[opensuse-autoinstall] Skip software installation
Greetings, is it possible to skip steps of the installation procedure, like partitioning and software installation? I'm trying to set up an autoyast profile (for an installation CD) that basically just asks a few (network) values in the initial stage, patches them back into the bootloader section of the profile and then just installs the bootloader with these values, skipping everything else. After reboot, the machine uses the boot parameters to fetch the "real" installation profile from a server and does a "normal" installation. (After installation, the machines will be managed by bcfg2.) The reason I'm trying to do this is twofold: First, I have to give those discs out to users and would like to never change them, if possible. Thus, the split-up between "bootstrap" and the real, changeable, profile on the network. Second, it is unlikely these users will have DHCP available, and I don't want them having to type endless boot parameters like hostip=1.2.3.4 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=1.2.3.1 install=http://network-repo/... autoyast=http://network-source/... So, is this possible with autoyast, or do I have to resort to putting more complexity on the CD, (changing things after installation with bcfg2) and possibly sending out new discs for profile errors/enhancements and new openSUSE releases? thanks, 686f6c6d -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+help@opensuse.org
On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 6:30 PM, 686f6c6d <686f6c6d@googlemail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
is it possible to skip steps of the installation procedure, like partitioning and software installation?
I'm trying to set up an autoyast profile (for an installation CD) that basically just asks a few (network) values in the initial stage, patches them back into the bootloader section of the profile and then just installs the bootloader with these values, skipping everything else. After reboot, the machine uses the boot parameters to fetch the "real" installation profile from a server and does a "normal" installation. (After installation, the machines will be managed by bcfg2.)
You could ask for the network parameters using autoyast's GUI (see the "ask" directives) and start the network with a script (as an "ask-script"). Then, you could fetch the other profile with WGET to a temporary area, change what you need and use it as the main profile. A tip: if you want apply the same network configuration to the installed system, your profile XML should have some "replaceable" strings. For example, let's say you want to change the IP address for the installed system. Your XML should have something like this in the proper networking section: <address>__IPADDR__</address> Just replace it with sed in a script: sed -e 's@__IPADDR__@10.1.1.1@g' /tmp/autoyast.xml > /tmp/modified.xml Remember you can also do multiple substitutions at once: sed -e 's@__IPADDR__@10.1.1.1@g;s@__NETMASK__@255.255.255.0@g' /tmp/autoyast.xml > /tmp/modified.xml AutoYAST will automagically find the new profile and use it. Have fun! :) -- -- Erico -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+help@opensuse.org
Hi!
2010/9/20 Erico Mendonça
On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 6:30 PM, 686f6c6d <686f6c6d@googlemail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
is it possible to skip steps of the installation procedure, like partitioning and software installation?
I'm trying to set up an autoyast profile (for an installation CD) that basically just asks a few (network) values in the initial stage, patches them back into the bootloader section of the profile and then just installs the bootloader with these values, skipping everything else. After reboot, the machine uses the boot parameters to fetch the "real" installation profile from a server and does a "normal" installation. (After installation, the machines will be managed by bcfg2.)
You could ask for the network parameters using autoyast's GUI (see the "ask" directives) and start the network with a script (as an "ask-script"). Then, you could fetch the other profile with WGET to a temporary area, change what you need and use it as the main profile.
Oh I see - I was already using ask scripts to get the values, but assumed it would not be feasible to bring the network up in an easy way - typical case of tunnel vision, it seems. (; Thanks for the hint! Avoiding a second autoyast run at all like this is an even better approach. (:
A tip: if you want apply the same network configuration to the installed system, your profile XML should have some "replaceable" strings. For example, let's say you want to change the IP address for the installed system. Your XML should have something like this in the proper networking section:
<address>__IPADDR__</address>
Yeah, I was using <append>hostip={IPGOESHERE} netmask={NMGOESHERE} [...]</append>
Just replace it with sed in a script:
sed -e 's@__IPADDR__@10.1.1.1@g' /tmp/autoyast.xml > /tmp/modified.xml [...] AutoYAST will automagically find the new profile and use it.
