How to build a SLES minicd boot image…

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.).

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