Vis-a-vis Dirk's note of 01/06/2005 05:23 AM:
...
i`m trying to setup an install server to boot and install systems via
network.
Currently I`m using the initrd from base/pxeboot.
Now: the kernel boots fine, the ramdisk is loaded and /sbin/loader starts.
However after loading the network driver it then hangs forever with:
'trying to mount CD device hda'.
Well, of course there is no cdrom media present....
Question: how can i tell the /sbin/loader to start a network install ?
...
Works fine for me with precisely that initrd. I think that the
kickstart piece of the puzzle is what you are missing.
I do an interactive network install by placing the following ks.cfg in
/tftpboot/linux-install/FC3/ on my tftp server, too.
#######################################################################
#use NFS installation media
nfs --server 172.24.4.16 --dir /usr/local/Heidelberg
#######################################################################
where /usr/local/Heidelberg/Fedora/{base,RPMS} on my install server
contains the install tree and is NFS exported to the network segment
(only) where the installees reside.
I also have a much funkier, sort-of-working, localized kickstart config
within /usr/local/Heidelberg/Fedora/ that aims to give me a hands-free
install of a heavily customized install for the cluster nodes of my
web-app backend. I can't claim to be 100% certain of how/why kickstart
works in this situation though. I just experiment with each new RH/FC
release until I hit a working combination.
FWIW, I did _not_ use the system-config-netboot generated dhcpd.conf,
as I my dhcp server lives on a *BSD box, and the generated dhcpd.conf
simply didn't work, while one based on the info from the SYSLINUX site:
http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php#special has worked for me for some
time now. If FC3 now uses a sufficiently modern version of dhcp, the
comments there should apply equally.
The bottom line is that it's still neccessary to do a fair amount of
Googling & tweaking to use the system-config-netboot tool for installs,
though it did make setting up the tftpboot tree _much_ less painful than
the system I've used w/ earlier RH's & FC's.
Joe
PS It goes without saying (I hope) that you want all your
dhcp/tftp/install servers securely isolated from the open Internet;
there be monsters.