Re: [newbie] Same install many PC's
i got one. First, make a bootable Linux Diskette. 2- make a batch file that: -formats an ext2 partition ( i don't know if you can make a batch for creating the swap, and i don't think so..) -decompresses the files, opening the archive from CDROM, directly to the drive. -this script should be on the linux diskette, or in another one, but keep it handy. once you got all the files archived from a successfull Linux installation, burn them to CD. then boot the target machine/s with the linux distette and run the script. it should format the drive and then uncompress the files there. as for the files that require to have the machine's name... i don't know but there should be a system variable so the batch can rename the files that need to be renamed... or, if you know anything about programming, you could make a small program to do it to change the contents of files that need editing anyway this is just an idea, i'm not sure if this kind of installation would work. here's another one. make a bootable windows 98 diskette. boot on the linux machine with it. then, using Norton Ghost for DOS ( i figure you know the program i'm talking about ) you can make an identical image of a partition to a .gho file. burn that file to CD. then, using the same diskette, you could boot the other machines and use ghost to restore partition information to disk from the .gho file in the CDROM. Ghost is a very nice DOS program, and pretty powerful, it can add compression to the backup file and has many features. though i'm not sure if it will read linux partitions. if it does, then this method would probably boot . Anyway you are still left alone to the machine name problems you could have... bye.. At 12:46 PM 09/19/2001 -0400, you wrote: Hi, I recently installed MandrakeLinux 8 for a school and set up Squid as a proxy server for their Win98 PC's They are now interested in having Linux for a number of their Desktop PC's. I would be happy to install it but, as many of them are identical, I wondered if it would be possible to install on one then create a cd with a copy of it and have some means of automatically reinstalling the identical configuration on the others. I realise that it would need things like host names to be different on each one but I think it should be possible to write some small script to allow that sort of question to be asked. Does anyone have any idea how I could go about this? Thanks. Norman Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Same install many PC's
Thanks for the reply. I have been looking at my test PC which also has Mandrake Linux 8 on it. In total df shows just under 1.8Gig used. At that size I might only need one CD and a controlling floppy. I am wondering if it would be practical to tar and bzip2 the partitions, which are / /home /usr /var and set up a floppy and CD, or even a bootable CD to clone the first PC. At the moment I think I need to partition and format the disc and mount the partitions then unpack the various compressed files to the correct places then run lilo to end up with the copy. I expect I will need to learn quite a bit such as how to partition the discs without user intervention but is it practical? Norm Michael D. Viron wrote: During an expert installation of MandrakeLinux 8, it should ask if you want to create a replication floppy--at least it does with 7.2 not sure about 8.0 or 8.1. I'm not sure how exactly it works, but it should be pretty close to what you want. Michael -- Michael Viron Registered Linux User #81978 Senior Systems Administration Consultant Web Spinners, University of West Florida At 12:46 PM 09/19/2001 -0400, you wrote: Hi, I recently installed MandrakeLinux 8 for a school and set up Squid as a proxy server for their Win98 PC's They are now interested in having Linux for a number of their Desktop PC's. I would be happy to install it but, as many of them are identical, I wondered if it would be possible to install on one then create a cd with a copy of it and have some means of automatically reinstalling the identical configuration on the others. I realise that it would need things like host names to be different on each one but I think it should be possible to write some small script to allow that sort of question to be asked. Does anyone have any idea how I could go about this? Thanks. Norman Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com -- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Same install many PC's
During an expert installation of MandrakeLinux 8, it should ask if you want to create a replication floppy--at least it does with 7.2 not sure about 8.0 or 8.1. I'm not sure how exactly it works, but it should be pretty close to what you want. Michael -- Michael Viron Registered Linux User #81978 Senior Systems Administration Consultant Web Spinners, University of West Florida At 12:46 PM 09/19/2001 -0400, you wrote: Hi, I recently installed MandrakeLinux 8 for a school and set up Squid as a proxy server for their Win98 PC's They are now interested in having Linux for a number of their Desktop PC's. I would be happy to install it but, as many of them are identical, I wondered if it would be possible to install on one then create a cd with a copy of it and have some means of automatically reinstalling the identical configuration on the others. I realise that it would need things like host names to be different on each one but I think it should be possible to write some small script to allow that sort of question to be asked. Does anyone have any idea how I could go about this? Thanks. Norman Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
