(6.2 install) Offering both install ISO's via nfs?

[Garrett Cooper]

On Jan 17, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Bill-Schoolcraft wrote:

> At Wed, 17 Jan 2007 it looks like Garrett Cooper composed:
>
>> On Jan 16, 2007, at 10:43 PM, Bill-Schoolcraft wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Family,
>>>
>>> Hmm, in doing installs with more than one install iso (disk-1 and
>>> disk-2) via NFS I'm not clear on the instructions where it states to
>>> simply "copy the FreeBSD distribution files..."
>>>
>>> (question)
>>>
>>> (A) Would that mean to copy the files from both install disks  
>>> into one
>>> common directory then export the directory via NFS?
>>
>> Yes. That's the purpose of NFS installs. Directory heirachy (from the
>> release's directory), needs to be maintained though.
>>
>> So the base directory would be similar to what's seen in
>> <ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386>, where you'd  
>> have to create
>> a directory name that matches the release, then download all the  
>> items to your
>> subdirectory on the NFS share under the release directory that you  
>> want to
>> install (i.e. 6.2-RELEASE/base, etc).
>>
>> Many people would just download their files from the FTP site and  
>> copy it to
>> their NFS share as I described above. That's what the handbook  
>> means AFAIK.
>>
>
> Thanks Garrett,
>
> Now, just to confirm one thing...
>
> On my NFS server I now have an exported directory called:
>
> /mnt/6.2-RELEASE
>
> Inside of that directory I have the full contents (not an iso  
> image) of
> the first install disk of FreeBSD-6.2, so far so good?
>
> Now, for the remaining data on disk-2, which has a duplicate file like
> disk-1 has called:
>
> cdrom.inf
>
> and a duplicate directory like disk-1 called:
>
> packages
>
> I figured I can rsync the second CD's contents of /packages into the
> main tree but what about the conflicting two files both named
> "cdrom.inf" ?
>
> Will the installer be intuitive enough to not prompt for second CD  
> when
> looking for files that would normally reside there?
>
> The reason I say that is that if one chooses to install, let's say,
> mtools or the linux software out of "emulators" on the main menu &&  
> you
> put in the 2nd disk, it intuitively tells you that the packages are
> "not" on disk-2, but disk-1.  So I'm thinking there is some residual
> metadata that not only has the package name but the CD disk location
> appended to in.  Similar to the disk shuffling one had to to before  
> when
> ejecting and injecting multiple CD's for previous installs on lets say
> 6.0 or 6.1
>
> Thanks  again Garrett
>>> (B) Mount each ISO in a loopback then export the two loopbacked  
>>> ISO's
>>> under each other in an exported parent directory?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Not possible with the basic FreeBSD installer disk, but maybe it's  
>> possible
>> with the FreeBSIE LiveCD, or a custom CD if you build in the  
>> relevant stuff
>> for a rescue shell; you'd still need to get at the iso somehow  
>> though, and
>> you'd have to make sure that ramdisk (that's the Linux name, but I  
>> forgot the
>> FreeBSD name right now?) support in order to mount an ISO image  
>> compiled into
>> your kernel.
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> -Garrett
>
> -- 
> Bill Schoolcraft <*> http://wiliweld.com
>                   ~
> "Unix is very simple, but it takes a
> genius to understand the simplicity."
>          (Dennis Ritchie)
>

Well, that's part of the reason why I suggested copying stuff over to  
NFS from the FTP site, because the FTP site has all of the data that  
you need and none of the data that you don't need when setting up an  
NFS install. So, basically just refer to the FTP, check which files  
you need to install (base, etc), then later you can run sysinstall  
when you boot for the first time into multiuser mode (choose Post  
Installation Configuration, or whatever it's titled) to install the  
packages you like.
-Garrett