March 2004 - openSUSE Autoinstall - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Newbies Installing 9.0
by suse＠mniceguy.privasend.com 22 Mar '04

22 Mar '04

I've got a computer store guy who's doing an upgrade on my computer. He knows practically nothing about Linux but wants to learn. I've used Mandrake 8 & RHL 9, but only know a little, graphical basic stuff. Goal is dual-boot WinXP and SUSE 9.0 Personal, which I bought at retail in a box. Is there anything we/he need to know/do other than insert the disc after he installs XP and assume/hope YAST will prompt...? Should we check compatibility, do other stuff first, panic about something else??? I *really* appreciate your help. -M!

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if conditions in XML-File
by Manuel.Laesser＠telekurs.com 21 Mar '04

21 Mar '04

Hello is it possible to have "if-else conditions" statements in the autoinst.xml file. I would like to create a swap partition which is two times larger then available memory but neverlarger then 2GB. How could I solve this issue with autoyast? Does anyone has a good idea? Sorry for asking so many questions but you already helped me a lot! Thank you so much! Regards Manuel Mit freundlichen Grüssen, Manuel Laesser ----------------------------------------------------------- Telekurs Services Hardturmstrasse 201, 8005 Zürich Phone : +41 1 279 44 24 Fax : +41 1 279 34 44 mailto : manuel.laesser(a)telekurs.com -----------------------------------------------------------

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Installing Linux
by Florian Schödel 20 Mar '04

20 Mar '04

Hi together, I want to install SuSE Linux 9.0 on my "targa visionary" notebook "xp-210". There ist just a problem: When the message "Analysiere Festplatte" ("analysing hard disks...") appears on the screen it doesn't complete the action. After 5 minutes I break up by pressing the power button because ctrl-alt-del doesn't work anymore. There is a toshiba hard drive I want to install linux on. The first partition contains w i n x p. If I select "Safe settings" from the boot screen, which appears when I start from the CD, the system will be frozen on detecting the pcmcia devices. Is this a known problem with this notebook or could I change any configuration? The hard drive was detected as a udma 5 drive by the bios. Thanks for your help Florian

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Autoinstall and Network Installation prompting for CD rom
by RANGI, JAI 19 Mar '04

19 Mar '04

Hi I am trying to build Beowulf Type of cluster using Suse 9.0 64 bit processor. I installed all the softwares and have done all the configuration on one node, from there I made the exact copy of that node using autoyast tool. As we want all the nodes of the same type and all the nodes have same hardware architecture. Copy the autoinst.xml file /tftpboot/suse9.0/autoinst.xml-nodename (sd* in our case). Copy the installation DVD into /tftpboot/suse9.0 directory. Which is also NFS partition. Copy pxelinx.0 (LATEST, I know there is problem with pxelinux.0 that came with suse 9.0) in /tftpboot/suse9.0 Copy Linux and initrd from /tftpboot/suse9.0/boot/loader to /tftpboot/suse9.0/ Create default file in /tftpboot/suse9.0/pxelinux.cfg/C0A8016C (For IP 192.168.1.108 and same for other nodes) Here is what the default file (C0A8016C) looks like default Linux label Linux kernel linux append init=/linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd root=/dev/ram insmod=bcm5700 netdevice=eth0 insmod=mptbase autoyast=nfs://192.168.1.1/autoinst.xml-sd6 install=nfs://192.168.1.1/ Now I boot the client machine using pxe boot and it boots, it gets the IP address reads the configuration file C0A8016C and says Missing Parameter in Config File.. Missing Parameter in config File.. and start the installation BUT this is what I get after loading modules.... ////////////////////////// Looking for Suse Linux CD.. Checking device /dev/hdc Ok, That didn't work See if we can activate another storage device Insmod mptbase Opps That didn't work, no further storage device found, giving up... Automatic Setup not possible ........///////////////// And it ask for the installation CD. Seems like the network card is not configure and it have problem with communication with NSF server, even though Network card got the fixed IP from DHCP server... Also from here If I go manually and try to load modules for network card which is bcm5700 it fails... Any idea what I might be doing wrong.... I have read so much on the mailing list archive but could not find any solution.... Thank You Jai Rangi Unix System Administrator, Computing Services, South Dakota State University Brookings SD 57006. email: jai_rangi(a)sdstate.edu Ph: 605 688 4689 Fax: 6056884605 ------------------------------------------------------- In the world with no fences, why would you need Gates ? - Linux -------------------------------------------------------

