No cdrom drive
Sad Expat
drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
sim...@nospam.com
> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
>
I think you can do a network install (if your ethernet card can
boot off the network). Don't quote me on that though -- there's
probably people more knowledgable than me.
Simon
--
Stupendous Tales
www.stupendoustales.com
Speculative Fiction, Pulp Dreams
Grant
>I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
>drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
Floppy boot then network install over NFS, I do that for a server
here. You can make the boot floppies on linux or windoze box from
install CD.
If the server is already running some OS, you might copy over a
cut-down install tree and install from HDD. Still need floppy boot.
To save the hassle of multi-floppy boot you may install slack's
isolinux install environment to a small bootable partition.
Grant.
--
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't make eight cats pull
a sled through the snow.
Dominik L. Borkowski
> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
if you have another linux/unix box, you can do pxe booting + nfs install.
That will require some hacking around, first you need a fully functional
dhcp server, tftp server, nfs server, and then you need to modify the
slackware initrd. If you are really interested, I can provide more
information, since we do it on a regular basis.
Grant
> If you are really interested, I can provide more
>information, since we do it on a regular basis.
Please post the info. I got PXE capable NICs and running dnsmasq for
dhcp, nfs, can fire up a tftp to localnet. I'd like to have the PXE
boot option.
Dominik L. Borkowski
>> If you are really interested, I can provide more
>>information, since we do it on a regular basis.
>
> Please post the info. I got PXE capable NICs and running dnsmasq for
> dhcp, nfs, can fire up a tftp to localnet. I'd like to have the PXE
> boot option.
Some stuff to get you started with pxe:
http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/dom/docs/pxe-booting/
including sample pxelinux config with slackware kernels/initrd:
http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/dom/docs/pxe-booting/samples/pxelinux.cfg/default
Now, once you get that up and running, and you actually get a regular
slackware kernel/initrd booted up, normally you run into a problem: you
have the kernel/initrd loaded via tftp, but no way to get to your nfs
shares that have your packages.
To solve that problem, I perform a small hack: I join the existing initrd
with network.dsk, so you can load up your nic drivers. Here's a sample
script that takes care of merging those two:
http://staff.vbi.vt.edu/dom/code/initrdmerger.sh
If you get to that point, booted up with slackware kernel and the new
initrd, a semi manual way to continue the installation would be:
# modprobe -a <your nic driver here>
# ifconfig <device> <your ip> netmask <yournetmask>
# route add default gw <your gw> [in case if your nfs server is on another
subnet]
# rpc.portmap
# mkdir /slack
# mount <yournfsserver>:</pathtoslackwaretree>/slackware /slack
# setup
Then select 'install from a pre-mounted directory' when it asks for source
of packages.
Installation will be happy after that, UNLESS you happen to use a different
boot kernel than the bare.i. In that case, you'd have to copy the right
kernel from slackware-whatever/kernels/<yourkernelofchoice>/bzImage
to /mnt/boot/vmlinuz, then chroot /mnt lilo
Yeah, it's quite a bit tinkering, but overall if you have more than a couple
machines, booting various tools [including doing linux installs over
pxe+nfs] is quite handy.
Ronald Matthews
> Sad Expat wrote:
> > I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> > drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
You can buy a used CDROM for how much? 5 bucks?
> if you have another linux/unix box, you can do pxe booting + nfs
> install. That will require some hacking around, first you need a
> fully functional dhcp server, tftp server, nfs server, and then
> you need to modify the slackware initrd. If you are really
> interested, I can provide more information, since we do it on a
> regular basis.
This is insane. Just buy a used CDROM. You can probably get an old
one for free somewhere.
cordially, as always,
rm
Grant
>Yeah, it's quite a bit tinkering, but overall if you have more than a couple
>machines, booting various tools [including doing linux installs over
>pxe+nfs] is quite handy.
Thanks Dominik, every bit helps. I'll try it out soon.
Stanislaw Flatto
> Dominik L. Borkowski <d...@vbi.vt.edu> trolled:
>
>>Sad Expat wrote:
>
>
>>>I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
>>>drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
||||||||||||||||
> This is insane. Just buy a used CDROM. You can probably get an old
> one for free somewhere.
It pays to read the OP, even if it is three sentences long, before
answering.
>
> cordially, as always,
>
> rm
See ya.
Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.
