Re: remote installation

["John H. Robinson, IV" <jhriv@ucsd.edu>]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 07:21:54PM -0500, Tom Allison wrote:
> 
> I am trying to put together a floppy/CD-ROM such that I can have someone 
> with little experience (or time) insert this disk, boot the computer, 
> and I will access it via ssh from there.

1) does the computer in question have a NIC in it that is compatible
with the NICs that GRUB supports?

2) does the computer have a serial port? 3) is there another system with
an available serial port 4) that you have ssh(or other) access to?

5) do you have an available dhcp/bootp server and 6) tftp server?

if the answer to all of those is yet, you are in there!

take a serial line from the target computer to another one that you have
ssh access to. (think nullmodem)

on the grub disk, you can set it up to get its kernel and initrd off of
the wire entirely and to use the serial port as its console (read the
docs on this - the system i had set up like this is motthballed right
now, so i cannot give you hard fast details).  with the right arguments,
the linux kernel will use the serial port as its console, also, and you
can have the inittab spawn a getty on the serial port.

if you put GRUB into the master boot record of the hard drive, you will
not even need a boot disk or CDROM, just someone to hit the powerbutton
(note, you will want to make sure that the installer does not overwrite
the MBR though).

the way it would work is:

you log into the controlling terminal, and start the terminal emulator
(hyper terminal, telix, minicom, tip, whatever). have the powerbutton
pressed onto the target.

with the right setup, GRUB will allow either the keyboard or the serial
console to take command (the first one activated, wins). so you activate
the serial console. GRUB should then be able to grab its network
information off of the DHCP or BOOTP server. using the (nd0) network
disk, it will be able to grab its kernel and initrd off of the tftp
server.
	if you make a menu entry for this, it is really nice. otherwise,
	it can be a bit of typing. a mininal installation onto a floppy
	should be possible, so youcan have grub + menu on a floppy. i
	have never done this, though

then the kernel needs to be told to use the serial port as its console.
the kernel will then send all of its messages to the serial port, so you
can watch it boot. the installer will pick up the fact that the console
is the serial port, and act accordingly.

good luck!

-john