Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Sorin Srbu wrote on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:26:51 +0200: > Did > you maybe have some special hardware in mind? No. I just wanted to point out that for such a task another distribution *might* be better suited, that's all. Kai -- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
RE: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Kai Schaetzl <> scribbled on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 4:31 PM: >> Any particular reason why not, if I may ask? > > Because other distributions have better support for brand-new consumer > hardware. Especially, if you consider the lifetime cycle of CentOS which > spans to 2014. Look at this not from the viewpoint of your mom, but from > the computershop that wants to sell lots of PCs to very different people > (which will expect to see *recent* software) and with (over the years) > quite differing hardware. I see. Good point. However, brand-new hardware support would mean something like the bleeding edge Fedora (any other distro?). The disadvantage IMHO with eg Fedora is it's short life-cycle though. What is it, a year or so now? FWIW, I've installed CentOS on pretty new stuff, like dual core-mobos with SATA etc, Broadcom integrated and Intel Desktop Pro/1000 NICs and so on. Works fine, so I still don't quite see why it'd not be suitable with settling on eg CentOS, especially if it's set up properly from the beginning by the shop. Did you maybe have some special hardware in mind? Maybe I'm blinded by CentOS running fine on whatever I throw at it so far... /S smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
> > Any particular reason why not, if I may ask? > Because other distributions have better support for brand-new consumer > hardware. Especially, if you consider the lifetime cycle of CentOS which > spans to 2014. Look at this not from the viewpoint of your mom, but from > the computershop that wants to sell lots of PCs to very different people > (which will expect to see *recent* software) and with (over the years) > quite differing hardware. > Kai But you don't want to supply consumers with an OS that gets unsupported before next christmas either, so Fedora is not the answer. Ubuntu LTS? /jens -- Jens Larsson, NSC, Linköpings universitet, SE-58183 LINKÖPING, SWEDEN Phone: +46-13-281432, Mobile: +46-709-521432, E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG/PGP Key: 1024D/C21BB2C7 2001-02-27 Jens Larsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Key Fingerprint: BAEF 85CF BF1D 7A69 C965 2EE6 C541 D57F C21B B2C7___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Sorin Srbu wrote on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:24:59 +0200: > Any particular reason why not, if I may ask? Because other distributions have better support for brand-new consumer hardware. Especially, if you consider the lifetime cycle of CentOS which spans to 2014. Look at this not from the viewpoint of your mom, but from the computershop that wants to sell lots of PCs to very different people (which will expect to see *recent* software) and with (over the years) quite differing hardware. Kai -- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
RE: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Kai Schaetzl <> scribbled on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 2:21 PM: > I wouldn't be so sure that CentOS would be the best choice for a > brand-new consumer desktop, though. Any particular reason why not, if I may ask? It works fine for my computer-ignorant 50+ mom. /S smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Niki Kovacs wrote: How would it *technically* be possible to replicate these installs as easily as possible? The hardware is always the same, so I wonder: I have a vague idea about disk images (to be more precise: I know disk images well as far as burning CDs on the commandline is concerned, or when it comes to installing an OS in VirtualBox using the .iso)... but is there a way to somehow transform an existing install into a disk image, and then simply copy these over to all the other machines? (I've never done this) Clonezilla is probably the fastest/easiest way. There are 2 versions. Clonezilla-live boots from a CD or USB drive and lets you save or restore a disk or partition image using local or network storage via nfs, sshfs, or samba. For windows and most linux filesystems it knows enough to only save the used portions of the disk. You can also make a bootable DVD containing an image to load. For large numbers of machines there is the companion drbl to network-boot into clonezilla. http://clonezilla.org/ -- Les Mikesell [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Niki Kovacs wrote on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:44:19 +0200: > How > would it *technically* be possible to replicate these installs as easily > as possible? Kickstart. I wouldn't be so sure that CentOS would be the best choice for a brand-new consumer desktop, though. You might want to use Fedora which is also kickstartable. Kai -- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Niki Kovacs schrieb: > Hi, > > [snip... mass installation/customizations...] > I'd be curious to read your suggestions about this. Use cobbler. https://fedorahosted.org/cobbler You will have some work scripting your customizations (or not, if it's already scripted) but then, you can install as many systems at once as you have ports in your switches. cobbler takes a bit of a learning curve, but once you've figured it out, it's going to save you a lot of time (which is the whole point). Rainer ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
RE: [CentOS] Mass installs of desktop systems on identical machines
Niki Kovacs <> scribbled on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 1:44 PM: >How > would it *technically* be possible to replicate these installs as easily > as possible? G4u (Ghost for unix) is your solution. It's free. Have a ftp-and dhcp server available on your network. Install one machine with your preferred linux distro and tweak it as you want it. Boot from the g4u-cd and ghost it to your ftp-server. Boot from the g4u-cd on your next machine and dump the image from your ftp-server to the new machine. Kudzu will take care of everything else. You can do this with several machines at once. The nice thing with kudzu is that your image will work even with a computer that does not have the same hardware. Awesome is just scraping the surface. I use this approach at our department. Works excellent. HTH. /S smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
