mattfahrner.com

Month: August 2010

  • How to build a SLES minicd boot image…

    Matt Fahrner

    Sometimes you’ll have a system that doesn’t have a DVD drive and/or it’s more convenient to use the network.  Making a “minicd” to boot from network is fairly simple:

    1. Set up Apache and copy the DVD media to a subdirectory of “/srv/www/htdocs”. At least in my case I ended up with two directories:
      • /srv/www/htdocs/SLES11SP1/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64.0432..001/
      • /srv/www/htdocs/SLES11SP1/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64.0432..002/
    2. Copy the boot images to seed a minicd:
      • mkdir /tmp/minicd
      • cp /srv/www/htdocs/SLES11SP1/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64.0432..001/boot/x86_64/loader/* /tmp/minicd
    3. Edit “/tmp/minicd/isolinux.cfg” and add an entry like:

      4. label slesinstall
      kernel linux
      append initrd=initrd splash=silent showopts install=http://MY.SERVER.COM/SLES11SP2/SLES-11-SP1-DVD-x86_64.0432..001

    1. Make the ISO image:
      • mkisofs -o /tmp/minicd.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /tmp/minicd
    2. Burn the ISO using whatever software you have available (eg: Nero, Roxio, etc.).