Need to create a completely unattended install Disk

[jonathankonrad]

Sorry, I started this in another thread but it has grown to it's own topic. Original Thread is here (http://forums.amahi.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3434)

So I have purchased a very cool little Acer HomeServer. It comes with WHS installed, but I do not even wish to try that out. Amahi rules. Anyway it has no video out at all and no optical drive. I can hook up an optical drive for the install by having it sit out side the case and be externally powered. My main problem is I need a completely unattended install disk. I need to add all the .txt files or whatever to the CD so when I boot from it, it immediately starts installing Fedora then Amahi.

A tall order but I know this community has the resources. How do I start? Thanks.

[jonathankonrad]

So I found this in the wiki:

http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Kickstart

I should have looked there first. Except it says it only works with Fedora 11. I would like to do 14. Thoughts?

[moredruid]

it should work the same on Fedora 14. you can also point to a http source for your kickstart file so if you have a local webserver you can use that too.

If you're running linux or have python installed you can easily run a temporary webserver in any given directory:
cd to the directory you want
run: python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080
press Ctrl-C to break it off.

[jonathankonrad]

I'm running tests on a different computer so I can see how it should work. I can say right now that the instructions on the wiki are not working for me. Pointing it to

ks=http://www.amahi.org/install/YOURCODE

Comes back with considerable errors during the installation. I'm away from the machine right now, but I believe it was complaining about a lot of packages it did not have? maybe? Anyway it did not work.

So I'm trying to read up here;

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/ ... lations.3F

About creating my own kickstart file. It is quite complex though so if anyone has a special way for me to to an install on another machine and transfer or anything pre-built I'm game.

[rjwaldren]

Probably the easiest thing would be to put the os drive in another machine.

The kickstart method wouldn't be bad if you use the Amahi ExpressCD and edit the existing one on the ISO. You'd need to replace the query for the amahi install code with your actual code.

Another option is to do it from a PXE boot over VNC, here's one writeup:
http://www.shekhargovindarajan.com/tips ... and-cddvd/

There are other writeups out there too, google, Fedora+anaconda+headless or remote

[jonathankonrad]

Not going very well. I'll just say running headless is great (all my amahi boxes have ran headless), but trying to setup a box with no video is not fun. No way to change or see the BIOS no way to know exactly which key's I've pressed and if there are any errors

I have had no luck yet.

First I tried installing fedora 14 and amahi on a different PC with video. Then I transferred the drive into my new server. On boot up the NIC does not even light up. So I took the disk back into the setup PC and followed these instructions I found on the web that someone had done to a very similar setup but with Ubuntu server;

"Loged in as root and modified /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.
Removed the line:
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:00:00:00:00:00", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0" "

Shutdown and put the disk back into the server. Still no NIC so no working HDA.

I have also tried setting up a tftp server and such on a spare laptop, but the only instructions I had was from your post rjwaldren and that is a fedora box and I was running a variant of Ubuntu. Installed all the packages or similar packages but could not get the tftp part to work.

Now I'm going to try the express CD and edit the ISO. Keeping my fingers crossed. If this doesn't work, does anyone now how to run the equivalent to sysprep on a linux install so when I plug the HD into a different box it goes through all the trouble of re-recognizing hardware and installing the correct drivers? Thanks.

[rjwaldren]

If you still have another amahi box look into the "netboot" app in the wiki. Should take care of tftp for you - just integrate the instructions from the previous link.

[jonathankonrad]

I have the hardware for my older HDA but I only ever setup the one HDA with Amahi. I tried to edit the kickstart file on the express CD, but when I burnt my changes to a disk it boots with a checksum error. Is this because I changed the content of the iso?

Anyway I'm trying a very old, unreliable method right now. That is write down every exact keystroke I make while installing Amahi on one system. Then I'm going to do the same on the system without the video. I know ... unlikely but I'm getting desperate.

Oh the tftp thing was unlikely to work anyway since I cannot setup the BIOS (no video) So I'm unsure if the machine is looking for netboot or which keys to press to get it to try. I"m sure something will work, but I should have seen this coming.

[jonathankonrad]

Eurika! It works!

OK, I know I keep bumping this thread, but if I can get this to work I believe these boxes will make exceptional HDAs, and they will be on ebay for cheap. Four hot swap drive bays, eSata and PCIe for RAID cards, etc. If I can get this to work, perhaps others will have an easier time of it.

Anyway I tried just about everything and nothing seemed to be working. With out video out I could not set the BIOS to netboot or even boot off a CD-Drive on Sata or USB.

So I started installing Fedora/Amahi on as many boxes as I could find. A Macbook, an old Lenovo, an IBM thinkcenter. Basically whatever I had. But each time I moved the OS drive back into the easystore h342 it would not recognize the NIC. Then I hit upon doing the install with an older USB NIC I had. So this time I completed the install with only the USB NIC active, then moved the HD into the easystore AND moved the USB NIC. It works!

Now I have an Acer easystore h342 running Fedora14/Amahi 6.1. The last piece of course is to some how activate the onboard NIC and move off of the USB stick since the onboard is gigabit and the USB is only 100 Mbit. Can any Linux guys out there walk me through this step?

(pic of the missing link! http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1471889/photos/usb-ethernet.JPG)

[rjwaldren]

You need to inspect the lspci output in a terminal to determine the nic chip used on the main board, being an atom board, it's likely a realtek something or other. The spec sheet may help.

Once you know the PCIID of the nic you'll be able to determine the driver it needs. If fedora didn't find it on it's own you'll probable have to compile it yourself - which can get pretty risky on a headless system. Out of kernel drivers must be rebuilt after a kernel upgrade, if you forget and reboot you'll be SOL.