Install "Askmethod" support for a USB or Firewire drive ?

[Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper]

On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 09:48 -0600, Kim Lux wrote:
> I don't know if anyone shares this sentiment, but I consider installing
> from burnt ISO CDROMs to be a slow process. 
> 
> I'm wondering if it is possible to use askmethod with a USB IDE drive.
> I noticed that the USB devices were detected during the FC3 install boot
> up, but that they didn't appear in the disk druid partition list, for
> example. 
> 
> As it is right now, users have to download the ISOs, then burn disks,
> then verify disks, then install from them.  This is a slow process if
> one is using a 4x CDRW disk in a slow CDROM drive. 
> 
> What I'd like to be able to do is download the ISOs to an external USB
> drive and then use askmethod to tell anaconda that the ISOs are on the
> USB drive.  This would save the effort of burning the CDROMs and
> performing a media check on each one.  It would also install a lot
> faster from the USB drive than from the CDROM.  I think this, with
> kickstart, would be a great way to install and/or upgrade a number of
> non networked computers quickly.  
> 
> One could also put a bunch of things on the external drive, such as the
> source RPMs, various rescue tools currently not on the FC boot disk,
> etc. 
> 
> I found askmethod nfs to be a bit quirky.  If it detects the network
> card right off and the server has simple access, ie no gateways, etc,
> then it works pretty well.  Throw a stubborn network card into the mix
> and a gateway or two and I'm less enthusiastic about it.  
> 
> BTW: I don't think my computer, a laptop, can boot directly from a USB
> device.  The BIOS doesn't give the user that option.  I'd still have to
> do the initial boot from a CDROM.   
> 

I concur!!!  This would be wonderful!!!

-- 

,-----------------------------------------------------------------//
| Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper ::  Numbers 6:22-26 
 `
 | All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much MUCH thicker 
 | in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.  That is 
 | the theory that I have and which is mine, and what it is too.  
 ,
| bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
`----------------------//