Anas Nashif wrote:

you dont need to build the initrd by yourself. Its already on the CDs in /boot/loader/, unless of course you are talking about something completly different :-)

I think my original message might have been misleading, so let me explain in more detail: I've set up a regular PC with SuSE 8.2, installed a TFTP server and a DHCP server, and configured the latter to provide BOOTP aswell. Let's call this one "server". I copied the default linux kernel and initrd from the 8.2 installation media and edited GRUB's menu.lst to allow access to these files. I also mounted the installation media on a directory where it can be served by a regular FTP server. The second computer, let's call it "client", features a hard disk and network interface which supports PXE, but no floppy or CDROM. I've already managed to boot "client" with the help of "server", then chose "(nd)/menu.lst" as the configuration file, and started the SuSE 8.2 installation process. This manual installation was successful, and "client" can boot from its own hard disk now. What I need to do is to customize the installation process. Given a configuration file with a few basics (i.e. the network address), a virgin "client" should boot over the network, have its hard disk partitioned, file systems created, partitions mounted, and then start a hands-free installation with a predefined subset of RPM packages. User interaction should be as close to zero as possible, because later on, these installations are to be performed by remote maintenace personnel without Linux skills. To achieve this, I tried to create my own initrd file using a modified version of /sbin/mk_initrd as a starting point. My idea is to copy commands like mount, mkfs etc. to the initrd, add device files like /dev/hda[0-9] etc., and then use a shell script as my /linuxrc which does the partitioning and the further steps. This part is giving me great difficulties. Is my approach reasonable, or is there a better way to perform a hands-free installation for network booting computers? -- Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Yours sincerely Dipl. Inform. Ralph Seichter HORUS-IT Ahornweg 10 D-57635 Oberirsen Tel +49 2686 987880 Fax +49 2686 987889 http://horus-it.de/

Anas Nashif wrote:

And thats exactly what autoyast does? Are you trying to do it on your own?

I enquired about "autoyast" a while ago (not here, mind you). I was told that autoyast is not flexible enough for this task, and that it does not support network based installations. If I get you right, you seem to indicate that it does feature network support?

Well it is reasoable if you want to reinvent the wheel :-)

I'm feeling kinda stupid. Very stupid, to be quite frank. I've taken the judgment on autoyast without further questions, because the source of the information has so far been a reliable one. I should probably have tested things myself, though. I certainly know someone who owes me a beer now. Dang! :-/ Could you perhaps point me to the best source of information (FAQ, Tutorials, etc.) on autoyast? It seems to be the tool of choice for what I need to accomplish. Thanks! -- Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Yours sincerely Dipl. Inform. Ralph Seichter

On Thu, 22 May 2003, Ralph Seichter wrote:

I enquired about "autoyast" a while ago (not here, mind you). I was told that autoyast is not flexible enough for this task, and that it does not support network based installations. If I get you right, you seem to indicate that it does feature network support?

Autoyast has supported that all along, that's what it's for.

...

Well it is reasoable if you want to reinvent the wheel :-)

I'm feeling kinda stupid. Very stupid, to be quite frank. I've taken the judgment on autoyast without further questions, because the source of the information has so far been a reliable one. I should probably have tested things myself, though. I certainly know someone who owes me a beer now. Dang! :-/

Your source wasn't very far off. The AutoYast that came with SuSE 8.0 was far from flexible enough for most purposes. I had to do a lot of coding myself on top of it to give it the flexibility I need. It's matured rapidly, though. In SuSE 8.1 it's more than flexible enough for most of *my* purposes (about 80 machines, six major hardware platforms and minor variations on hardware within these) with only a few small shellscripts on top. I haven't checked AutoYast with SuSE 8.2 yet.

Could you perhaps point me to the best source of information (FAQ, Tutorials, etc.) on autoyast? It seems to be the tool of choice for what I need to accomplish. Thanks!

As Anas said, http://www.suse.de/~nashif/autoinstall/index.html What is missing is a more readable run-through of the AutoYast DTD and tags. There's a profile overview under the 8.1 docs, but I miss something I can print out - something like what was included in the early versions of the AutoYast documentation. I'm hanging on to my copy of one of those specifically because I love the reference part even if it's getting outdated. Bjørn -- Bjørn Tore Sund Phone: (+47) 555-84894 Stupidity is like a System administrator Fax: (+47) 555-89672 fractal; universal and Math. Department Mobile: (+47) 918 68075 infinitely repetitive. University of Bergen VIP: 81724 teknisk@mi.uib.no Email: bjornts@mi.uib.no http://www.mi.uib.no/