[ale] Help needed for a Non-Profit project - if not Linux thenwillgo Windows

[Chris Ricker]

On Sat, 5 Apr 2003, Jonathan Glass (IBB) wrote:

> 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.  

At this point, you've already broken the installer. Customizing RH and
derivatives like Mandrake is certainly possible, and I do it routinely for
customers, but it's slightly more complicated than you're envisioning. The 
main factor you're skipping are the text and binary db used by the installer 
to determine which packages are available, what order they should be 
installed, etc.

It's not at all well-documented by RH, but there's a HOWTO which covers most 
of the steps <http://tldp.org/HOWTO/RedHat-CD-HOWTO/index.html>. Ask away if 
you run into issues after trying that....

> 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.

On Linux, it's just

mkisofs -b /path/to/boot/floppy/image -other_options

(note that this boot floppy can be bigger than a ds,hd floppy)

> 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).

You can also modify the kickstart boot floppy (assuming you're using a 
floppy and not booting off the 'net, which is what I usually do) to start 
the kickstart automatically for network installs. Look at the syslinux.cfg 
txt file on the kickstart floppy, and just change the default line from

linux

to

linux ks=floppy

(if the ks file is on the floppy) or

linux ks

(if the ks file location is pushed by DHCP)

That, of course, has the same downside as the automated install. I had to do
partition recovery on my secretary's machine a couple of months ago b/c I
had an automated ks floppy lying around that she accidentally booted off of,
and I noticed after ks had already re-partitioned ;-)

later,
chris
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