SV: Local Hard Drive Boot

I dont think my way is recommended...but it works. (a newbie's try :) )

I use my own script for installing Grub on the harddisk.

I've made an installimage I use for installing everything automatic.
The installimage is a 'telnet connection' only image I made with PXES. I
added mkdosfs,a newer tftp program (for scripting purposes), sfdisk and
Grub.
I also include the files 'stage1' and 'stage2' for Grub in the image. I
modified the starttext file in the image to start my installscript instead
of the telnet bit.

I then stripped it down for any files I didnt use...like rdesktop and
drivers I dont use. The final image comes to about 3MB.
Then I make a script that loads the ide-driver, runs sfdisk to make a
partition and formats it with mkdosfs (FAT16).
After formatting I mount the disk, make directories,copy the grub-files to
the right directories and run grub in batchmode to install itself.

Then I need to download the actual PXES image I'm gonna use together with a
kernel file. Here's why I use another tftp program....scripting purposes.
I prompt for an IP adress to download the image from. This for my own use of
mobile installations (will explain this if anyone wonders). You can hardcode
this if you want.

I download the kernel, PXES image and grub.conf via TFTP.

I then unmount the disk...do a few sync's...and you're done.


To sum it all up...the installation progresses like this:

Thin client boots up via PXE
Runs installimage
Installimage automaticly makes a new partition (deleting everything else on
drive!),formats it, installs grub,downloads the the thin client image to
disk and then unmounts. Sync.

Done.

I bet there are better ways out there to handle this. But I consider myself
just a little above the average Linux newbie...so this is what I came up
with.

But the installation is totally automated (except for typing in the IP if
you dont choose to hardcode it) and takes less than 1 minute on a 10 Mbit
LAN.


You can make several installimages with different images for different
hardware. This way you can have a installmenu to choose from when the client
first boots up.


I've also made 'updatescripts' on the clients. It basicly mounts the disk
and downloads a new image...just like the installscript...except for the
partitioning and formatting. This gives me the ability to just telnet into a
client and update it with a new image. More on that if anyone wants more
info :)


This is how I've done it. I had to have some kind of automation for my use.
We're gonna install several thousand clients this summer...all with harddisk
installation. And some of the people helping with installing dont have any
knowledge of Linux, and they don't need it with this automation :)


Note: This works on HP t5300 too! HP's thin clients have Windows CE (shrug)
installed on a 32 MB compact flash chip. Loading the ide-disk driver makes
this chip a harddrive. So we use both old PCs and new thin client hardware
with this install method. :)


I can help out making this work for you if you get stuck on anything....


Regards,

Einar Eliassen




-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: Phil Regier [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sendt: 29. juni 2004 19:01
Til: '[email protected]'
Emne: [pxes-devel] Local Hard Drive Boot


I know this is a feature of PXES, but I'm having a hard time finding the 
right documentation, and am kind of at a loss; this is the first time 
I've actually used PXES (and I *do* like what I see; great project!)...

What is the recommended way to set up a local HDD boot?  I think I can 
do it by setting up syslinux manually and copying the files over, but 
this doesn't quite seem right; is there a better way, and preferably a 
way that can be done automatically, as a network mini-install to hard 
drive?  Ideally, I want to be able to boot clients to a PXE server, but 
with the option to move them to another network (without access to the 
server) and keep their last configuration whenever necessary.

Thanks for any tips...


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