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Automatically Installing Linux from Bootable CD?
phorm asks: "While there are newer many distributions of linux that come bootable from CD, I've found that some are a bit difficult to customize and wonder how hard it would be to create my own. Currently we are looking at replacing some of our Windows desktops at work with Linux test-machines - and it would be nice to make the installation process as simple as possible. How hard would it be to create a bootable CD that would automagically install Linux onto the first detected hard-drive? How would you go about 'imaging' an existing machine to use as the base?
I suppose that in many cases a tar-gzip of the entire OS would work, provided you could partition the drive correctly, recreate some important handles as in /proc, and run lilo/grub to install a boot loader. Does anyone here have experience with this? I know morphix/knoppix make nice bootable distros but what I really want is a basic Linux bootCD which installs a preconfigured version of the OS of my choice."
The Knoppix live CD distro comes with a script for installing to the hard drive that works pretty well, just go to a root console after booting off the cd and type 'knx-hdinstall'. It probably wouldn't be too hard to customize the disk so that it does this automatically.
Symantec/Norton Ghost works very well for mirroring drives.
However, you may have issues when it comes to differing hardare in different machines, and all your boxes will have the same hostname and IP address.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
The gentoo livecd is high quality. And on any gentoo system you can emerge the tools used to create the livecds. Create your own custom livecd and go at it. Of course knoppix and such can do it, but the knoppix installer is very primitive and set in stone. By making a custom gentoo livecd you can actually make the system the way you want it to be.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I found this with a simple search of Suse's support database. I just skimmed it, but it seems to lay out the whole procedure. I'm sure your distro of choice has a similar page. While I haven't tried this myself, I know people have been doing it with Red Hat and Mandrake for years.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
You can do this with Redhat Linux (or Fedora.) It is basically a utility called kickstart that creates a configuration file that you can place onto the cd or a floppy. Then when the install takes place, it will automatically make choices based on the configuration file.
Maybe /. should have an 'Ask Google' next to 'Ask /.'
-- Cheers!
...just doing a search on Google for linux bootcd gives you several locations for the "bootcd" package, which, conveniently enough, makes a bootable image of your installation.
No comment.
You want Mepis [www.mepis.org] It's a knoppix-based Live CD distro that works as both a live CD and an installed distro. It's designed with a few of the Knoppix kinks worked out so that the LiveCD can "help" the installed version out when their's trouble...perfect for corperate environments. Also, it's based on Debian...so you can always get your favorite stuff if you get bored/ need special configs!
Try Mondo Rescue / Mindi http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/
It can create a bootable CD image. Essentially, it can be used to clone/backup a harddrive. I use it to setup a customized distro. Using the recue CD your "install" image can be put on bare hardware and be up in running in less than 20 minutes. If you are using a distro with KUDZU, after the first boot it will recognize your hardware.
I have been very pleased thus far, it has allowed me to build "base" configuration of dedicated servers and quickly migrate data and test new hardware.
-MS2k
If possible, use the network. If those PCs have PXE to boot from, that is by far the easiest and customizeable way to install lots of Linux machines. Using RedHat's kickstart, I can install a basic server in about 5 minutes, plus 5 minutes to configure everything for that machine. It's thus faster than CD and easier and easy to customize. No need to burn a new CD.
MEPIS would be a great choice.
Debian based, runs off the CD and the install consists of double clicking on a shortcut on the desktop, answering 2 or 3 questions and waiting for everything to be installed.
Once done, boot into single user mode.
tar everything up to *another* disk (mounted here under /mnt) --
If that file doesn't fit on a CD with at least 10 MB to spare, remove some stuff and try again. export GZIP=9 might help a bit too.
Get a bootable linux floppy disk image. It doesn't really matter which one, but it does need to have a real filesystem on it (not just a kernel.) Your typical rescue disk will probably work well.
Make a script to install. It'll be something like this --
and then this script will replaceThen you'll burn a cd that contains that floppy image as the el Torito boot image, and has that file.tar.gz in the root of the file system.
This is really rough, and will only work properly with rather specific hardware, but it may get you started. Making a proper distribution is a lot more work than this -- I only spent a few minutes typing this out.
I have not tested any of this. In particular, the command to do the fdisking probably has issues -- for example, most boot floppies don't have printf by default (you'll need to add it, or a script to just print all the fdisk commands), and I probably got the order of some stuff in the printf statement wrong (it's a string of commands for fdisk.) And of course it'll happily trash whatever is on your disk with no warning. (Installing lilo rather than grub can be done with a similar procedure if needed.)
But if you're looking for a really quick and dirty way to install lots of identical machines, this may get you started. This is NOT a procedure for anybody who doesn't really understand what all this stuff does and the possible problems -- I just provided it as a first stab at a possible solution under some limited conditions. Note that the general idea can apply to other OSs as well -- I even remember once making a setup that installed OS/2 (off a network share) just like this -- long before Ghost was a gleam in Norton's (or whomever's) eye.
