Install FC5 via FTP using loopback mounted iso's

[Paul Howarth]

Eric J. Feldhusen wrote:
> Is it possible to install FC5 via FTP, with the FC5 iso images mounted 
> using loop-back on the ftp server?  I've used this method with FC1-4, 
> and RHEL3-4, but for FC5, it doesn't work.  I haven't tried yet, but I 
> could loop-back mount the FC5 iso's and copy the iso's to a directory on 
> the ftp server, but the loop-back method is a nice method for saving 
> disk space.

Yes, you can do this. If you have SELinux running on the server, you'll 
need to use the fscontext mount option and specify a type that the ftp 
server can read.

For instance, you could have an fstab entry of:

/srv/softlib/fedora/bordeaux/FC-5-i386-DVD.iso 
/srv/softlib/fedora/bordeaux/dvd iso9660 
ro,loop,fscontext=system_u:object_r:public_content_t 0 0

(you need the util-linux package from updates installed, or mount won't 
handle the option properly)

Paul.