[CentOS] Install via VNC

Thu Sep 25 19:31:23 UTC 2008
Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com>

First try did not work....

dnk wrote:
> On 24/09/08 8:27 AM, "Robert Moskowitz" <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/VncHeadlessInstall
>>
>> Only thing I don't know how to do is have vncviewer in 'listen' mode.
>>     
>
> I am the one that wrote that wiki article. How to put the client into listen
> mode depends on which VNC client you are using, and on what platform.
Building the CD was relatively easy. BTW, if you copy the Centos 5.2 
1of6 iso image to a system with gnome, Nautlius 'open with Archive 
Manager' makes it trivial to extract all the files from the image. The 
rest of your build instructions were easy to follow. I am using:

kernel vmlinuz vnc vncconnect=1.2.3.5 headless ip=dhcp ksdevice=eth0 
method=http://me.htt-consult.com/centos/5.2/os/i386 lang=en_US keymap=us

above is all one long line....

For my setup. Where the real IP address I am using is what I got from 
ifconfig on my notebook.



I have 'vncviewer -listen' running in a terminal window on my Centos 
notebook, and it reports to be listenting on port 5500. 'iptables -L' 
reports ACCEPT for fcp-addr-srvr1 (which google tells me is port 5500), 
and I have opened port 5500 within my Intranet.

Boot from CD (there is actually a screen on my OQO, but at only 800x480, 
I would not know if there was something at the bottom of the display) 
and I watch it start up and proceed all the way to the Centos5 X screen 
and sit there. Nothing on the client. Guess I am going to have to open a 
monitor port on the switch the OQO is plugged into and watch with 
tcpdump to see if anything is actually happening.


hmmm, for the 'heck of it', I pressed <altN> and the install took off. 
Asked me what language and such I wanted (the 'standard' two dialog 
windows). The third <alt-N> brought me to Disk Druid. That kernel line 
is NOT working quite right. It is clear the changes to the first two 
lines 'took':

prompt 0
timeout 0

As the install did not wait for any command line input. So what is wrong 
with that kernel line? I editted isolinux.cfg with gedit, and I just 
looked at the file on the iso build server with vi and it shows that as 
all one line. What is wrong here? Should I break out wireshark, or is 
there a problem with:


kernel vmlinuz vnc vncconnect=1.2.3.5 headless ip=dhcp ksdevice=eth0 
method=http://me.htt-consult.com/centos/5.2/os/i386 lang=en_US keymap=us

where 1.2.3.5 is really the IP address of my client system. and 
me.htt-consult.com replace with the fqdn of my repo server (this works 
just fine with a 'linux askmethod').