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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.
..and all your boxes will have the same hostname and IP address. Or, you could use DHCP.
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.
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.
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.
Come on, people, enough of the 'just search Google, n00b' mentality - I mean, sure, any one can go search Google for "custom linux boot cd" and get a hundred possible options, just like anyone can search the yellow pages for a doctor and get a list of a hundred names; But people post questions here to see what experiences real, tech-savvy people have had with potential solutions, much like one might ask friends/family members about their experiences w/ certain doctors, in order to make a more educated decision. So next time you see a question like this, don't scorn the poster for wasting your time - be flattered that they have come to seek your personal expertise!