MKLNIM(1) General Commands Manual MKLNIM(1)
NAME
mklnim - make Linux Netinstall Image
SYNOPSIS
mklnim outputfile [path-to-cdrom]
DESCRIPTION
mklnim is a shell script that takes a SuSE, TurboLinux or a RedHat CDROM, or equivalent disk directory, and creates a network bootable
image (NBI) that can be used with Etherboot (http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/) or Netboot (http://www.han.de/~gero/netboot.html). This
NBI, when booted via the network, will make the target computer behave just as if a CDROM boot (TurboLinux), or a floppy boot (RedHat and
SuSE) had been selected. A conventional install can be done from this point onwards.
There are several occasions when this technique is useful: 1. It can be used to quickly boot a target computer when the floppy loading is
very slow. 2. In the case of TurboLinux, it loads the CDROM initial ramdisk which does not require any further floppy loading. In the case
of RedHat, it only loads the floppy initial ramdisk which does not contain the material in the supplementary floppy, and may require more
floppy insertion. 3. It can start the install from a floppy of any size, not just 1.4 MB, or even from a floppyless machine, if one has a
boot ROM (providing no further floppy access is required). 4. It could be used as part of an automatic installation process.
Naturally, all this assumes that the infrastructure for diskless booting (bootp and tftp servers) has been set up.
BUGS
If supplementary floppies are required, this script doesn't include that material in the network boot image. Please feel welcome to fix
this problem.
SEE ALSO
Etherboot tutorial at http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/
COPYRIGHT
mklnim is under the GNU Public License
AUTHOR
Ken Yap (ken_yap@users.sourceforge.net)
DATE
Version 0.4 April 2000
25 April 2000 MKLNIM(1)