Eef Hartman
> Ronald Matthews wrote:
>> Dominik L. Borkowski <d...@vbi.vt.edu> trolled:
>>
>>>Sad Expat wrote:
>>
>>
>>>>I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
>>>>drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ||||||||||||||||
>
>> This is insane. Just buy a used CDROM. You can probably get an old
>> one for free somewhere.
>
> It pays to read the OP, even if it is three sentences long, before
> answering.
The important line is in fact the first one (marked by me):
rackmount servers often don't have the space TO put a CDrom drive in
(just like laptops they EITHER have got a floppy or a CDrom, or even
none at all, just the harddisk).
Most rackmount servers are very flat, sometimes even only a 3.5" floppy
drive high, and then a CDrom, which is higher, doesn't fit, UNless it
is a special one, like the ones in laptops.
I don't know the OP's brand, but if it is - like he said - a scsi
one it may not even have got a IDE interface to connect a CDrom
drive TO.
--
********************************************************************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M....@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
********************************************************************
Stanislaw Flatto
> Stanislaw Flatto <com...@shoalhaven.net.au> wrote:
>
>>Ronald Matthews wrote:
>>
>>>Dominik L. Borkowski <d...@vbi.vt.edu> trolled:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Sad Expat wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> The important line is in fact the first one (marked by me):
> rackmount servers often don't have the space TO put a CDrom drive in
> (just like laptops they EITHER have got a floppy or a CDrom, or even
> none at all, just the harddisk).
> Most rackmount servers are very flat, sometimes even only a 3.5" floppy
> drive high, and then a CDrom, which is higher, doesn't fit, UNless it
> is a special one, like the ones in laptops.
>
> I don't know the OP's brand, but if it is - like he said - a scsi
> one it may not even have got a IDE interface to connect a CDrom
> drive TO.
OK, so we are getting technical.
a) Rack-mount in my time had the _width_ defined and the heighth was in
U(nits) 1-12. If memory still serves 1U=1+3/4".
b) SCSI CD-readers are common like fleas, ask any Apple user.
Have fun
Ronald Matthews
> Ronald Matthews wrote:
> > Dominik L. Borkowski <d...@vbi.vt.edu> trolled:
> >
> >>Sad Expat wrote:
> >
> >
> >>>I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> >>>drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ||||||||||||||||
> > This is insane. Just buy a used CDROM. You can probably get an old
> > one for free somewhere.
> It pays to read the OP, even if it is three sentences long, before
> answering.
I read the OP. He says he doesn't have a CDROM. I told him to buy
one. For 5 bucks if he is cheap.
Take a pill or something.
cordially, as always,
rm
Douglas Mayne
> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
>
What OS is running now? It would be easiest if it another linux or
something which can write ext2.
If you have some network connectivity now, then the easiest is to
copy a subset of the install packages onto a spare disc partition.
You can copy all of the packages if you have room, but use a target
partition that is different from your intended target(s) for slackware.
Then to avoid booting from a floppy at the next boot (to start setup), you
need to copy the files you need to boot, and modify the loader- I'll
assume you are using grub. Modify grub's menu.lst to load the setup kernel
you intend to use. Oops, there's starting to be a lot of assumptions about
how your system is setup. No crystal ball- soldiering on.
I will assume you will copy your slackware setup files to /dev/sda1 (and
its currently mounted as /mnt/sda1) to a subdirectory tree like this:
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/slackware/a
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/slackware/ap
:
:
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/kernels
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/isolinux
Copy the kernel(s) you need using the standard directory structure.
When you are done copying the files you need, you will end up with
something similar to this:
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/kernels/adaptec.s/bzImage
/mnt/sda1/slackware10.2/isolinux/initrd.img
That is, if you will be using the boot kernel, adaptec.s
Here is a potential boot stanza from grub's configuration file, menu.lst:
# begin menu.lst stanza entry
title Slackware Setup, adaptec.s
root (hd0,0)
kernel /slackware10.2/kernels/adaptec.s/bzImage load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=6464 rw root=/dev/ram SLACK_KERNEL=adaptec.s
initrd /slackware10.2/isolinux/initrd.img
# end menu.lst stanza
Since I am assuming you have grub itself already installed and working,
you can simply reboot and select the Slackware setup option.
That's enough assumptions for one post.
--
Douglas Mayne
+Alan Hicks+
Hash: SHA1
In alt.os.linux.slackware, Sad Expat dared to utter,
> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
There's any number of ways to do this. A few have been mentioned
already, so I'll restrict myself to more off-the-wall methods.
A: Just do it the good ole fashioned NFS way. Boot Slackware installer
from floppies, and load the network.dsk floppy. Install from NFS or
pre-mounted (NFS) directory.
