[ale] Help needed for a Non-Profit project - if not Linuxthenwill go Windows

[Jonathan Glass (IBB)]

Another cool trick I've been meaning to try...

Once you have the anaconda-ks.cfg, check out the Kickstart howto.  It
will show you how to make a boot disk which automatically starts the
installation process, and installs exactly what you installed the first
time.  You can create that floppy and test like mad.  Once you've gotten
that part working, find out exactly what you have to do to finish the
configuration.  You may be able to include that in the post installation
section of the ks.cfg file, and have the installer do it for you.  Once
you have THAT working automagically, then to the fun part (I'm dying to
try this...maybe I will once I get my server back online).  

Mount the Redhat ISOs read-write via a loopback device.  Delete the RPMS
you don't need (the ones that don't appear in the list in ks.cfg), and
insert those you want to add (autologin-1.0.0.i386.rpm, or the RPMS that
are on the 2nd CD).  Now unmount the ISO image and burn a CD.  This CD
won't boot and automatically run the installation yet, but it will have
all the files you need on one disk.  

I'm not sure how to do the next step with Linux, but I know you can do
it with Nero/Roxio.  You make your own ISO image, drag in the files you
want (you already have them on the CD you just burned) then tell it to
make the CD bootable.  It will ask you for a boot disk...insert  your
automated kickstart bootdisk.  When the burn finishes, you have a
bootable, self-installing CD, and if you've narrowed down the list of
RPMS enough, it may be small enough to have everything on one disk.  The
downside: if you leave the CD in the drive, it may reboot and start the
installation process all over again (done this many times w/automated
Windows installs).  

Does anyone else know how to replace the boot image on the RH ISOs (or
any ISO) with your own?

HTH

Jonathan Glass

On Sat, 2003-04-05 at 20:53, Greg wrote:
> Thanks a million.  I really appreciate the detailed information
> (documentation is really needed as I may have to write a full script for
> this or we will need a full script to follow for the installers).
> 
> Do you have any advice on modems for Linux boxes ?
> 
> Greg
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ale-admin at ale.org [mailto:ale-admin at ale.org]On Behalf Of Jonathan
> > Glass (IBB)
> > Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 7:05 PM
> > To: ale at ale.org
> > Subject: Re: [ale] Help needed for a Non-Profit project - if not Linux
> > thenwill go Windows
> >
> >
> > You'll probably want to disable CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE in X, too, although
> > that will simply restart the auto-login/netscape|mozilla session.
> >
> > Jonathan
> >
> > On Sat, 2003-04-05 at 19:00, Jonathan Glass (IBB) wrote:
> > > There is a KIOSK howto.  http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Kiosk-HOWTO.html
> > >
> > > I did this on a series of PII 233 MHz laptops w/32 & 48 MB of RAM using
> > > Redhat 7.2.  I had 2 GB harddrives, so had more room to work, but think
> > > it should be possible to strip down a RH7.2/7.3 installer to do the bare
> > > minimums.
> > >
> > > The boot-to-browser is trivial, once  you've configured X...and the
> > > RH7.2 installer seems pretty good at configuring X.
> > >
> > > What I did to make the "Kiosk" effect was to setup the box to boot to
> > > run-level 3, have "auto-login" login as a standard user (testuser) and
> > > had their .Xclients file launch Netscape in full screen mode (probably
> > > want to use Mozilla, now).  Here is my /etc/sysconfig/autologin file:
> > >
> > > USER=tester
> > > EXEC=/home/tester/.Xclients
> > > AUTOLOGIN=YES
> > >
> > > If the person killed Netscape, it killed the session, and automatically
> > > restarts.  To avoid switching to another console, disable Alt-F2 and up
> > > in /etc/inittab.
> > >
> > > # Run gettys in standard runlevels
> > > 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
> > > #2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
> > > #3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
> > > #4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
> > > #5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
> > > #6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
> > >
> > > To avoid rebooting the box, reconfigure the Control-Alt-Delete trap to
> > > do something other than reboot. (again in /etc/inittab).
> > >
> > > # Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
> > > ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/echo "Ctl-Alt-Del doesn't work here." > /dev/null
> > >
> > > Once you have successfully completed a bare-bones custom install on one
> > > machine, copy the 'anaconda-ks.cfg' file, and use it to automate the
> > > other installs via Kickstart.  If you configure X-windows during
> > > installation, that info will be in the anaconda-ks.cfg file.  If you
> > > setup the filesystem in a special way, that info will be in there, but
> > > commented out.  Remove the comments to auto-magically partition the
> > > drive.
> > >
> > > As part of the Kickstart installation, you can specify a series of
> > > commands to run b/f the box reboots.  Here is where you can setup the
> > > auto-login download and installation (if you have a network connection
> > > available) and configuration of the /~/.Xclients file.
> > >
> > > Hope this helps. If you need more info, ask away, but I cannot promise
> > > much.  I have two major projects going on right now, too.
> > >
> > > Jonathan Glass
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> 
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