In any event, I'd suggest seeing what Knoppix has to offer -- if, like another poster suggested, they have a script to just install to a disk, that would probably be far better than this hack.
If you're looking for a "Ghost" like solution, try SystemImager. Should work well if your hardware is fairly standardised.
As a couple other people have said, Kickstart is probably your best option. I work at NCSU and we have a bunch of linux machines. When we need to upgrade or reinstall, we just take a boot cd, pop it in, and let it go. It grabs all the configuration and install files off our kickstart server and goes to town. When it's done, the system reboots and sits at a login screen, no other config required. It's a beautiful thing.
What? You want a sig?
I've done something like this for work. Created a custom bootable Linux CD (SuSE 8.2-based), with all the necessary drivers for the hardware it'd run on.
Then, I have an image server elsewhere on the network, full of dd images of various installs. So, when I build a new machine, I simply boot from the CD, and then pipe dd through ssh ("ssh remotehost 'dd if=foo.dd' |dd of=/dev/sda"), and within an hour (they're 18GB images), the new system is built.
I can use the same process in reverse for imaging an existing system (or simply use the ssh-piped dd on a live system), to create the stored images.
I spent so much time rewriting bits of systemimager that I got frustrated. Finally, I ran into hardware systemimager wouldn't support out-of-the-box (devices that only had drivers in 2.4, and SI's 2.2-based), and figured since I was going to have to build a new bootable ROMfs anyway, I may as well make a bootable CD and ditch SystemImager altogether.
.@.
The new gentoo image creation program, called catalyst, does exactly what you are looking for.
Slackware's simple package and configuration setup made this fairly painless.
What I did was modify the initrd ram disk to change the custom setup files. I created my own which partitioned the drive, formatted, and started installing packages.
I modified a couple packages to use defaults the way I liked them, reburned the CD and voila. Perfectly installed systems every time.
Slackware uses shell scripts exclusively so it's quite easy to figure out what happens when.
You can use the redhat-config-kickstart to help you build a default install package set (and to build the kickstart file).
Then you can run a post install script (also specified in the kickstart script). Generally, I always make my pre/post scripts wget the script I really want them to run. This gives me a bit more flexibility. (Actually I've never written a pre-install script, only posts).
In the post install scripts, I've used wget to download the set of scripts/config files I wanted to replace (I recommend using a tarfile that you unpack from the filesystem, use diff to apply patches to all of the config files, or use sed to edit the config files).
From there, it's relatively simple matter of deciding what you want changed and how you want it to work. I generally make sure to install AutoRPM, and the autorpm config files that point to my local package repository. Thus anything I can make into an RPM, I can get deployed onto remote machines in mass. I create one extra AutoRPM package pool for each class of machine, so I can put custom packages by machine type onto each machine.
Either use PXE boot, or boot from CD. The CD image to do a kickstart style install is on the first RedHat CD. Look for the isolinux directory and create your own ISO (if you edit the files to put ks=http://kickstart.server.com/kickstart/file, then it's completely unattended). Or you can use the prebuilt images in /images, but then you have to fiddle with the command line a bit from CD. I've never done a PXE boot for installation of a machine (used it for building X-terminals, but not for this).
Kirby
Knoppix and Mepis are both good, but Morphix seems like it's best suited to this sort of thing. It is designed to be modular, meaning you can *very* easily build an iso to custom requirements. It has solid hardware detection, and has the built-in capacity to execute a script once it's finished booting, so you could write an installer script to install, configure and reboot the box without intervention. Hell, you could even have it apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade if you wanted.
MHO.
L
We use kickstart to image machines all the time.....many, many machines.....and it works great. Once you get an installation you like, you can just use it as a base for everything.
I'm currently pretty busy on a GTK2 partitioner called PartitionMorpher, and it's nearing completion for manual partitioning. the debian-installer guys have been working a lot recently on autopartkit (from SkoleLinux), and it looks like it would be a useful addition to our installer too.
Bottom line: You'll see it sooner rather than later. But I've said that a lot in the past...
This sig is intentionally left blank
FAI (http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/) is a system that can be used to automatically install Debian on any kinds of different machinery (you define the differentiating classes yourself). Documentation on its site states that "Booting and installing from CD-ROM is in progress".
If you happen to need that level of complexity, maybe you can lend in a helping hand for them to finish that CD-ROM version.
Just thought FAI would deserve to be mentioned here along with all the others. It might very well be overly complex for your purposes.
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
As for the partitioning (printf) problem, I'd save a partition table with sfdisk -d
(notice the two empty lines to use defaults for partition start and end - will use the rest of the disk.)