B: Take out hard drives, install in machine with CD-ROM, install
Slackware, then replace the drives in the rack-mount.
C: Grab a network capable linux floppy. tomsrtbt works great for this.
Use it to partition and format a small portion of the disk. Boot
Slackware installer from floppies and use the pre-mounted directory
option. Note: tomsrtbt may not work with you controller.
D: Sacrifice a goat.
E: Boot the Slackware installer from floppies, then use "split" to trim
the size of individual packages down until they fit on floppies. Copy
the split packages to disk, and cat them back together. Install from
pre-mounted directory, or just use installpkg.
Please note that these are in order of desperation.
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Chris Sorenson
>
> E: Boot the Slackware installer from floppies, then use "split" to trim
> the size of individual packages down until they fit on floppies.
>
>
Nah, you've got E way too far down the list.
I'm paraphrasing, but I think Pat used to say "...it depends on what
you think is easy. Some people think installing from 50 floppies is
easy."
The last version I installed from floppy was 3.5; I don't remember how
it took but it was way more than 50.
And it *was* easy! ;)
Two Ravens
> D: Sacrifice a goat.
Right answer but you're addressing the wrong problem/ritual.
--
Two Ravens
"...hit the squirrel.."
Gil de Too Rhett, Butler
Agreed, and how can you imagine that installing from 50, or more,
slices off goat would be easier is beyond my wits! I already have
tried the two methods and I'm sincerely happy to promote NFS or
direct net possibilities for a replacement to this kind of sordid
affairs like if Hotel California were still open and the tenants
not in jail. Er, they're still inside ? Aren't they ?
Other possible, maybe easier, *hard way* could be if the machine can boot
from an USBkey holding some short sized starter, like Slax or SysrescueCD,
mount the net, chroot /mnt/nfsmount or whatever and "goforit".
Done this some times, some times it passed, some times it was a total
carnage. Anyway, in the end I love what the indians did to Custer, then
give the goat a chance and get that hill ! Hung Ho !-D)
Keith Keller
>
> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Sad Expat dared to utter,
>> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
>> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
>
> There's any number of ways to do this. A few have been mentioned
> already, so I'll restrict myself to more off-the-wall methods.
>
> A: Just do it the good ole fashioned NFS way. Boot Slackware installer
> from floppies, and load the network.dsk floppy. Install from NFS or
> pre-mounted (NFS) directory.
This would certainly be my preferred method.
> B: Take out hard drives, install in machine with CD-ROM, install
> Slackware, then replace the drives in the rack-mount.
This may not be feasible (or indeed advisable) if he's got a hardware
RAID.
Before C, D, or E, I'd do
B1. If one drive is free, take it out, put it in a machine with CD-ROM,
copy the CD-ROM's contents to the disk, put it back in the server, boot
from floppy, and install from pre-mounted directory.
> C: Grab a network capable linux floppy. tomsrtbt works great for this.
> Use it to partition and format a small portion of the disk. Boot
> Slackware installer from floppies and use the pre-mounted directory
> option. Note: tomsrtbt may not work with you controller.
> D: Sacrifice a goat.
> E: Boot the Slackware installer from floppies, then use "split" to trim
> the size of individual packages down until they fit on floppies. Copy
> the split packages to disk, and cat them back together. Install from
> pre-mounted directory, or just use installpkg.
>
> Please note that these are in order of desperation.
And one more option between D and E: pay somebody to do it. Option E
should be reserved as punishment for trolling.
--keith
--
kkeller...@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/cgi-bin/fom
see X- headers for PGP signature information
ray
> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
How about a USB external?
+Alan Hicks+
Hash: SHA1
In alt.os.linux.slackware, Chris Sorenson dared to utter,
Yes, but that was back in the days of software packages that would fit
on floppy disks. Today, that simply isn't the case. Back then you
could copy three or four packages to a single floppy disk and install
them. Today, you'll have to split a single package onto three of four
floppies.
root@horde:/slackware/slackware-10.2/slackware/ap# ls -lh \
mysql-4.1.14-i486-1.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12M 2005-08-27 22:53 mysql-4.1.14-i486-1.tgz
That would take 9 floppies for that one package! Granted, you can get
by with most of a/ and enough of n/ to copy the rest over in full, but
could you imagine doing a complete floppy installation now that
Slackware won't fit on even a single CD?!
