> > has anyone here tried a remote installation of linux? > > i have 30 workstation and only one has a CDOM drive, i > > have to install linux on all machines, anyone can give > > me an idea on how to start this, any good sites i can > > go to? > > > you can try ftp installation. first you have to make > a boot disk. go to the RedHat/base subdirectory and look > for the file named netstg1.img. make a boot image by > typing dd if=/netstg1.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k. Next > after having the boot disk you can now do network install > via ftp. >
I'd recommend setting up an FTP or HTTP server on a local LAN, as the installs will take time. I'd recommend making a kickstart configuration. This way, you can leave the installations for all the other machines. Here's what you can do. 1. On the PC with the CDROM, set up the box the way you want it to. After installation, depending on the distribution, a kickstart configuration will be saved in the root directory. Assuming all other PCs are identical, and you want to set them up identically, you can make use of the kickstart configuration. 2. After the initial setup, configure either an HTTP or FTP server on that linux box. You'll have to mount the CDs, however, so that the other boxes can install from that. 3. Make a bootdisk using the appropriate boot image. For RedHat, its under the images directory, and the image you want to use is bootnet.img. You'll need to use dd to make the image: # dd if=bootnet.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k 4. To make use of the kickstart, make room in the floppy by deleting one of the .msg files or so. The kickstart isn't too big, so a few bytes will suffice. Rename the kickstart to ks.cfg. 5. Boot from the floppy on the machines and then, assuming this is RedHat or something similar, append the ks=floppy argument to the boot options. This will tell the installer to try and read from the kickstart config. 6. The install may take quite some time, ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the kind of machines, network speed, and number of packages. The kickstart comes in really, really handy. :) It's a real timesaver. -------------------------------------- Gino LV. Ledesma Ateneo Cervini-Eliazo Networks (ACENT) email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] web : http://cersa.admu.edu.ph/ phone : (63)(2) 426-6001 ext. 5925 _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