Also notice that tar --one-file-system already creates the directories (/proc,
Also note that even while files under
If you choose this 'roll your own dirty solution' I'd like to hear about your experiences.
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
There are many already available solutions from established distro's out there. Use one of them, like the previous posters suggested. Making a custom boot CD to be used for rescue/backup is not exactly easy for a Linux newbie, since it requires a fair understanding of the operating system's inner workings. Sure, there are tutorials and examples out there, that's how I've learned too, but my guess is that in a corporate environment you can't afford to lose time in this manner.
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
At work we have something around 500 Linux desktops, and almost 1K cluster nodes, all of them are installed using Kisck start(well almost all of them). Very neat and good effort, should try it out.
The lunatic is in my head
The important thing is how you lable the CD once you've made it. I would recommend something like: Then you won't have to worry (if you leave it laying around) that someone might stick it in their system not knowing what it was.
-- MarkusQ
P.S. If you include X you may want to note that as well.
I've been working on this for work, and have been pleased with the systemrescue cd
I've got a primary system from which to create my "gold disk." I have installed/configured the OS and third-party applications in a meaningful way.
The process that I've followed is to create an image of the pristine system using partimage (on the rescue CD) and a copy of the boot sector using sfdisk (on the rescue CD) then create installation scripts that rewrite the partition table and dump the image to the hard disk. Finally I created a "gold CD."
One advantage I have is that I can count on pretty consistent hardware.
YMMV.
Regards,
Anomaly
BTW - God loves you and longs for relationship with you. If you want to know more, please email me.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
Sisuite Nuff said. It'll do network or CD based installs.
jh
Check out g4u at www.feyrer.de/g4u/ which we use for deploying pre-configured linux harddisk images to various machines (also works fine for windows, solaris, netbsd, ...)
- Hubert
Why don't you just use sysinstall rather than messing around with poorly documented shit?
Read this.
--> Insert Funny Sig Here
Should've used preview.0 /knoppix.html
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2003/11/2
--> Insert Funny Sig Here
I have not used it but I have seen a little bit about Debian's FAI
It looks like it combines a lot of the good ideas from the other suggestions (no CD's required and Kickstart type of install) And, if you combined it with a cache of the packages for apt-get or used the mkdebmirror script, you would also lessen the network load.
-I learned in health class that sig's will stunt yoru growth
A lot of interesting suggestions that I'll be checking out, but I thought I'd add some more info to my question.
a) The distro I'm installing is debian. Therefore it would be nice if I could create the bootCD using debian, and having custom bootmenus or at least my own script
b) The CD's will be available for computers that don't have an internet connection. This includes both desktops and/or servers which, while they might be connected to a network, don't always have access to a central server or the internet.
c) Simple is best to start, but once it works I'll probably try to add a somewhat intuitive UI (delay and go auto, or allow options if a key is hit). Preferable debian/stable-again as it would be odd having a RedHat/Suse/etc bootCD to install a debian system. Even the morphix/knoppix UI might be overkill. Perhaps something just similar to debian's own installer, though I've not found out where it comes from.
Any more suggestions/ideas?
I've always thought it would be cool if there were a linux distro called viral linux or something similar, that could house a minimal linux system on a floppy, maybe without even a gui, but it did have the ability to install itself onto a random computer when you inserted it and rebooted -- with zero user interaction. Then once booted, every floppy inserted would become a copy of the installer floppy. Whatever would fit on the floppy could also be there to make the system a usable linux box when installed.
:)
Substitute a CD on a computer with a CDR, and you could have a real system there. It's one way to get Best Buy to carry linux.. though the PR would probably not be entirely good
___disclaimer___
I am not seriously suggesting anyone create this beast. I just thought it was an interesting concept, like those parasites that require two or three different host bodies to complete their lifecycle.
"Google" answers are always annoying, nice to see somebody put the google trolls in their place.
Indeed, they are trolls for if they had read the question, they would have noted that I have looked at both knoppix/morphix and found them not quite what I wanted (so obviously I have been checking around before slashdot). Freshmeat has some projects too, some of which I've tried, but none of them quite did what I want either (some came close though).
Google is a great resource for generic information. Slashdot is a better resource for asking people with experience in what is a "good" solution as opposed to a "possible" one. Thanks for the support.
You mentioned Debian, so how about:
1. Spend 15 minutes learning how to remaster Knoppix.
2. Grab one of the Knoppix installer scripts.
3. Write a post install script if you want to do more.
4. Combine #1 and #2, add #3 to taste.
5. Make lots of copies of the resultant CD.
6. Run around putting it in drives and rebooting.
Alternately, put enough of a thing on bootable media to run netcat and a small copy script, and place an image on a central machine, dd it on to the drive, and then do post-install stuff.
