[CentOS] creating a floppy image from a linux file

Fri Oct 17 21:20:36 UTC 2014
Valeri Galtsev <galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu>

On Fri, October 17, 2014 3:55 pm, Dan Hyatt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am still trying to get kick-start centos in my vmware5 because pxe
> cannot find the pxe server. I do not control the dhcp or pxe server.
> I have both my kickstart file and my iso image for centos6.5 on my
> vmware datastore, but am trying to run my kickstart file from VMware
> guest.
>
> Can I tell the command line to run from the datastore in VMWare? Or must
> I convert my kickstart file to a floppy image to run from VMware console?

I hope I didn't miss something (as I have no idea what "datastore in
VMWare" means). When I install system on real machine or on virtual box
virtual machine, I use kickstart that I place on some webserver, then if I
don't have access to dhcp configuration, then I boot the box off any
installation media, and before it load kernel (when it gives you choice
run system off CD or install system) I press "escape". At this moment you
have access to which kernel and with which options you want to boot. So I
just point it to my kickstart file as follows:

linux ks=http://my.server.com/path/to/kickstart.cfg

(replace the URL with URL of your kickstart file).
Also, in kicstart I just give the URL of our public mirror I support for
our University. E.g. as URL of installation media for 64 CentOS 7 I have
the following line in kickstart file:

url --url=http://bay.uchicago.edu/centos/7/os/x86_64

I hope, this helps.

Valeri

>
> I have the centos image on the DVD mounted from my datastore.  Now I
> need to convert the kickstart file to a floppy image to mount on the
> server from my datastore
>
>
> This is what google and VMWare keeps telling me but it does not make
> sense unless I am copying off a floppy....
> What I am trying to do is turn the kickstart file into a floppy image so
> I can kickstart off the floppy in vmware.
>
> Create a disk image from the physical drive:
> cat /dev/fd0 > imagefile.img
>
> Copy image to the physical drive:
> cat imagefile.img > /dev/fd0
>
> Help figuring out that silly little piece that is keeping me from
> building a VM guest from my kickstart file is much appreciated.
>
> Dan
>
>
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++