Re: Replicating Linux?

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >>> Does anyone know of a way to install Linux on many machines?...
> >> I've copied the Linux system quite a few times.
> >> I was actually planning on talking about this a little bit
> >> at this Sunday meeting....
> 
> >So is there a good utility anywhere that will facilitate the creation
> >of root/boot disks?
> Without intention of flaming, what about cp'ing what you need to a floppy,
> and installing LILO on it? THen you've got a single bootable you can carry
> around as you instal ethernet cards. Put in the card, reboot the machine
> to your floppy, run the script, and -- PRESTO! everything should be fine.

It is possible to create a set of disks that you can boot from,
start up a network, partition a disk, and copy a file system
from another PC running NFS.  I've done it.

It's a little more involved that just putting a kernel and LILO
on a diskette.  You need a system file system on a diskette,
and a kernel on another diskette.  You have to create this mini-
diskette file system on a Ram-disk, or a "loopback device" (a 
filesystem inside a file).  Then you have to compress this file
system and copy it to a diskette.  You have to use "rdev" to 
change the ramdisk parameters in the kernel.  This will make the
kernel read the compressed filesystem diskette and unpack it into 
a ramdisk.  Then you are up and running on the PC with a small Linux 
system.  You usually need one or more diskettes to hold the commands 
you will need to do the file system copy (tar, ifconfig, mount,
fdisk, mke2fs, ...)  

This is just an general overview of what it takes to make Linux 
run from diskette.  If you decide to take this route, then you 
should get the details from the "Bootdisk-howto" since it's been 
a few months since I've done it.  If you still have questions
or problems after reading Bootdisk-howto, I'll help if I can.

As far as a script to do the actual copy, I don't know of 
anything that exists.  It would probably have to be created
custom for each particular situation anyway.  I can also
give you help creating this script, but you need to get
the boot-diskettes working first.  Personally, I would do
it manually a few times, and develop the script on the fly
as you figure out exactly what it is going to take.

> >	And thanks your all your help,  I've had nearly a dozen replies about
> >this issue.
> That's what we're all here for.

Very true.  Between the lot of us, you should be able to solve this.

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
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