[CentOS] netinstall

Sun Aug 26 22:21:43 UTC 2012
Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de>

On 2012-08-26 at 09:18:21 +0200, Yanis Guenane wrote:

 > On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 3:12 AM, Joseph L. Casale <jcasale at activenetwerx.com
 > > wrote:
 > 
 > > >How can I insert a disc which is already inserted?  What am I
 > > >missing?
 > >
 > > Well, pretty simple... You don't have the correct disc "already"
 > > inserted.
 > >
 > > Its a netinstall, hence the "net" so it needs the net. Its also
 > > only a couple hundred megs, so that should indicate it doesn't
 > > have the full tree available.
 > >
 > > Grab the dvd if you want to install from the "same" disc, or
 > > choose another method.
 > >
 > 
 > As Joseph mention, if you downloaded the netinstall you should
 > definitely use the net and not any CD/DVD installer.

Sorry Joseph and Yanis, I wasn't clear enough last night.  Maybe it
was too late.

I'm not talking about the packages but about the file install.img.
This file *IS* already on the netinstall CD and it's exactly the same
as the one I had to download.

I downloaded it again now in order to compare:

$ md5sum /media/dvd/images/install.img ~/downloads/install.img 
ef3b0e14ff354c41524600c00ef44000  /media/dvd/images/install.img
ef3b0e14ff354c41524600c00ef44000  /home/reinhard/downloads/install.img

In order to save time and traffic, it would be nice if I could use
it.  There is even a menu item but it doesn't work for me.

According to the error message, the installer assumed that the file
install.img is on another disc.  But this is not the case.  It's on
the netinstall CD already.

 > http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2011/centos-6-netinstall-network-installation/
 > 
 > This is a tutorial that will guide you through and points to the
 > correct URL for package repositories and to the correct install.img
 > file.

Sure, but the install.img file at the package repository isn't more
correct than the one on the netinstall CD.  They are identical.
The guy who wrote the tutorial obviously encountered the same problem
but wasn't aware of the file on the CD and suggested this workaround.

BTW, I got the system running.  But I fear that I'll have to install
it several times again because I'd like to experiment with virtual
machines and LVM.  It's very likely that I break something since I
have no experience with them.  Therefore it would save me some time if
I don't have to download a file which exists on the CD already.

Of course, it takes much more time to download and install the
packages, but in this case, once installation is started, I can do
something else meanwhile.

Another thing: Even if I can use install.img from the CD, at least
when I have to install packages, I have to specify an URL to a
repository.  Documentation proposes mirror.centos.org .  Is there a
reason why the installer doesn't offer the mirror URL as a default?

I ask because I have only one machine and whenever the installer asks
me for an URL, I have to abort and boot a system which provides a web
browser in order to read the documentation, write the URL down on
paper, and start the installer again.  Well, I sometimes have the
impression that I'm the only one in the world who doesn't have a
mobile phone with a built-in web browser. :)

Of course, specifying a particular server as a default isn't
reasonable, it would cause too much traffic there.  But given that
mirror.centos.org performs load balancing, wouldn't it be possible to
provide a default URL in the installer menu?  It would make
installation *much* more convenient.

Any idea why it hasn't been done?

Regards,
  Reinhard

-- 
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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
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