<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<br>
<br>
Ralph Angenendt wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid20060906232119.GA13951@br-online.de" type="cite"><br>
<pre wrap="">
Here to the list, I'd say.
Regards,
Ralph
</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Here it is, and I guess let me know what you need next.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2>VNC Install Disk - howto</h2>
<div class="level2">
<p>The purpose of this disk is simple - to be able to install a second
system with Centos without having to hook up a keyboard/mouse/monitor.
This second machine is my test machine, and I wipe/install often on it.
I needed/wanted to use a disk for install as I do not have a 3rd
machine (or the room for it) to house a NFS server with images on it. I
know i could buy a KVM, but since i use a mac with <acronym
title="Operating System">OS</acronym>
X for my primary - the USB/PS2 with a DVI/VGA mixed model KVMs are
expensive for home use. And well I like this better - less equipment on
my desk. And in a nutshell - I got sick of lifting a heavy ass CRT out
of my storage every time i wanted to install.
</p>
<p>I am doing this in point form with a little explanation. No real
detail… just the commands to get the job done. I did this with a Centos
4.2 box running as root. Probably better to run it under a regular user
account and “sudo” as needed. But alas - I did it this way.
</p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Get an fresh Centos Server Cd<a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fn1"
name="fnt1" class="fn_top">1)</a> (You could create a custom CD with
the packages you want - however that is not covered here) <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
image from the <a href="http://www.centos.org" class="urlextern"
target="_blank" title="http://www.centos.org" onclick="return svchk()"
onkeypress="return svchk()">Centos</a> site and save it to your home
directory.</span></li>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Now it is time to mount the
downloaded Centos server cd <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym><a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fn2"
name="fnt2" class="fn_top">2)</a>
so that we can copy the files into our file system to do the required
edits to make this thing work. On the last line as most of you probably
realize you can sub “nano” for your favorite text editor. So enter the
following commands:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">mount -oloop CentOSServerCd.iso /mnt/
mkdir /tmp/installDisk
cp -a /mnt/* /tmp/installDisk/
cp /mnt/.* /tmp/installDisk/
cd /tmp/installDisk
nano isolinux/isolinux.cfg
</pre>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Now that we have the files copied
onto our drive from the <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
and have the “isolinux.cfg” file open we can now make our changes. What
we will be doing is editing the “boot options” that are passed to the
installer when the cd installer begins. Currently the file will look
like:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">default linux
prompt 1
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
F7 snake.msg
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
label text
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text ramdisk_size=8192
label expert
kernel vmlinuz
append expert initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
label lowres
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img lowres ramdisk_size=8192
label local
localboot 1
label memtest86
kernel memtest
append -
</pre>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Now what you need to do is modify
it to match the following:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">default linux
prompt 0
timeout 0
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
F7 snake.msg
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192 vnc vncconnect=192.168.0.100 headless ip=dhcp ksdevice=eth0 method=cdrom lang=en_US keymap=us
label text
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text ramdisk_size=8192
label expert
kernel vmlinuz
append expert initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
label lowres
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img lowres ramdisk_size=8192
label local
localboot 1
label memtest86
kernel memtest
append -
</pre>
<p>
As you can see I changed a few minor things like the prompt and timeout
to “0”. This is because I do not want to have to do any keyboard
interaction, nor would I be able to see the screen when I was asked for
these prompts. This disk is just for VNC installs. So the prompts and
time outs were removed. The other thing I modified was the default boot
option. Now as you can see I added the options for the default boot to
initialize a VNC connection to a listening viewer<a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fn3"
name="fnt3" class="fn_top">3)</a>
located on “192.168.0.100”. Obviously modify this to match your desired
network. There is a vnc parameter that can be passed (in a boot option)
in which you can set a VNC password on the installers VNC server - but
I figured since it is on my private lan behind a firewall - what the
heck. No need for it. The security concious may wish to add this
parameter. The other options cover some of the default information
required to be able to auto populate these values - otherwise you are
prompted to fill it out. But again - no keyboard/mouse/monitor. So we
pass the info here. Feel free to modify with your preferences for a
different language, etc. And as you can see, there must be a DHCP
server on your LAN to assign the IP to the machine targeted for
installation.
</p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Fix a few little permissions with
the following command…</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">chmod u+w isolinux/*
</pre>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Create the final <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
image with this command:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">mkisofs -o ../vncCentOS4.2SrvCd.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T .
</pre>
<p>This will create the final iso in your tmp directory. In my first
run at this I though - “Hey I’m done!”. Well if you had burnt the cd
you would have quickly discovered it was a no go. Why? Well upon
testing the CD with a monitor attached I found out the “media check”
prompt was coming up and waiting for me to press “continue” or “skip”.
Now this is a good feature to have with the intention of being sure
that your CD media is good. Well unfortunately for me this was bad. It
meant I would need a monitor and keyboard to get the install going.
Again not what I desired. After a little homework I discovered that
there was a boot option to FORCE a media check, however there was no
option to disable it. For a bit there I thought i was sunk. Since the
boot options are passed to “anaconda” (the redhat installer) I figured
the fine developers on the redhat anaconda would be able to point me in
the right direction (if there was a right direction at this point).
Luckily there was a right direction. They pointed me out to a tool that
was part of the anaconda runtime.
</p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Check if you have the anaconda
runtime installed.</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">yum list | grep anaconda-runtime
</pre>
<p>
The output from yum should tell you if it is installed. </p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">If you need to install it run:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">yum install anaconda-runtime
</pre>
<p>This is just part of the regular Centos repos. Now as to the tool.
What the hell is it? It is called “implantisomd5”. This tool is
installed to “/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/”. Now the command is real
simple like.
</p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Remove the media check from the <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
image with:</span></li>
</ul>
<pre class="code">/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/./implantisomd5 --supported-iso vncCentOS4.2SrvCd.iso
</pre>
<p>
Be sure to modify the above command if you named your <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
differently.
</p>
<ul>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Burn the <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
with your favorite cd burning software.</span></li>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Start your vnc viewer in
listening mode.</span></li>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Pop the cd in and boot the
machine you wish to install Centos on.</span></li>
<li class="level1"><span class="li">Install the <acronym
title="Operating System">OS</acronym> as per normal.</span></li>
</ul>
<p>Hope that helped. Over all this is not a hard procedure at all. The
hardest thing about it was digging all the info up from different
resources, and my inexperience with anaconda in general beyond that of
a regular default install.
</p>
<p>
Be sure to test your cd with a monitor on the first time since we did
disable the media check.
</p>
</div>
<div class="footnotes">
<div class="fn"><a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fnt1"
name="fn1" class="fn_bot">1)</a> I used the server cd so that we do
not need to switch CD’s through the installation as the server cd is
only 1 cd.</div>
<div class="fn"><a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fnt2"
name="fn2" class="fn_bot">2)</a> Be sure to adjust the commands to
reflect the name of your actual <acronym
title="International Organization for Standardization">ISO</acronym>
file.</div>
<div class="fn"><a
href="http://digitalcollision.com/wiki/doku.php?id=vnc_install_disk#fnt3"
name="fn3" class="fn_bot">3)</a> See your VNC viewer help docs on how
to set this up.</div>
</div>
<br>
</body>
</html>