Re: nfs root for boot floppy? or initrd loaded via tftpd?

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 12:12:38PM +0200, Thomas Lange wrote:
> >>>>> On Tue, 24 Jul 2001 15:02:10 +1000, Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> said:
>     > (all this because mkfs.xfs and other XFS utilities won't fit on
>     > the boot floppy and i have a dozen machines to build using
>     > XFS. i *could* install the base system onto the swap partition,
>
> Maybe this is the time to use FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) for
> it. FAI boots using a nfsroot and has no limit on the size of the
> nfsroot. I haven't used it with XFS but since version 2.1 you can
> use hooks to customize the installation process. It's very easy to
> add the mkfs.xfs and other utilities to the FAI nfsroot. FAI 2.1 is
> in testing.  If you have any questions or problems with fai, you can
> contact me.

i'll look into this. i briefly considered writing my own installer but
decided that i wanted it to be as close to the standard debian install
as possible. i don't like reinventing the wheel if i can avoid it. also,
my junior sysadmins at work are used to the debian installer and i get
them to do the initial install on most boxes now.

BUT...i keep running into limits and obstacles doing it this way -
e.g. initrd seems to have a 4MB limit with a warning in the kernel
saying "don't increase this unless you really know what you're doing".
i haven't researched this yet, so i don't know whether it's a major
problem.  4MB means that i can have mkfs.xfs, but not the rest of the
utilities. it also means i can't fit bash (which was going to be one of
the benefits of doing a network install :).

FAI may be the right answer to the wrong question i've been asking :).

it depends on how "fully-automatic" FAI is. i don't really want a fully
automatic install because each machine is going to be quite different.
all i really want is a good root partition with the tools i need to
build machines with.

i could just hack something up, but i want to build a single-floppy
network install system that i can use for the next few years. sounds
like FAI is already at least 90% of that.

thanks,

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>

Fabricati Diem, PVNC.
 -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch