Tom, I have a setup similar to yours working "almost" automatically. I have to manually select NetBoot on my Dell box by F12, then it when it asks for the kernel parameters, I have it setup such that I have to type ks=file:/tmp/ks.cfg In order to do that locate my kickstart file there, I update the kickstart file and place it in a loopback mounted directory and rebuild the initrd file (linux.2) as shown in the script found in this document - http://www.datamodel.co.uk/unix/resources/dmdl-pxe.pdf Also, look at the back issues of Linux Magazine http://www.linux-mag.com. Specifically the two part article in January and February 2003 by Forrest Hoffman. What he has in this 2 part article mostly works. I had to modify something else based on blksize or MTU or some crap like that based on this article - http://www.gctglobal.com/Download/PXE_Server_FIX/pxe_server_fix.html I never could get the system to automatically find my kickstart file based on IP address or whatever when running the PXEServer (active server vs pxelinux.cfg method, which is passive). I don't mind the having to put the ks=file command as describe above. Also, it never automatically connects to my NFS server with the Redhat9 install files when it first tries to connect with text-based Redhat install. It prompts me with a warning that it cannot find my NFS server. If I immediately select OK (without changing the NFS parameters) from the text-based install screen about the NFS server, all is well and I can move on the next machine without babying the install further. But bottom line, it is almost automatic, and the time to baby-sit the installation to the NFS server problem is like 2 minutes before I can move to the next machine. I suppose I could dig deeper to solve these last few issues, however I don't have that high of throughput of new machines to install that the time spent (wasted) to debug this further wouldn't pay off for me. Bob Original Message ------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 19:02:39 -0600 From: Tommy McNeely <tommy.mcneely@xxxxxxx> Subject: new to kickstart, show me where to start To: kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx Organization: Sun Microsystems - ITCTO Reply-To: kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx Hello, I am new to kickstarting and PXE, and would like to figure out where I am, and where I have gone wrong, and how to "get there from here" .. pointers to any *recent* docs are appreciated too :) searches on google seem to turn up Index of (blah) (the images directory) .. so its not much help. I want to be able to kickstart RH9 linux boxes in much the same way one would "jumpstart" a Sun box. At this point, I have done.. cp images/pxeboot/vmlinuz /tftpboot/X86PC/UNDI/linux-install/linux.1 cp images/pxeboot/initrd.img /tftpboot/X86PC/UNDI/linux-install/linux.2 chkconfig tftp on chkconfig pxe on service xinetd reload service pxe start *** CANNOT RUN MY OWN DHCP SERVER ON THIS NETWORK I want to have it jumpstart "automatically" using my ks.cfg (that I created with redhat-config-kickstart) .. but I don't know what "next-server" and "filename" translate to on a "Sun" DHCP server (currently controlling the network). But... I would be extremely happy if I could even get an "interactive" nfs install running... I am hitting "F12" during the bootup of a Sun LX50, and it looks like it tries to boot, it loads the kernel, then it loads the initrd, but then it just sits there... dumblike... hehe I dont know what to do next... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Tommy McNeely
