Re: Help with console-less remote x86 box ...

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 12:26:06AM +0100, Geert Stappers wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 10, 2004 at 12:22:26AM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I am trying to install debian on a remote x86 box, where i have nothing apart
> > from a network connection, and ssh into an existing redhat system (and a free
> > 1GB swap partition i can scavenge).
> > 
> > As i see it, without needing the kvm again, there are two possibilities for
> > it:
> > 
> >   1) use the netboot image, but boot it directly from disk with lilo, and use
> >   the ssh frontend.
> > 
> >   2) use preseeding and do a fully automated blind install. This is rather
> >   chancy though, especially as we don't have a local mirror system to test run
> >   it.
> 
> 
>     3) debootstrap, chroot into it for running the bootloader[1]

Nope, tried, didn't work. I have good faith in the following method, thanks
for joeyh for helping me out on this yesterday :

Build a custom netboot image, with the network console included, and a preseed
file on the initrd, which would setup all the early stuff (mostly ssh password
and static network setup). Either replace network-preseed with file-preseed,
or put the preseed file on a http server, but this is less secure since we are
preseeding the ssh password too. Still for the small windows of install, it is
probably not a big risk.

Thanks for your help though,

Friendly,

Sven Luther