Paul
http://www.pauldrobertson.com
Make your own debian package that contains as dependancies everything you want installed, then do a minimal install from a netinstall cd or a cd that has the bootfloppies stuff on it and then apt-get install your custom package.
Does anyone know of a live CD based on Debian that is oriented towards scientists and mathematicians? For example something that has Octave, Yacas, Maxima, gnuplot, R, LaTeX, Emacs with calc, etc?
I am considering doing this myself from a morphix lite-gui CD but I don't know enough about how to do it yet. The Morphix docs were not exactly straightforward either.
I think making morphix auto install by wiping the first hard drive would be easy though (per the original question)
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x))) http://www.endpointcomputing.com a scientific approach to custom computing.
scolex@motte:~$ man bootcd
NAME
bootcd* - utils to run diskless systems from cd
DESCRIPTION
With bootcd you can copy your running Debian System on CD with the com-
mand bootcdwrite. If your system has no CD-Writer you can build a
bootcd via NFS on a remote System with CD-Writer or you can only create
an ISO image. When you run your system from CD you do not need any
disks. All changes will be done in ram. To reuse this changes at next
boot time you can save them on FLOPPY with the command bootcdflopcp. If
booting from your CD-drive is not supported, booting from FLOPPY is
possible. It is possible to install a new system from the running CD
with the command bootcd2disk. Bootcd2disk can also find a target disk,
format it and make it bootable automatically. Bootcd also supports
parisc/hppa, initrd root fs, devfs and syslinux/isolinux.
SEE ALSO
bootcd2disk(1), bootcdflopcp(1), bootcdmkinitrd(1), bootcdwrite(1)
Most users who whine in "Ask Slashdot" articles that the submitter should have "Asked Google" instead do not bother to link to a useful query. Not all Slashdot users can always form a Google query that returns relevant results in the first 30.
Poster said he was aware of Knoppix and it doesn't fit his needs.
It sounds like you want to do something almost identical to what we've done at my work. We build out servers on a regular basis, and need to be able to get a full OS installed as quickly as possible. We have the total install time, from the time we turn the machine on with blank hard drives, to when it's finished rebooting with a working operating system, down to 5 minutes. I'm happy with our time, so we aren't pushing to get it any faster.
/dev/hda1 All available space
/dev/hda2 128Mb swap
/dev/hdb1 server files (empty to start)
/dev/hda . We don't have a /dev/hdb in this machine, it's just a workstation, but it shows the partition table.
/dev/hda
/dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20000000000 bytes
/etc/rc.d/rc.* files, etc).
/etc/HOSTNAME to "server", and put in impossible values in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1. This would be easy enough to replace the value with a script. (cat rc.inet1 ; sed -e s/xNETWORKx/192.168.1/g | sed -e s/xDx/99/g > rc.inet1.temp ; mv rc.inet1.temp rc.inet1). If you use DHCP, you don't even have to mess with this. We don't use DHCP for servers.
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 /bin/sh /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
/etc/HOSTNAME`
/orig/ /new/
/dev/hda1 /orig /dev/hda2 /new
/orig /new/os.tar.gz ./
Here's what we do.
I use Slackware, but this will apply to any OS that you'd like, with some changes. Normally, we have two hard drives in the server, one for the OS, and a second for the server's data (web data, mail, databases, or whatever this machine does). As far as this first step goes, this second drive is empty.
Our partitions usually consist of:
Below is a sample of
---
root@master (/) fdisk -l
Disk
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2431 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2415 19398456 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 2416 2431 128520 82 Linux swap
---
1) We take a machine, and do a full install as normal, and do our customizations (adding programs, modifying the
2) We build a bunch of kernels, one for every one of our "standard" installations. There are only 3 or 4 hardware platforms that we end up using, so I build out kernels for each, plus have some generic ones waiting, in case someone asks for a server to be built on some different hardware (can you make my 486/33 a server? Sure.)
3) Make "generic" customizations. That is, make this config generic, so it won't conflict with something else. I change
---
#!
#
#
HOSTNAME=`cat
# Attach the loopback device.
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 xNETWORKx.xDx broadcast xNETWORKx.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
/sbin/route add -net xNETWORKx.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0
/sbin/route add default gw xNETWORKx.1 netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1
# End of rc.inet1
---
3) When we're sure we are happy with the installation, we just tar it up.
mkdir
mkdir
mount
mount
cd
tar cvpzf
That'll run for a while. You'll get to watch the filenames roll by.
4) send it over to a workstation that you make CD's on. I have copies of all my ISO's, and the tgz's for future reference, and to download from internally. This lets me figure out mistakes from the past, or make subtle corrections as necessary.
5) prepare to make a CD.
I took <A HREF="http://syslinux.zytor.com/index.php">isolinu x</A> from the Slackware installation CD (1st disk of the pack, if you bought it), but I s
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.