Jumpstart Guide / PXE network installation

[John Housden]

On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 08:48:02AM -0700, Saint Aardvark the Carpeted wrote:
> John Housden disturbed my sleep to write:
> >  1. I have compiled and installed a custom kernel on my PXE server
> >   Â Â which works fine. I have placed my new kernel in /usr/tftpboot and
> >   Â Â in the NFS root. The PXE client loads the correct kernel to start the
> >   Â Â install, but after rebooting the client boots the GENERIC
> >   Â Â kernel. Where is sysinstall getting this kernel from?
> 
> Is it possible that this is the GENERIC kernel installed by the
> usual installation process (in other words, the same kernel you'd 
> expect to see after a CD-based install)?

Yes, this is the case. What I am trying to understand is how to configure
sysinstall to install my custom kernel rather than the GENERIC kernel. I
have searched my NFS mountpoint looking the kernel, but can only find my
custom kernel.

> >  2. I have a 'shutdown' command at the end of my install.cfg script,
> >   Â Â but on both a Dell Precision 610 and an IBM PC330, this does not
> >   Â Â work: instead the system reboots and restarts the installation
> >   Â Â unless I intercept the reboot! What am I missing?
> 
> If you're installing to, and then booting from, a hard drive, I'd check the
> BIOS boot order.  
>  

My boot order is floppy disk first then hard disk. (The Dell Precision 610
doesn't support native PXE booting, so I am using a 3Com Managed Boot Agent
diskette to start my PXE installs).
I have checked the power settings and 'AC Power Recovery' is OFF. This 
should mean that when power is restored, the PC stays OFF.

> >  3. I get a prompt 'loading module ida.ko failed'. This is for Compaq
> >   Â Â Smart RAID, but I did not configure this option in my custom
> >   Â Â kernel. Presumably, I have not configured the list of kernel
> >   Â Â modules correctly?
> 
> No idea, I'm afraid.

Guess I need to research how kernel modules are linked with the kernel.

> >
> >  Any pointers gratefully received - this has been driving me nuts for too
> >  long now!
> >  This is my first post to the list.
> 
> I had to set up PXE booting for work, and it took me a *long* time
> to figure out, too.  If you've got this far, you're doing great.  If you've
> not checked out this link, it's well worth a look:
> 
> 	http://www.tnpi.biz/computing/freebsd/pxe-netboot.shtml
> 
> Hope that helps!

Thanks for the encouragement and the link - I had seen it, but it didn't
help. Looks like I shall have to re-read the documentation and do more
research.

> 
> -- 
> Saint Aardvark the Carpeted
> aardvark at saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com
> Because the plural of Anecdote is Myth.
> _______________________________________________