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Re: Using Linux to automate Win9x installations.



I would say use Norton Ghost, its amazing and extrmely fast, and using the
serial port would possible take a few days to transfer the data =]

- overid3

Stefan Srdic wrote:

> I've recently gotten a contract with a "rent to own" company in the
> city. I will be verifying computer hardware and installing the operating
> system (Win9x) on all of the computers that they deal with.
>
> My goal is to write an installation floppy that will handle the entire
> installation process.  The floppy will be responsible to boot the
> computers into real-mode (MS-DOS) and connect to my Linux host via
> serial ports. On my Linux host I will have a "master image" of the
> operating system CD and a Windows installation script. Once connected
> the computers will access an installation script that will start an
> automated Windows installation over the serial cables This will enable
> me to start multiple OS installations at once and periodically check on
> them all.
>
> Why go with serial cable? Because most of the computers will not be
> equiped with ethernet cards. I have though about purchasing Norton
> Ghost, but I will be dealing with multiple version of the Windows
> operating system as well as several different hardware configurations.
>
> I already made a few serial cables using low capacitance cable and a few
> db9 and db25 connectors along with a few gender changers. I plan to get
> an old 10Mbps ISA NIC that runs under Linux and plug it into my hub, I
> then can use a few ethernet -> serial adapters and have up too 4
> computers (4 ports on the HUB) running through the installation process
> at once!!!
>
> The best part is, I can configure my Linux host to masquerade the
> internet to the computers. With that I can run Windows update and
> install the apropriate drivers for the hardware too.
>
> This idea of mine sounds great but I'm not sure if it will work. For
> example, to connect to the Linux host via the serial ports I will need
> some sort of serial network driver for MS-DOS, where do I find it? And,
> what type of service will I need on my Linux hosts in order for the
> DOS clients to mount network shares? Will I be able to configure the DOS
> clients for TCP/IP networking?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Stef
>
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