First, I have something to contribute before I start whining --
I found a workflow for RHEL 5 to get a cobbler generated build ISO onto a USB flash drive
Install LiveCD-Tools ( yum install livecd-tools )
Partition the USB thumb with : fdisk /dev/sdb
Delete all partitions and then make one that covers the whold device.
Format it with: mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
I made the ISO with: cobbler buildiso --systems=mynewservername.foo.bar
mynewservername.foo.bar having been previously defined in cobbler with profile, etc.
Then the magic: /usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-disk /path/to/cobbler/build-iso/generated.iso
/dev/sdb1
This boots up my machine and gives me the menu to select from.
I selected the system name (mynewservername.foo.bar) and started it.
It asks me to pick the NIC to run from.
These servers have 4 built-in ethernet ports.
I found that a bit surprising as I defined only one port (eth0) in the cobbler system.
I would hope it would take that and run with it.
Had I defined more than one, I could understand the query.
After that, the kickstart ran as expected, up to and including the reboot.
During reboot, I removed the USB thumb, expecting its job finished.
When the machine comes back up, it fails to load the operating system.
I did not record the exact screen messages, but it indicated (to me) a corrupted OS load.
I found a cause for this, but not a solution: The contents of the USB flash drive had
been overwritten during the OS installation process ! I have write-protectable USB flash
drives from RiData/RiTek (product name: Twister), but did not have one handy to try.
The ISO I put onto this USB thumb (at least twice) totally failed to load my server as
expected.
On a happy note, the same ISO burned onto a CD-ROM and re-attempted with a CD drive ran
like a champ.
I do not have the luxury to do a lot of pounding on this, but I will try it once more with
a write-protectable USB flash drive to see what happens.
At this point, I'd advise folks to waste the CD's than fuss with a USB thumb.
I have an alternate workflow to suggest for this, but I will post it separately
Finally, would you consider this a "bug" ? If so, I will report it that way as
well.
Thanks for listening. The cheese was great(ed).
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe
is that none of it has tried to contact us.”
Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes)
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