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autoinstall with LVM, GRUB, SWAP
by Manuel.Laesser＠telekurs.com 19 Mar '04

19 Mar '04

Hello, I've got the following questions. 1. Is there a possibility in the autoinst.mxl to deselect lilo explicit so it won't be installed. I can't find a lilo statement in my package section but the rpm still will be installed. I got a hint from a friend. He told me that I should deselct lilo explicit in the autoinstall.xml. Is there a way to do this? Could this be a valuable way of having GRUB instead of LILO. If I understood Anas statement, then it's not possible to have GRUB if LVM is used with an autoinstall. Is there any workaround? Can I migrate from LILO to GRUB using a post installation script? 2. If you use LVM and create a logical volume for /, /home, /usr and swap the swap partition isn't activated and there is no entry in /etc/fstab but the logical volume exists. After I put the entry in /etc/fstab and made a mkswap, swapon -a the swap space was available. 10 minutes later I checkd with swapon -s or cat /proc/swaps and it was saying that the swap space was deleted??!! Did anyone receive a similar message? Thank you very much for your answer. I'm a little bit depressed, because I still have no concept how I can carry out my degree dissertation.....and time is bloody short!! :-( Regards Manuel

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Desiring a bit of interation with autoyast process
by Bryan Fink 18 Mar '04

18 Mar '04

Hello. I'm working on setting up an autoyast installation system for a cluster computing environment. This seems like the perfect tool, except for one small part. When I start the autoyast install, I'd really like a small menu to ask me "Which node would you like this machine to be?" I'd like to be able to type a number (like 42), and then have the machines network set up so that it's IP is based on that number (like 10.0.0.42), and so is its hostname (like "node42"). What I've come up with is doing something like putting up a CGI script, such that I can run "linux autoyast=http://cgihost/autoyast.cgi?42", and have that CGI script send back an autoyast configuration file specifically generated for node42 (basically a dynamic equivalent of creating node1.xml through node255.xml and just passing in autoyast=node42.xml). Does anyone have a better idea? I really don't want to write a script that actually modifies ifconfig and stuff manually - that just seems to not be in the spirit of autoyast. I just haven't figured a way yet to have a pre-install script, run by autoyast, gather the data I want, and then proceed with these values (i.e. the xml file has no way to allow one part of the file to define a variable for a later part to use). Anyone know differently? Thanks, Bryan

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[suse-autoinstall] Error with software base-selection.
by Kurt Östberg 18 Mar '04

18 Mar '04

Hi. Problem solved. I compered the contents of ls-lR.gz with what I actually got when I ftp'ed the whole suse9 from suse. It showed up that some files where missing, LAMP.sel,LAMP2.sel and X11.sel was some of them so that explains why it didn't work. /Kurre

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Error with software base-selection.
by Kurt Östberg 18 Mar '04

18 Mar '04

Hi. I saw in the mailing-list a mail about this problem but no solution. The autoinstall stops with the message: "Error, Could not set base selection: default" Facts: Suse 9.0 ftp version A boot-cd with commandline options: autoyast=nfs://server/profiles/autoinst.xml install=nfs://server/suse9 The autoinst.xml parses into yast OK. A snort/tcpdump on the interface tells me that a lot of stuff from /suse9/suse/setup/descr/ on the server is transfered back to the client, so the nfs is working. The data that goes to the client is as far as I can see the contens of the files: selections and packages. So, why can't yast set the base selection? Any ideas out there. /Kurre

