How to perform kickstart installation with virtual floppy image from ILO console?

UNIX for Beginners Q & A
1

HI All,

I have created a kickstart file and converted into .img with below procedure to mount this as a floppy image file to supply the kickstart file during the installation time.
But installation failing with unknown ks file location and other error messages.

  1. Build an empty floppy image file using dd command:
[root]# dd if=/dev/zero of=./ombs-ks.img bs=512 count=2880
2880+0 records in
2880+0 records out
1474560 bytes (1.5 MB) copied, 0.00821857 s, 179 MB/s
  1. Set up a loop device with the image file:
[root]# losetup /dev/loop0 ./ombs-ks.img
  1. Create the file system with the loop device:
[root]# mkfs.msdos /dev/loop0
mkfs.msdos 3.0.16 (01 Mar 2013)
  1. Check the filesystem:
[root]# fsck.msdos /dev/loop0
dosfsck 3.0.16, 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN
Logical sector size is zero.
  1. Clean up and delete the loop device:
[root]# losetup -d /dev/loop0
  1. Mount the loop device:
[root]# mount -o loop -t auto ombs-ks.img /var/tmp/floppy/
  1. Copy the ombs-ks.cfg kickstart file to the floppy directory.
[root]# cp /JUMP/ombs-ks.cfg /var/tmp/floppy
  1. Copy the the image file ombs-ks.img into the server where we are accessing the ilo. Mount this image file in ilo as an imagefile and provide the grub parameters to install OS from this ks file.

I have provided the following values in grub mode so far, but installation is failing with no kickstart file found errors.

ks=floppy
ks=hd:fdo:/ombs-ks.cfg
ks=floppy dd
ks=cdrom:/ombs-ks.cfg
KS=hd:sda:/ombs-ks.cfg

We are looking for exact grub parameter needs to be used in grub mode for floppy image based ks file.

Can any one please reply if there is any idea on this issue.

2

Do you have access to ksvalidator ?

Perhaps you can use something like:

# ksvalidator kickstart.conf

... to check things out?

3

Hi Neo,

Thanks for the response.
Kickstart file is working fine with out any issues when we are trying to install with other methods like NFS and HTTP.
We are only facing issue when trying to install with floppy image.

4

I'm not a kickstart expert, but what "jumps out at me" is the fact you are formatting your floppy disk as msdos .

On the surface, this seems odd to me; as I would expect you to format a kickstart floppy disk with a different filesystem.

Of course, If you want a blank Linux formatted floppy, then you can use the command mke2fs . This will create an ext2 formatted disk.