Installation configuration

[mjwestkamper]

Now that I've backed up my video system I need to install FC2. Normally that
would be a no-brainer, however my configuration is a bit strange.

The video system is embedded. Originally we build a special board that had a
keyboard/display on it. Someone let the smoke out of the board. To make
another will take a long time, not to mention the cost.
I am trying to come up with a method to rebuild the HDD with FC2.

The configuration is:

A 900 mhz P-III
    A laptop HDD - 20GB
    Two Ethernet ports

Had I a FDD or CD I could ftp install, although without a kb/display or
serial port that might be tricky.

Is there a way to load the installation gadgets on the HDD and have them use
the Ethernet port, via ssh or telnet, to serve as the console for
installation?

I will really appreciate any direction.

Mike

[John Thompson]

Mike wrote:
> Now that I've backed up my video system I need to install FC2. Normally that
> would be a no-brainer, however my configuration is a bit strange.
>
> The video system is embedded. Originally we build a special board that had a
> keyboard/display on it. Someone let the smoke out of the board. To make
> another will take a long time, not to mention the cost.
> I am trying to come up with a method to rebuild the HDD with FC2.
>
> The configuration is:
>
> A 900 mhz P-III
>    A laptop HDD - 20GB
>    Two Ethernet ports
>
> Had I a FDD or CD I could ftp install, although without a kb/display or
> serial port that might be tricky.
>
> Is there a way to load the installation gadgets on the HDD and have them use
> the Ethernet port, via ssh or telnet, to serve as the console for
> installation?
>
> I will really appreciate any direction.

A couple thoughts... any USB/FireWire/whatever ports to which you could 
connect an external CD drive or something?

Maybe put the HD in a laptop and do a generic installation there, then 
move it back to the other machine?

[mjwestkamper]

Thanks John,

While I can probably kludge a hdd that has a cd image on it, my problem of
no kb or display remains.
I don't know the boot process of the install image. It would seem that since
one can set up enough of a network connection to do a net boot it might be
possible to redirect the install dialog to an Ethernet port via telnet or
the like. I just can't find enough docs to do it nor do I have the
underlying expertise.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of John Thompson
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 9:04 AM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Installation configuration

Mike wrote:
> Now that I've backed up my video system I need to install FC2. Normally

that
> would be a no-brainer, however my configuration is a bit strange.
>
> The video system is embedded. Originally we build a special board that had

a
> keyboard/display on it. Someone let the smoke out of the board. To make
> another will take a long time, not to mention the cost.
> I am trying to come up with a method to rebuild the HDD with FC2.
>
> The configuration is:
>
> A 900 mhz P-III
>    A laptop HDD - 20GB
>    Two Ethernet ports
>
> Had I a FDD or CD I could ftp install, although without a kb/display or
> serial port that might be tricky.
>
> Is there a way to load the installation gadgets on the HDD and have them

use
> the Ethernet port, via ssh or telnet, to serve as the console for
> installation?
>
> I will really appreciate any direction.

A couple thoughts... any USB/FireWire/whatever ports to which you could
connect an external CD drive or something?

Maybe put the HD in a laptop and do a generic installation there, then
move it back to the other machine?

--

-John ([e-mail])

--
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[e-mail]
To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

[John Thompson]

Mike wrote:
> While I can probably kludge a hdd that has a cd image on it, my problem of
> no kb or display remains.

With the HD in a machine that does have a keyboard and display, install 
a minimal installation -- just enough to boot to runlevel 3 and access 
the network.  If you have dhcp available, that would probably make 
things easier.  Once you have a working installation on the HD, move the 
HD to the other machine, let it boot and then ssh in to a terminal 
session.  From there you should be able to optimize the installation to 
suit your needs, using network-aware tools (up2date/yum/apt/whatever) to 
install new packages as required.

[mjwestkamper]

I can give that a try. My concern is that I will miss some subtle thing
resulting from the significant difference between the machine I use to build
the system and the target machine.

Perhaps another direction. To your knowledge is there some install script
that I can tailor for the target machine? I would make a HDD that looks like
a CD and have it boot and install without intervention.

Any thoughts?

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: [e-mail]
[mailto:[e-mail]]On Behalf Of John Thompson
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 2:02 PM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Installation configuration

Mike wrote:
> While I can probably kludge a hdd that has a cd image on it, my problem of
> no kb or display remains.

With the HD in a machine that does have a keyboard and display, install
a minimal installation -- just enough to boot to runlevel 3 and access
the network.  If you have dhcp available, that would probably make
things easier.  Once you have a working installation on the HD, move the
HD to the other machine, let it boot and then ssh in to a terminal
session.  From there you should be able to optimize the installation to
suit your needs, using network-aware tools (up2date/yum/apt/whatever) to
install new packages as required.

--

-John ([e-mail])

--
fedora-list mailing list
[e-mail]
To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list