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How to install a new system from a usb key

 
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# 1  
Old 02-03-2009
Question How to install a new system from a usb key
Hi everybody,
I have several computers that are configured to install when I plug them on the network. The hard drive come's empty, but I think they have a parameter in the BIOS that allow the machines to install from the network.
My problem is that in most cases, available bw is weak and installation takes hours. I still have a dozen of computers to prepare and I would like to do the installations from a USB key.
I know very few about the system. Just that there's a server XPE somewhere that distributes an image of the system. But I could get a copy of that image. It's a file called system.tgz. If I unpack it, I just get the standard tree arborescence of a linux system :
./bin
./etc
./home
./root
./usr
...

My questions are:
1) Can I just use system.tgz on a USB key?
2) Do I need to get more file?
3) What do I have to configure?
Thanks for your help.
Santiago
# 2  
Old 02-03-2009
If system.tgz only contains directories and not the files, it's certainly not going to be enough, and you certainly can't boot it either, or extract it to a raw disk. You need to figure out what's doing the partitioning of the disks.

These machines are probably network-booting with PXE. PXE works by a DHCP server giving custom command-strings in their DHCP replies which tell the machines what files to download and run from what tftp server.
Last edited by Corona688; 02-03-2009 at 05:06 PM..
# 3  
Old 02-03-2009
Thanks for your reply Corona688.
What I wanted to mean with standard arborescence was actually:
The system.tgz contains the integrality of the filesystem.

Now that you are talking about tftp, here is what I found on the PXE server:
Code:
santiago$ ls -AlR tftpboot/
tftpboot/:
total 187844
drwxrws--x 3 root admins      4096 2009-01-23 17:35 debian-installer
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admins     13480 2009-01-23 17:36 pxelinux.0
drwxrws--x 2 root admins      4096 2009-01-23 17:36 pxelinux.cfg

tftpboot/debian-installer:
total 4
drwxrws--x 2 root admins 4096 2009-01-23 17:36 i386

tftpboot/debian-installer/i386:
total 10280
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admins 9280899 2009-01-23 17:36 initrd.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admins 1219068 2009-01-23 17:36 linux
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admins      87 2009-01-23 17:36 ndtv.txt

tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg:
total 4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admins 821 2009-01-23 17:36 default

Is there any chance I can put that on the usb key?
But where? And how do I make it bootable?
# 4  
Old 02-03-2009
It's possible if this debian-installer thing can be convinced to obtain its files from the drive instead of the network somehow. installing a bootloader like grub on a USB flash drive is possible but sometimes tricky. Once you can get grub going, it's just a matter of experimentation until you find the config that'll let it boot the files you want.

How these machines are booting is they download /tftproot/pxelinux.0 and run it, which in turn downloads its config file, /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg/default to find out exactly what it's booting with what parameters, then finally, downloads and executes the kernel and initrd its config files told it to. Viewing the contents of /tftproot/pxelinux.cfg/default should be enlightening.
Last edited by Corona688; 02-03-2009 at 06:41 PM..
# 5  
Old 02-04-2009
Hi Corona,

Well I had no idea how these terminals installed themselves. On screen, I just see a remainning time. Thank you so much for this explanation of the process.

I tryed to cat the files in tftpboot but most of them contain garbled characters. I think they are binary files. Do you know another way to view them?
The only one visible is pxelinux.cfg/default. Does it help?

Code:
admoxa@videos:~$ find /space/tftpboot/ -type f -ls | sort; echo
20791299   16 -rw-r--r--   1 admoxa   patricio    13480 Sep  5 11:07 /space/tftpboot/pxelinux.0
20791302 9080 -rw-r--r--   1 admoxa   patricio  9280899 Nov  4 12:12 /space/tftpboot/debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz
20791303 1196 -rw-r--r--   1 admoxa   patricio  1219068 Aug 26 15:41 /space/tftpboot/debian-installer/i386/linux
20791304    4 -rw-r--r--   1 admoxa   patricio       87 Sep  5 11:22 /space/tftpboot/debian-installer/i386/ndtv.txt
20791305    4 -rw-r--r--   1 admoxa   patricio      821 Sep  5 11:17 /space/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

admoxa@videos:~$ cat -v /space/tftpboot/pxelinux.0 | head -c 100; echo; echo
fM-^\f`^^^F^OM- ^OM-(1M-@M-^NM-XM-^NM-@M-j^U|^@^@M-^IM-eM-D^0M-^I&`OM-^L^VbOM-^I&,M-.M-^L^V0M-.M-zf^

admoxa@videos:~$ gunzip -c /space/tftpboot/debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz | head -c 100; echo; echo
0707010004FC3E000041ED00000000000000000000000F49102C190000000000000008000000060000000000000000000000

admoxa@videos:~$ cat -v /space/tftpboot/debian-installer/i386/linux | head -c 100; echo; echo
fM-j^H^@^@^@M-@^GM-^LM-HM-^NM-XM-^NM-@M-^NM-PM-<^@|M-{M-|M->1^@M-, M-@t M-4^NM-;^G^@M-M^PM-kM-r1M-@M

admoxa@videos:~$ cat -v /space/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default; echo
DISPLAY debian-installer/i386/ndtv.txt

DEFAULT install
TIMEOUT 50
ONTIMEOUT dd

LABEL install
 kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
 append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz interface=eth0 netcfg/disable_dhcp=false hostname=localhost domain=localdomain fb=false  --

LABEL dd
 localboot 0

LABEL linux
 kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
 append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz --

LABEL expert
 kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
 append priority=low vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz --

LABEL rescue
 kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
 append vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz rescue/enable=true --

LABEL auto
 kernel debian-installer/i386/linux
 append auto=true priority=critical vga=normal initrd=debian-installer/i386/initrd.gz --

PROMPT 1

# 6  
Old 02-04-2009
Looks like a customized and automated Debian net-install to me. The initrd is the INITial RamDisk, which provides a minimal booting environment to the installer. It's usually a cpio archive (sometimes a formatted "device" file, used via Loopback), so it should be possible to dig around in there and change where it expects it's installation sources.
Another possibility might be to create a local mirror of the Debian repository and change the installation to use that as it's source, so you'll only have to download the packages once (and maybe some of them again if you want to update).
 
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