Making HD bootable

Roberto F. Brandão roberto at tdibrasil.com.br
Tue Feb 18 11:12:23 PST 2003


I was wondering if it is possible to make the nodes' HDs
bootable and make then start the Linux Network Install
just after they boot.
I am trying to find a way to make possible using a unique
removable CD/floppy unit for a few minutes in each node.
Excuse my rough example, but using a pseudo DOS, it
would work like this:
- Install the CD/floppy unit
- Boot from floppy
- A:\ sys c: --> Make HD bootable
- A:\ copy install.net.exe c: --> Copy the Install program to HD
- Shutdown

After the node boot, it would run install.net.exe. That
program would install the entire OS via network. Of course,
it would ask for IP address, Gateway, etc.

Does someone know if exists something like this ?

Roberto

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Dilda" <agrajag at scyld.com>
To: "Roberto F. Brandão" <roberto at tdibrasil.com.br>
Cc: <beowulf at beowulf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: Copying RedHat Install Wizard


On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 10:08, Roberto F. Brandão wrote:
> Hi,
>
>    Thanks for all messages. They've helped a lot.
> There is another question: is it possible to copy
> the RedHat boot disk (floppy) into a HD ?

You can mount a RH boot disk (its a fat filesystem), and copy off the
initrd and kernel for it.  You should then modify your bootloader on the
hd to also point to the initrd and kernel (you shouldn't specify a root
partition).  You should also look at the syslinux.cfg on the boot floppy
and add the appropriate kernel command line options in the bootloader on
your harddrive.





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