make-fai-bootfloppy8

Usage

Overview

Creates a boot floppy for the Fully Automatic Installation (FAI) package. This shell-script wrapper simplifies the complexities of creating a FAI boot disk for use with DHCP or BOOTP protocols. It creates a bootfloppy using grub (default) or lilo as boot loader. The installation kernel is also put onto the floppy disk which supports DHCP, BOOTP protocol and a fixed IP address for the installation server. All parameters are used as additional kernel parameters.

The exit code returned is 0 if all commands to build the root directory exited successfully and >0 if an error occurs.

Options

-B

Make a big 2.88M floppy instead of the default 1.44M floppy.

-C CFDIR

Use CFDIR instead of /etc/fai for reading the config file fai.conf.

-d LABEL

Use LABEL when selection the default boot kernel (and parameters). Possible values of LABEL:
a for any: the linux kernel will try all compiled in protocols in turn, until one succeeds;
b for BOOTP;
d for DHCP;
f for using a fixed IP address on the FAI client (see option '-s');
r for RARP.

Without this option, the kernel setting 'ip=dhcp is used.

-F

Append default flags to kernel parameters. Same as "FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt"

-f FILE

Make a floppy image in FILE.

-i FILE

Make a iso9660 image in FILE (requires also -f FILE).

-I IF

Use IF as client interface (default: eth0).

-g

Use GRUB as boot loader (default).

-l

Use LILO as boot loader.

-m DIR

Use DIR as mountpoint for either floppy device or file. Defaults to /floppy.

-s HOST

Prepare a host specific bootfloppy which will boot the kernel with the fixed IP of HOST (i.e., insert network configuration into kernel command line's "ip=" statement). All necessary data are gathered by DNS A lookup.

-v

Print verbose output

Examples

Create a generic boot floppy

make-fai-bootfloppy

Create a generic boot floppy for James ;-)

# make-fai-bootfloppy "FAI_FLAGS=sshd,createvt BOND=007"

Make a common floppy which uses the DHCP protocol as default, some common flags and action sysinfo

Create a bootable cdrom image, that can be burned using cdrecord(1)

# make-fai-bootfloppy -f /tmp/fai_floppy.img -i /tmp/fai_iso.img "FAI_FLAGS=sshd,createvt"

Make a common floppy which uses the DHCP protocol as default, some common flags and action sysinfo

# make-fai-bootfloppy -vF FAI_ACTION=sysinfo

Make a boot floppy with fixed IP adress, enable verbose messages and additional terminals.

# make-fai-bootfloppy -l -d f "10.0.2.5:10.0.2.1:10.0.0.1: 255.255.0.0:client5:eth0:off FAI_FLAGS=verbose,createvt"

To make a boot floppy for my old SMC EtherCard Plus Elite 16T, I use

# make-fai-bootfloppy "reserve=0x300,32 ether=10,0x300,eth0"

Notes

make-fai-bootfloppy will attempt to access /dev/fd0 unless the option -f is used. IT IS NOT DEVFSD compatible unless your devfsd installation remaps the floppy device to the common device alias /dev/fd0.

Files

/etc/fai/fai.conf

CFDIR/fai.conf

The FAI configuration file. CFDIR is set with option -c