[CentOS] suggestions for installing CentOS 5 via USB?

John Doe jdmls at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 19 09:26:37 UTC 2009


From: Phil Schaffner <Philip.R.Schaffner at NASA.gov>
> John Doe wrote:
> ...
> > Here's how I did my USB key (minus the kickstart part) but you need a linux
> (in a VM or from the live CD)...
> > And you will have to change devices names!
>
> Cool!  Any problems with the bug mentioned in the release notes about
> /boot being written to a USB key, or does that only happen with
> diskboot.img?
>
> http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.3
>
> "When using diskboot.img to install from a USB drive, anaconda tries to
> install GRUB on the USB drive rather than on the local HDD. Removing the
> USB drive after getting into the GUI (before the partitioning section)
> works around this problem."
>
> Would you be interested in doing a Wiki article on this, or alternately,
> would you approve if I used your material for one?
>
> I already took the liberty of posting the procedure as an answer to a
> related thread on the Forum, with credit of course:
>
> http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&topic_id=20641&forum=37

Hum, my bad... I am myself using a kickstart file and I forgot I had to use the following line in it (and I use HP raid controlers):

 bootloader --driveorder=cciss/c0d0,sda --location=mbr

For the kickstart, I use the following:

 In syslinux/syslinux.cfg:
  append initrd=initrd.img ks=hd:sda2:/ks.cfg method=hd:sda2:/centos

 In /media/DATA/ks.cfg (in their respective sections):
  harddrive --partition=sda2 --dir=/centos
  ignoredisk --drives=sda
  bootloader --driveorder=cciss/c0d0,sda --location=mbr

And, to be honest, I should not really get credit for this; I found most of the info on the web... ^_^

And I also reported earlier that:
1. My server HP does not seem to want to boot on a write protected USB key.
2. Anaconda tries to fetch the ks.cfg too early...  If, once the detection is over (just 2-3 seconds later), I retry, it works.
3. There is an error message "cannot mount read/write, will mount read-only" (I like to write protect)

JD


      




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