[CentOS] creating a floppy image from a linux file

Mon Oct 20 12:58:59 UTC 2014
Dan Hyatt <dhyatt at dsgmail.wustl.edu>

This is relatively unique. Cannot load a barebones OS because VMWares 
mouse does not map to the screen. So where the mouse pointer is pointing 
and the buttons are not mapped correctly making impossible. Since it is 
not a physical server, I don't have the USB. But VMWare will allow me to 
"mount" a virtual floppy. So if I can create a floppy image of my 
kickstart file, I can kickstart my virtual iso image.

A datastore is a filesystem on a virtual server exported to the virtual 
guests.
Because this is a blade, there is no usb or DVD physically connected.  I 
can virtually mount a floppy and dvd from a floppy image and a dvd image.

As this is a production environment where we don't have any http servers 
under my control, it gets interesting.
Normal blades are installed via PXE from the other groups pxe server, 
the other group is not being helpful at this time.


On 10/17/2014 4:20 PM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CentOS mailing list
>> CentOS at centos.org
>> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>>
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Valeri Galtsev
> Sr System Administrator
> Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
> Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
> University of Chicago
> Phone: 773-702-4247
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos