[Fwd: Re: Messed with RH 6.9/7.0 multi-CD installer yet?]

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx>]

"Distribution Ultra-Guru" Bruce Smith of KLUG was the first one who
told me how to do it.  I'm forwarding his message to me from October
8, 2000.

[ Bruce Smith is also the target of ligitation for the unlicensed
use of "BS" in his products, e.g., "BSWare", by myself.  ;-PPP ]

-- The_*REAL*_BS

P.S.  I have yet to get a NFS install of RedHat 7.0 to work (at
least the stock release).  RedHat 6.9 and 7.1 worked fine.  Be sure
to check out SGI's XFS filesystem.  I think Bruce has even "merged"
the XFS replacement Anaconda/RPMs into the normal RedHat CD #1 so
there is just the 2 normal CDs (calls it "BSWare Pro", yet another
unlicensed product name ;-).

-------- Original Message --------
From: Bruce Smith <bruce@armintl.com>
Subject: Re: Messed with RH 6.9/7.0 multi-CD installer yet?
To: thebs@smithconcepts.com, thebs@theseus.com

> RedHat finally made multi-CD installs!  Now I need to figure out
> how it works.
> I looked at disc 1 and 2 and no /misc directory.  They still have
> /RedHat/base/hdlist (which is not on the 2nd CD, nor is
> /RedHat/base itself), so I guess it still gets built somewhere.  I
> checked the SRPMS disc and couldn't find anything.  Oh well.

Yeah, I finally figured it out yesterday and created BSware 7.0
with the errata for 7.0 recently posted.

Here's the way I did it:

I searched the CD's and noticed the program "genhdlist" doesn't
exist anywhere.  That had me worried for awhile.

Then I started searching inside the RPM's on the CD's and found
it inside anaconda-runtime-7.0.1-6.  (Requires "anaconda")
So, figuring that I had to install the anaconda* RPM's I first 
upgraded my home box to RH 7.0 just to be safe.

After coping the CD's to HDD, I started experimenting with the
new "genhdlist" until I figured out how to create a "hdlist" file 
exactly the same size as the one that comes on the CD.  Note:  The 
"hdlist" file exists ONLY on the first CD, but indexes BOTH CD's.

Here's the command I ended up with:

 cd /mnt/cd1
 /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist --withnumbers /mnt/cd1 /mnt/cd2

I'm GUESSING the "--withnumbers" means that it numbers the RPM's to 
which CD they reside on.  Without that parameter the "hdlist" file
is 
slightly smaller than the original.  With the parameter it comes out
to be exactly the same size.

So, then I updated to the latest errata, deleted the non-english
crap,
ran the new genhdlist like above, and created two new CD's.  A
couple
successful installs later on my test PC, and I've certified BSware
7.0
ready to go!   :-)

> Basically, I'd like to just put disc 1 and 2 on a disk for network
> installs.  Maybe I won't have to re-create the hdlist, as it
> should have all the files listed.  I would still like to roll-in
> the Powertools stuff (among a couple dozen other RPMs downloaded
> independently), but I guess I can keep it all separate.

I'm GUESSING, that you can put ALL the RPM's in one
.../RedHat/RPMS/* 
directory, and then run the genhdlist WITHOUT the "--withnumbers"
parameter (since everything in one dir), and that should work.

I'm thinking about making a BSware 7.0 "lite" that fits on one CD,
and will try the above theory if/when I get around to it.

Let me know how you make out with your one big install image.

> P.S.  I've been running RedHat 6.9 for close to a month now with 0
> problems, crashes, etc... In fact, I find it a hair more stable
> than my previous 6.2 install (I installed atop of it). 

That's good to hear!

> The only
> problem I've had is printing, I haven't bothered to figure out
> CUPS yet and the old Printtool/Printcap stuff doesn't work.

I've upgrade my work desktop and my home desktop to 7.0, and so 
far  so good.  I don't think I've tried printing yet.  I'll have 
to play around with it soon.  Thanks for the tip.

Heads up:  there was one message on the KLUG mailing list from 
someone who couldn't make a network install work.  It kept failing 
and then prompted for a diskette for error info to be mailed to 
Redhat.  He's since installed a CDROM drive in that PC and then
the install worked fine.

I haven't tried a network install yet.  Let me know how you make 
out with it.