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Re: [suse-autoinstall] RE: SLES 8, PXE, serial console, prompting for CD #1
by Andy W. Barclay 17 Mar '04

17 Mar '04

Hi, I've done some more research and I think I've found out whats going on. 1) The problem with the "Insert UnitedLinux Version 1.0 CD 1" only happens when I copy the SP3 CD #1 over the distribution. If I rsync only: suse linux standard server 8 CD to sles8 united linux CD #1 united linux CD #2 united linux CD #3 then all is well. (except, of course, the lilo thing). As soon as I copy over: unitedLinux-1.0-SP-3-i386-RC4-CD2.iso it starts prompting me..... I believe the problem is with the media.1/media file, because if I copy the media.1/media file from the original united linux CD #1, the thing starts working again. 2) The serial console. I've found that the order of the parameters is significant. When I specify "console=ttyS0,9800 console=tty0", it works. When I specify "console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9800", it doesn't work. Also, the textmode=1 is extraneous when using a serial console. 3) I've also found a mistake in one of the error messages. When I boot a machine that has only ide disks and the xml file refers to /dev/sda, it throws an error (as it should), but the error says, Partition "/" needs 1224.24 GB more disk space. I'm pretty sure that should be MB. Todd Ness wrote: >> very interesting, here is my pxe entry, I never get a graphical install, >> and want one. >> >> default linux >> serial 0,9600n8 >> label linux >> kernel linux >> append console=ttyS0,9800 console=tty0 load_ramdisk=1 initrd=initrd >> install=nfs://192.168.1.104/install/JDS >> autoyast=nfs://192.168.1.104/install/repository/autoinst.xml >> >> As far as answering any of your other problems I can not help, but maybe >> you can get a text install this way. I never get my questions answered. >> >> Todd >> >> On Tue, 2004-03-16 at 18:41, game82(a)unixpeople.com wrote: >> > >>>>In February, I posted that I was having two problems with the >>>>autoinstall of SLES8 - I wanted it to not prompt me to confirm >>>>lilo install, and I wanted it to use text mode. >>>> >>>>The response was to update to SP3 (gets rid of lilo) and to decrease >>>>the length of the command line (bug). >>>> >>>>Ok, I downloaded the iso images and re-spooled: >>>>Suse Standard Server 8 (came with the boxed product) >>>>UnitedLinux-1.0-SP-3-i386-RC4-CD1.iso >>>>UnitedLinux-1.0-SP-3-i386-RC4-CD2.iso >>>> >>>>then tried to install. >>>>Now, halfway through the install, it prompts me to insert 'UnitedLinux >>>>Version 1.0' CD 1. >>>> >>>>When I go to the details of the error, it says: >>>>SuSE Linux AG != SuSE Linux AG >>>>20031106141452 != 20021022150203 >>>> >>>>Ok, so I re-spooled again - this time just the two SP3 iso images and >>>>re-tried again. >>>>Same error. >>>> >>>>In addition, I can't seem to get the install to use the serial port as >>>>a console (all my servers are headless). >>>> >>>>It just doesn't seem to want to do that - here is my pxe entry: >>>>---------------------------------- >>>>label suse_standard_server_8 >>>> kernel suseKernel >>>> append initrd=s textmode=1 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600n8 >>>>ramdisk_size=64000 root=/dev/ram3 >>>>install=nfs://192.168.1.36/usr/software/l/s8 >>>>autoyast=nfs://192.168.1.36/usr/software/l/kickstart/y/s8.xml >>>>------------------------------------ >>>> >>>>Any ideas?

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Onlineupdate for files on server
by Alexander.Gehrig＠rsd.rohde-schwarz.com 17 Mar '04

17 Mar '04

Hi All! I have a question about updateing the files befor installing: At the moment the client system will be installed with autoinstall and after installation an onlineupdate starts. How can i update the files on the server, is there a procedure for this kind of action? Thanks! Bye Alexander

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