So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Suggestion: check the closets, and people's desks. Certainly, we have a *lot* of crap (i.e., IDE drives, old, OLD SCSI drives) laying around.
And eBay's got 'em for $6,99. (No, you can't have mine that I have at home, not until I get a USB one....)
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Kickstart. I'd say pxeboot, but without a keyboard to tell it to boot off the net, that's a problem.
mark
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 10:56 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Suggestion: check the closets, and people's desks. Certainly, we have a *lot* of crap (i.e., IDE drives, old, OLD SCSI drives) laying around.
I have a strict rule at the office: if no one's using it, throw it out. MY actual office is always the 'dumping ground' for stuff like that, to the point where I couldn't walk through it one day, so I had to start tossing crap. So, yeah, no keyboards, at least not the USB kind. I have three that are PS/2 though ... lot of good they're doing me.
And eBay's got 'em for $6,99. (No, you can't have mine that I have at home, not until I get a USB one....)
Right ... not going to help me right now though, unless eBay can deliver within the next 3 hours.
Kickstart. I'd say pxeboot, but without a keyboard to tell it to boot off the net, that's a problem.
Kickstart ... ok, I'm going to have to dig into that. I wonder, can I grab the netinstall ISO, extract the files, and add/modify the necessary files for bootup that tells it to start vnc (with appropriate options), then create a new ISO?
On 12/17/2013 9:52 AM, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in.
you can't even borrow a USB key/mouse off another system for the 5 minutes it would take to get things going?
Have a look at this:
http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/VncHeadlessInstall
Chris
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Ashley M. Kirchner ashley@pcraft.comwrote:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that? _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Yeah, that didn't work as expected ... The system was setup to always boot from the HD first ... in order to change that I had to go in the BIOS and flip the order around so it would boot from the CD. So, I ended up stealing a coworker's keyboard when they went to lunch. Returned it before they came back ... no idea their keyboard took a short "trip" ...
Once that got fixed, since I already made a disk following the link that Chris Stone sent, I went ahead and tried it et voila, works. So thanks to everyone for helping here.
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 11:17 AM, Chris Stone axisml@gmail.com wrote:
Have a look at this:
http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/VncHeadlessInstall
Chris
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@pcraft.com
wrote:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all
then
realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it
so
that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer
with
VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that? _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-- Chris Stone AxisInternet, Inc. www.axint.net _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@...> writes:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Kind of "don't raise the bridge, lower the river suggestion:"
Pull the hard drive and put it in another system long enough to do the install. As long as the chip architecture is the same (32bit vs. 64 bit), it should work fine. It should work even if one system is Intel and the other AMD.
Cheers, Dave
What about when special modules need to be in the initrd for hardware upon which boot depends (raid cards, SAN HBAs, NICs sometimes)?
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 9:26 AM, David G. Miller dave@davenjudy.org wrote:
Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@...> writes:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Kind of "don't raise the bridge, lower the river suggestion:"
Pull the hard drive and put it in another system long enough to do the install. As long as the chip architecture is the same (32bit vs. 64 bit), it should work fine. It should work even if one system is Intel and the other AMD.
Cheers, Dave
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Presumably, that's what you'd use kickstart for ... but I'm going to leave that for someone with more knowledge answer that. I'm just happy with a working system right now.
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Billy Crook bcrook@riskanalytics.comwrote:
What about when special modules need to be in the initrd for hardware upon which boot depends (raid cards, SAN HBAs, NICs sometimes)?
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 9:26 AM, David G. Miller dave@davenjudy.org wrote:
Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@...> writes:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all
then
realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on
me
already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it
so
that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer
with
VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Kind of "don't raise the bridge, lower the river suggestion:"
Pull the hard drive and put it in another system long enough to do the install. As long as the chip architecture is the same (32bit vs. 64
bit),
it should work fine. It should work even if one system is Intel and the other AMD.
Cheers, Dave
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-- Billy Crook • Network and Security Administrator • RiskAnalytics, LLC _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:54 AM, Billy Crook bcrook@riskanalytics.com wrote:
What about when special modules need to be in the initrd for hardware upon which boot depends (raid cards, SAN HBAs, NICs sometimes)?
If you are building an image to run on a different system, you can add the drivers in /etc/modeprobe.conf (or the files under /etc/modeprobe.d/ and rebuild the initrd to include them (assuming you know the right names - you might need to do an install on a similar system to find them).
Billy Crook <bcrook@...> writes:
What about when special modules need to be in the initrd for hardware upon which boot depends (raid cards, SAN HBAs, NICs sometimes)?
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 9:26 AM, David G. Miller <dave@...> wrote:
Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley <at> ...> writes:
So I'm in a bit of a pickle ... I have a machine that needs to be repurposed from WinXP to CentOS. I downloaded the CentOS DVD and all then realized ... I don't have a keyboard/mouse for the machine. It only has USB ports on it, and I don't have a single available USB keyboard that I can plug in. Bit of a problem.
Usually what I do is install via VNC anyway, but that is contingent on me already having something on the machine that allows me to connect to it so that when it boots up, I can edit the boot parameters and enable VNC. I don't have that this time.
So, the question is: can I make a DVD image that starts the installer with VNC options set and if so, how do I go about that?
Kind of "don't raise the bridge, lower the river suggestion:"
Pull the hard drive and put it in another system long enough to do the install. As long as the chip architecture is the same (32bit vs. 64 bit), it should work fine. It should work even if one system is Intel and the other AMD.
Cheers, Dave
CentOS mailing list CentOS@... http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
1) I give Ashley credit for knowing his systems and knowing if the system in question needs such a kernel module in order to boot.
2) Fairly low likelihood that the system needs such a module in order to even boot. Might need it for full functionality but that can be handled later.
3) I carry around a USB hard disk with Fedora on it. If I can get a system to boot from the drive, it always seems to work. Experience says most systems will boot without any non-standard pieces.
Cheers, Dave
-
Ashley M. Kirchner -
Billy Crook -
Chris Stone -
David G. Miller -
John R Pierce -
Les Mikesell -
m.roth＠5-cent.us