Here is a mini howto install a Suse ( SLES 9 ) distro on a machine which does not have a cdrom player, but a nic with etherboot.
In this example, I will detail how I installed my laptop with Etherboot on a tg3 nic from my desktop running Fedora core 3.
- Get the iso images from Suse and store them into /home/iso
- mount the iso images :
cd /var/www/html
mkdir -p sles9/sles9-i386/CD1 sles9/core9-i386/CD{1,2,3,4,5}
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD1.iso /var/www/html/sles9/sles9-i386/CD1
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD2.iso /var/www/html/sles9/core9-i386/CD1
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD3.iso /var/www/html/sles9/core9-i386/CD2
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD4.iso /var/www/html/sles9/core9-i386/CD3
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD5.iso /var/www/html/sles9/core9-i386/CD4
mount -t iso9660 -o loop,ro /home/iso/SLES9-i386-RC5-CD6.iso /var/www/html/sles9/core9-i386/CD5 - Configure the network install
ln -s sles9-i386/CD1/boot
ln -s sles9-i386/CD1/content
ln -s sles9-i386/CD1/control.xml
ln -s sles9-i386/CD1/media.1
mkdir yast
printf "/sles9-i386/CD1\t/sles9-i386/CD1\n" > yast/order
printf "/core9-i386/CD1\t/core9-i386/CD1\n" >> yast/order
printf "/core9-i386/CD2\t/core9-i386/CD2\n" >> yast/order
printf "/core9-i386/CD3\t/core9-i386/CD3\n" >> yast/order
printf "/core9-i386/CD4\t/core9-i386/CD4\n" >> yast/order
printf "/core9-i386/CD5\t/core9-i386/CD5\n" >> yast/order
printf "/sles9-i386/CD1\n" > yast/instorder
printf "/core9-i386/CD1\n" >> yast/instorder
printf "/core9-i386/CD2\n" >> yast/instorder
printf "/core9-i386/CD3\n" >> yast/instorder
printf "/core9-i386/CD4\n" >> yast/instorder
printf "/core9-i386/CD5\n" >> yast/instorder - Start the http server if necessary
service httpd start - create the boot image
mkdir /tftpboot/sles9
mkelfImage --output=/tftpboot/slesl9/sles9.ebi --kernel=boot/loader/linux --initrd=boot/loader/initrd --append='textmode=1 insmod=tg3' - update the dhcp server configuration. here is a sample :
ddns-update-style interim;
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option vendor-encapsulated-options 3c:09:45:74:68:65:72:62:6f:6f:74:ff;
host rhel {
hardware ethernet xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;
fixed-address 192.168.0.2;
filename "sles9/sles9.ebi";
}
} - restart the dhcpd server
service dhcpd restart - Boot the target machine, choose etherboot from grub
- The machine is now booting on the image it got from the network
- When asked to check the CD is inserted, select "Back"
- Choose "Network install" and "http"
And now it is just like a normal install !