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Stanislaw Flatto
> Stanislaw Flatto <com...@shoalhaven.net.au> trolled:
>
> I read the OP. He says he doesn't have a CDROM. I told him to buy
> one. For 5 bucks if he is cheap.
>
> Take a pill or something.
>
> cordially, as always,
>
> rm
Yes I read it too. Evidently we deducted from his querry different things.
From you he got shopping list.
I understood that he looks for any "gimnastic" way to do the install
_without CD reader_. This IS Linux and things like this are possible.
Unix/Linux was born with networking spoon in its mouth.
Q.E.D.
See ya
Ronald Matthews
> Yes I read it too. Evidently we deducted from his querry different
> things. From you he got shopping list. I understood that he
> looks for any "gimnastic" way to do the install _without CD
> reader_. This IS Linux and things like this are possible.
> Unix/Linux was born with networking spoon in its mouth. Q.E.D.
From me, he got the easiest and most efficient solution to the
problem of putting a linux partition on his computer. The easiest
and most efficient solution is the professional solution. Perhaps
he is, like yourself, merely a hobbyist, and he seeks a difficult
and time consuming method of doing things because he is bored and
has nothing better to do with his life.
That's where your expertise comes in.
> See ya
You bet.
cordially, as always,
rm
Sad Expat
> from floppies, and load the network.dsk floppy. Install from NFS or
> pre-mounted (NFS) directory.
Okay guys, thank you for all the suggestions.
It's a 1u server, SCSI drives with hardware RAID, no room for an internal
CDROM, no external SCSI interface, no USB, no IDE. Kinda limited, but
therefore kinda cheap. This is my first 1u server. I'm reasonably
experienced with Slackware, but I wasn't sure how to tackle the no-cdrom
issue.
I'll go with NFS and try and make that work. I use NFS for a few things
already, so that shouldn't be too hard. It'll be good experience.
Thanks
Henry
Sylvain Robitaille
> It's a 1u server, SCSI drives with hardware RAID, no room for an
> internal CDROM, no external SCSI interface, no USB, no IDE. ...
Yikes! I hope you got that for dirt-cheap ...
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille s...@alcor.concordia.ca
Systems and Network analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eef Hartman
He did say, in a later message: no USB, no IDE (and no external SCSI,
so no way to plugin any kind of CD-rom).
Sad Expat
> Sad Expat wrote:
>> It's a 1u server, SCSI drives with hardware RAID, no room for an
>> internal CDROM, no external SCSI interface, no USB, no IDE. ...
>
> Yikes! I hope you got that for dirt-cheap ...
$5.
Ronald Matthews
> $5.
I hope you get your money's worth. Last year I finally got rid of
about 15 "five dollar computers" that were cluttering up my storage
room. I did keep the old 8088 with the single 320K diskette drive.
cordially, as always,
rm
Loki Harfagr
Right, good luck, and in case you can't get it with NFS maybe you could
try and boot a one floppy linux including 'netcat' get the first ISO
with 'nc -l -p someportnumber' and get going with install.
Take ISO if the onefloppy manages loop mounting, or just tar the
content of the 1st ISO, netcat it, piped thru untar on the listening end
and then do your best to tune the setup script :-)
I've done it in the past, not unfeasable but you'll have to be
triple-checking every command you're about to type because a flick of
the wrist and you're back to where you started.
A lot of fun for only your first five dollars !-D)
Good luck !
+Alan Hicks+
Hash: SHA1
In alt.os.linux.slackware, Sad Expat dared to utter,
>>> It's a 1u server, SCSI drives with hardware RAID, no room for an
>>> internal CDROM, no external SCSI interface, no USB, no IDE. ...
>>
>> Yikes! I hope you got that for dirt-cheap ...
>
> $5.
I'll give you $50 for it and pay shipping. :^)
- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Theodore Heise
> On 2006-03-08, +Alan Hicks+ <al...@lizella.netWORK> wrote:
>> In alt.os.linux.slackware, Sad Expat dared to utter,
>>
>>> I have a rackmount server, with no cdrom drive. Floppy drive, SCSI
>>> drives. How can I get Slackware onto this thing without a cdrom?
>> E: Boot the Slackware installer from floppies, then use "split" to
>> trim the size of individual packages down until they fit on floppies.
>> Copy the split packages to disk, and cat them back together. Install
>> from pre-mounted directory, or just use installpkg.
> Option E should be reserved as punishment for trolling.
Hear! Hear!
--
Theodore (Ted) Heise <th...@heise.nu> Bloomington, IN, USA