Re: Remote conversion of server from RedHat to Debian?

[Torbjorn Pettersson <tobbe@strul.nu>]

Andy Gardner <andy@navigator.co.nz> writes:

> OK. Any ideas of the best way to remotely change the linux distro on a
> dedicated server from Redhat to Debian?
> 
> No, the machine doesn't have a CD-ROM drive.
> 
> Thanks for any help.

 Hmm... Since you appearantly don't have "console" access to the
box this is going to be hard... But what you could do is make a
minimalistic, single partition without swap debian install, with
working network config for "red hat box place" on a box you have
console access to,  shut down swap on the red hat boxen, make
ext2 filesystem on their old swap, copy your mini debian stuff
to the old swap partition, configure boot loader and stuff (and
make sure that all config are right), reboot the system to boot
from the old swap, wipe the old red hat partitions and copy the
stuff out of the swap to their new, final place, fix boot loader
and stuff again, and reboot. You should now have a system with a
valid debian config on, so fix the swap, and use apt-get/dselect
to download the rest of the packages you want.

I'm quite sure that there is easier and less error-prone ways of
doing this, like going over to place were the red hat boxen are
with a boot floppy. 

Regards
Tobbe
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Torbjörn Pettersson               #  Email   tobbe@strul.nu
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