hands off install

[Jay Camp]

On Sun, 2005-03-20 at 22:24 -0600, Carl Karsten wrote:
> Summary of questions:
> 
> 0. Can the CD be used as a source for files when using the CD's netboot?

As I said Friday in my e-mail it couldn't, last time I tried a hoary CD.
Test it and let us know if it's changed. :)

> 1. What is the best way to keep the hoary install up to date?

apt-get upgrade? lol

> 2. Is a hands off install currently available, or is that beyond the 
> scope of the current project?

What's the difference between preseeding and "hands off install"?

> 3. Can the network parameters be passed via kernel parameters so that 
> the preseed file be pulled from the LAN?

Look at the Debian documentation on preseeding.  It can but I don't have
the link for it offhand.  Google will be your friend here.

> From what I can tell, the whole install can be done over 
> a LAN but it seems that only the boot files are used and the rest is 
> pulled from the Internet.
>
> 1. Bandwidth: it seems that the current netboot is geared at pulling 
> most of the files from a server on the Internet.
> 
> The Testers will need to pull the most of the content down every test. 
> The previous days will be discarded.
> 
> The Admins will need to pull down the content for each box.  Some Admins 
> don't even have access the Net.
> 
> In an attempt to reduce the amount of data that needs to pulled from the 
> mirrors which will be kind to the mirros and speed up the installs for 
> both groups, I would like to see a good plan for pulling down the 
> content to a server on the LAN, and the installs using that for the 
> content.  For the Testers, this will allow them to use rsync to keep the 
> source up to date, and for the Admins it will allow them to put one copy 
> on the LAN and install multiple boxes from it.

Quoting my previous e-mail:

"If you're going to do netboot installs you'll need to mirror the
repository.  I recommend installing debmirror and syncing against a
rsync server."

> 3. Getting rid of a floppy. The preseed file can be read over the lan, 
> but only after the box has network support.  I thought I saw something 
> that would drive that via kernel parameters that can be passed in from 
> pxelinux.cfg/default, but I can't find that any more.

I think the only questions that come up before the installer grabs the
preseed file is about language and keyboard or something.  I think this
is documented in the example preseed file in the Debian documentation.
It may have been mentioned on the list too, come to think of it.  It's
passed as a kernel param.