff to Debian and don't expect to be doing more RHL installs. Debian's also given me new freedom in hardware choice: runs on pretty much any hardware I can find. What should solve your difficulties is the Etheroot project. You can put bootrom software on floppy and use it ti load a kernel+initrd off the network. Doesn't do PXE, but shouldn't be too hard to get working. See http://www.etherboot.org/ http://rom-o-matic.net/ http://www.thinguin.org/ -- Please, reply only to the list. Join the "Linux Support by Small Businesses" list at http://mail.computerdatasafe.com.au/mailman/listinfo/lssb
