fai-cd -B gives an error

[Toomas Tamm]

On Mon, 2014-05-26 at 14:25 +0200, Werner Pommerer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to create a boot only ISO image which does a network
> installation.

I am not sure if the following is transferable to a CD image, but I
recently created a bootable memory stick to install a machine which was
not able to PXE boot. This was easier than I had thought. The following
assumes the USB stick is detected as /dev/sdb on the machine you are
preparing it. Make sure that the correct path is used!

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb count=1000    # not strictly necessary
cfdisk /dev/sdb
    (create a new primary linux bootable partition)
mke2fs /dev/sdb1
tune2fs -L FAI_USB /dev/sdb1              # must match the label used in grub config, below.
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cd /mnt
grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb
    ( create and edit the file /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg as explained below )
cp /path/to/nfsroot/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-486 /mnt/boot     # Replace with your kernel version
cp /path/to/nfsroot/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-486 /mnt/boot  # Same here
    (you can add additional kernels here)
cd
umount /mnt

In the "create and edit the file /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg" stage put
something like the following into grub.cfg:

menuentry "Debian FAI 686-PAE sysinfo" {
          insmod ext2
          search --set=root --label FAI_USB --hint hd0,msdos1
          linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-686-pae ip=dhcp  root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=172.24.0.205:/path/to/nfsroot aufs nomodeset FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt FAI_ACTION=sysinfo
          initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-686-pae
}

menuentry "Debian FAI 686-PAE install" {
          insmod ext2
          search --set=root --label FAI_USB --hint hd0,msdos1
          linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-686-pae ip=dhcp  root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=172.24.0.205:/path/to/nfsroot aufs nomodeset FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt FAI_ACTION=install
          initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-686-pae
}

Please note that this is an abridged example, in particular the kernel
versions do not match between the cp command and grub.cfg!

This memory stick boots the kernel which was copied from the nfsroot,
and mounts the nfsroot to proceed with installation. Works like charm!

Toomas


>