On Wednesday 24 May 2006 12:00, Per Jessen wrote:
L. Mark Stone wrote:
Do text-mode only CD1 ISO files exist (or can they be built) for 10.1?
I don't think they exist, but I suspect you should be able to build them.
Thanks Per; any specific howtos you know of? Our Googling has come up dry...
The plan is to leave these text-only CD1 cdroms in the servers, and if we need to run a rescue system or rebuild a server, use iLO to manipulate the initial (text-only) grub menu when the cdrom boots.
As an alternative - may not be right for you - you could consider network booting. You could e.g. boot an etherboot image from floppy or bootrom or CD. This would then present you with a text-menu for choosing either normal boot-up or rescue etc. The advantage being just one image for all servers and minimal CD-burning.
We were considering that, but etherboot seems to require user intervention to have the machine boot from the hard disk. The cdroms default to booting from the hard disk, so normal reboots would not require any user intervention.
If we use the regular 10.1 CD1 without the (extra-cost) iLO Advanced licensing capability, there is no graphics capability, and so we miss the graphical grub menu during the boot process.
I don't think that's correct - when YaST detects no graphical ability, it will default to text. I've done one or two installs over a serial link even. If your iLO boards somehow present their graphics capabilities regardless of the license, GRUB/LILO will of course get confused - I would think this can be overcome by using e.g. vga=normal or some other kernel parameter. Maybe a YaST-specific one.
iLO uses Ethernet, not serial BTW, but the iLO chips/boards don't have their own video chips; they just provide another session on the box--conveniently with boot time access. It's not truly accurate, but I tend to think of iLO as kind of like a hardware-based Terminal Services session that doesn't need a running OS to function. I believe therefore that YaST detects correctly the only video chip on the motherboard (which does provide graphics capability), but iLO won't do graphics without the advanced license, so we get a blank grub screen. The advanced license costs $350 per server, so it's not a lot of money, but it's significant enough given that we have a number of servers that would need licenses to invest some time in alternate solutions. Mark -- _________________________________________________________ A Message From... L. Mark Stone Reliable Networks of Maine, LLC "We manage your network so you can manage your business" 477 Congress Street Portland, ME 04101 Tel: (207) 772-5678 Web: http://www.rnome.com This email was sent from Reliable Networks of Maine LLC. It may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If you suspect that you were not intended to receive it, please delete it and notify us as soon as possible. Thank you.