Hi All,

Firstly apologies for the long post .. here goes..

I'm wondering if someone can describe in detail what the install cd boot
process is for me for
RedHat EL3. I've been trying to get a kickstart build working here for 2
days with
no joy. It's basically continuation of a project someone else has started,
and I'm having to finish.

I'm using a HP DL380 with ilo card, which can mount an iso as a virtual boot
device, then building the OS via http from a normal build tree.

I've created a boot cd (iso image) using instructions from the redhat site
installation guide for redhat 9 (unsure if there are any major differences
in the process there for EL3?.. cant find anything obvious), copied my
ks.cfg into the isolinux directory and mkisofs'd it.

Mount the boot iso remotely and reboot the box.. it comes up to install but
whatever i type for the boot params it just drops into an interactive
install. I know that the http build tree is good as if I follow the
interactive install through selecting an http install, using the relevant
info manually from the ks.cfg it builds fine.

I was wondering if:
a) This is the correct place to plonk the ks.cfg (even though I've booted it
with "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" and copied it to the https server and tried
"linux ks=http://serverip/ks.cfg" which seems to have made no difference..
although the latter disk ask for an ip for the eth0 device, no requests for
the remote ks.cfg file are visible in the apache logs and still doesn't
work), and
b) Is there a method of getting more debug info from the installer as its
running.. ie. so i can see if its even attempting a ks install. (bear in
mind i only have access to this via a remote console on the ilo card.. which
doesn't appear to support the ctrl-alt-f3/4/5/6/ etc..

I've tried lots of different suggestions from %ksappend in a local ks.cfg to
plonking the whole lot on the boot params line but it's as if the installer
is just completely ignoring it all..

I'm not that upto speed on redhat and was wondering if there is some other
configuration option missing within the initrd filesystem that could be
preventing it from attempting a ks build. ( I've actually tried adding the
ks.cfg to the initrd aswell in chrooted /tmp which i read somewhere.. but
still no joy.)

I'd just like a little more detail on the actuall goings on internally as
all of the docos on the net appear to be pretty much copies of the redhat
docos and dont detail that much.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

In comp.os.linux.setup Matt Bull <news@mattbull.co.uk>:

[ problems performing remote RH kickstart installation through
virtual iLo disk (HP DL 380)

> I was wondering if:
> a) This is the correct place to plonk the ks.cfg (even though I've booted it
> with "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" and copied it to the https server and tried
> "linux ks=http://serverip/ks.cfg" which seems to have made no difference..
> although the latter disk ask for an ip for the eth0 device, no requests for
> the remote ks.cfg file are visible in the apache logs and still doesn't
> work), and

It should first try to get an IP, do you have some dhcp server in
the LAN? Does it assign an IP to the system (logs of dhcp server)?

> b) Is there a method of getting more debug info from the installer as its
> running.. ie. so i can see if its even attempting a ks install. (bear in
> mind i only have access to this via a remote console on the ilo card.. which
> doesn't appear to support the ctrl-alt-f3/4/5/6/ etc..

Not out of the box, though you can assign a hot keys through the
iLo web interface for the task.

You want to ensure first it does really get an IP!

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 8: static buildup

"Michael Heiming" <michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> wrote in message
news:3or9q3-mvl.ln1@news.heiming.de...
> In comp.os.linux.setup Matt Bull <news@mattbull.co.uk>:
>
> [ problems performing remote RH kickstart installation through
> virtual iLo disk (HP DL 380)
>
>> I was wondering if:
>> a) This is the correct place to plonk the ks.cfg (even though I've booted
>> it
>> with "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" and copied it to the https server and tried
>> "linux ks=http://serverip/ks.cfg" which seems to have made no
>> difference..
>> although the latter disk ask for an ip for the eth0 device, no requests
>> for
>> the remote ks.cfg file are visible in the apache logs and still doesn't
>> work), and
>
> It should first try to get an IP, do you have some dhcp server in
> the LAN? Does it assign an IP to the system (logs of dhcp server)?

No i've been statically assigning it to remove the dhcp piece out of the
equation, although trying DHCP does seem to suggest another problem as the
dhcp logs showed nothing either.

>
>> b) Is there a method of getting more debug info from the installer as its
>> running.. ie. so i can see if its even attempting a ks install. (bear in
>> mind i only have access to this via a remote console on the ilo card..
>> which
>> doesn't appear to support the ctrl-alt-f3/4/5/6/ etc..
>
> Not out of the box, though you can assign a hot keys through the
> iLo web interface for the task.

Aha! Thanks very much for this.. hot keys are just the ticket.

It looks like the installer was trying to pull the remote ks.cfg onto the fd
device, which doesnt exist.. so much simpler to diagnose with logs!

I've pushed the ks.cfg into the initrd image now and can "linux
ks=file:/blah" without a problem.. thanks for your help Michael.

Cheers,
Matt

Le Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:20:08 +0100, Matt Bull a écrit*:

> Hi All,
>
> Firstly apologies for the long post .. here goes..
>
> I'm wondering if someone can describe in detail what the install cd boot
> process is for me for
> RedHat EL3. I've been trying to get a kickstart build working here for 2
> days with
> no joy. It's basically continuation of a project someone else has started,
> and I'm having to finish.
>
> I'm using a HP DL380 with ilo card, which can mount an iso as a virtual boot
> device, then building the OS via http from a normal build tree.
>

You don't precise if it is a DL380, DL380 G1, ...etc...

For Example for the G5 you need RedHat 3 update 6..

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/s...vers-cert.html


If this not your problem, can you specify what is your ethernet card ?

Regards,