I saw that in the docs but it didn't seem to work for me (there might have been other problems causing this), so I edited my profile in-place, which worked fine: sed -i "s/{IPGOESHERE}/$VAL/" /tmp/profile/autoinst.xml Regarding the "changing multiple values at once": I tried doing that with <dialog> and <element>, but how can I reference multiple values in the script of the last element? Or would I have to have all but the last script dump the answers to a file, and read them with the last script? I'll post my results later this week. tty, 686f6c6d -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+help@opensuse.org
2010/9/20 686f6c6d <686f6c6d@googlemail.com>:
is it possible to skip steps of the installation procedure, like partitioning and software installation?
I'm trying to set up an autoyast profile (for an installation CD) that basically just asks a few (network) values in the initial stage, patches them back into the bootloader section of the profile and then just installs the bootloader with these values, skipping everything else. After reboot, the machine uses the boot parameters to fetch the "real" installation profile from a server and does a "normal" installation. (After installation, the machines will be managed by bcfg2.) [...] I'll post my results later this week.
Ok, it's been slightly longer than that. The current version of my profiles is attached. What I'm trying to do is create a bootable CD including autoinst.xml which fetches net.xml for the second stage. My current problems/questions/comments regarding this, in no particular order: 1. When I use a <networking> section as in autoinst.xml (or with additional empty "<dns/>" etc. tags), the network config of the creating host is cloned, including net-udev, which is bad. This means I *have* to re-overwrite it with the config file I initially loaded to start the image creation whenever I want create an image. (Workflow: run "yast autoyast", load autoinst.xml, begin creating ISO, proceed until "boot config ...", then "cp autoinst.xml /tmp/ay_iso/" to not have the wrongly cloned stuff on the image, complete the ISO.) How can I avoid this? 2. If you use yast with ncurses, then in the just mentioned "boot config" window you have no visible cursor and have to navigate blindly. Is this a yast bug, an autoyast bug, a feature, cosmic rays, ...? 3. for some reason, during package installation, i get two errors I have to confirm: ---------- 8< ---------- (At the very beginning:) Insert 'openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82 (Disc 1)' URL: cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0 File './suse/x86_64/openSUSE-release-dvd-biarch-11.3-1.82.x86_64.rpm' not found on medium '$URL' (At 60%, the same, but for:) File './suse/x86_64/openSUSE-release-11.3-1.82.x86_64.rpm' not found on medium '$URL' ---------- >8 ---------- What is happening here, what can I do? 4. The pathlist entries in autoinst.xml do not work. Is this because I cannot use <pathlist> with scripts, or I cannot use it with <file>, or just because i load a modified.xml later and the changes are lost? 5. Some of my settings from modified.xml are not applied to the final system (mostly scripts, see 6.), how could this happen and how could I debug it? Do i have to load/install all yast2-* modules or have similar "stub" entries in the stage1 config already (like "<users/>"), even if I only have "real" entries in the second stage file? 6. Some of the above type (5.) seem to be related to network problems, for example "selftest" and "preparetunnel" (which lie right next to net.xml) can obviously not be correctly retrieved and the scripts are just empty, why does autoyast not detect this as an error? Is this a bug or a feature? And how could these network problems happen, do I have a serious bug in my profiles that I'm overlooking? thanks for your time, 686f6c6d
On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 16:51, 686f6c6d <686f6c6d@googlemail.com> wrote:
3. for some reason, during package installation, i get two errors I have to confirm: ---------- 8< ---------- (At the very beginning:) Insert 'openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82 (Disc 1)' URL: cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0 File './suse/x86_64/openSUSE-release-dvd-biarch-11.3-1.82.x86_64.rpm' not found on medium '$URL'
(At 60%, the same, but for:) File './suse/x86_64/openSUSE-release-11.3-1.82.x86_64.rpm' not found on medium '$URL' ---------- >8 ---------- What is happening here, what can I do?
I got rid of the first one by just putting the package in <remove-packages>. What I still don't understand is how to remove the second showstopper. Even when I tell autoyast to use a http server <instsource> in net.xml[*], it is still searching on the disc. Manually adding for example "openSUSE-release-ftp" to <packages> does not help, either. Obviously, putting "openSUSE-release" into <remove-packages> isn't really an option. Has anybody encountered this before? [*]: When I try to do that in autoinst.xml, autoyast stops working with other showstopper errors because it seemingly doesn't trust the DVD contents anymore. tty, 686f6c6d -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+help@opensuse.org
participants (2)
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686f6c6d -
Erico Mendonça