[plug] FAI, anyone?

[Adrian Woodley]

Sure, dob me in Hooker.

Coincidentally, I recently (as in today) built an FAI CD for Ubuntu Hard 
(i386).

The CD will format the machine with a 512M swap partition and the rest 
of the drive as ext3 /. It uses the iiNet Ubuntu repository and expects 
to be able to DHCP an address.

Once the install is completed, you can locate the machine on the network 
via Avahi/Bonjour (should be called FAI-SERVER). The root password is 
password.

The image is located at http://dump.diskworld.com.au/fai.iso

The script I used to build the image looks like this:

#Dowload the netboot mini.iso
wget 
http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/mini.iso

#mount the iso as a loopback
mkdir /tmp/netboot
sudo mount -o loop mini.iso /tmp/netboot

#Create a working copy of the iso
cp -a /tmp/netboot .
chmod -R +w netboot

#Ungzip upstream initrd
zcat netboot/initrd.gz > initrd

#Append the preseed file to the cpio archive
find . -name preseed.cfg |cpio -o -H newc --append -F initrd

#Re-gzip the initrd into place in the netboot directory
gzip -c initrd > netboot/initrd.gz

#Change the isolinux time from 0 (never) to 3
sed -i -e 's/TIMEOUT.*/TIMEOUT 3/' netboot/isolinux.cfg

#Create the ISO image from the netboot directory
mkisofs -r -V "Ubuntu Hardy FAI CD" -cache-inodes -J -l -b isolinux.bin 
-c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o fai.iso 
netboot

You'll need to generate a preseed.cfg file. The one I used it available 
at http://dump.diskworld.com.au/preseed.cfg

More info and examples here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/example-preseed.txt
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html

That should be enough to get you started.

*BIG FAT WARNING*
This image will automatically and without prompting format your 
hard-drive and install a base version of Ubuntu Hardy.
*DO NOT LEAVE THE CD IN THE DRIVE AND REBOOT!*
(like I did to my work laptop :P )

Cheers,

Adrian

Paul wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 23:08 +0900, Marcos Raul Carot Collins wrote:
>   
>> Hi there!
>>
>> Has any of you tried FAI (Full automated Installation) in either Debian or 
>> Ubuntu?
>>
>> I am reading and re-reading the manual but can't understand the classes thingy 
>> and how to write my own.
>>
>> Any example classes/configuration files (other than the ones provided with the 
>> FAI package) may help a lot.
>>
>> I just want to Install a full Debian system on client computers using FAI.
>>
>> I got to the point where everything works with the sample files provided, but 
>> that only installs a very basic Debian over a PXE boot, NFS mounted FS + a 
>> local Debian Mirror.
>>     
>
> Not personally, but iiNet uses FAI for all server builds - very
> successfully too.
>
> Adrian, you ought there?
>
> Hooker
>
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