[ILUG] automated network installs

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Colin Whittaker (grimnar at redbrick.dcu.ie):

> I have a bunch of machines which are far away from me.
> I want to install linux and in particular debian on them.
> 
> Is there an easy way of creating a bootable CD that I can post to 
> someone at the remote sites and have them stick in the drive and reboot.
> The sites have enough bandwidth to do remote package installation.

How automated do you need?  You could have them install the Debian Base
from something like this (my favourite, in general):

  woody/3.0 unofficial mini-CD (180MB) i386 images with 2.4.17 kernel,
  ReiserFS, ext3fs, and about 280 packages (Ho-seok Lee):
  http://www.debian.or.kr/~alee/cdimages/

And also send a list of the desired packages from your prototype system,
which you can generate like this:   

  # dpkg --get-selections > selections.txt

On the system-building end, one then does this with the package list:

  # dpkg --set-selections < selections.txt
  # apt-get -u dist-upgrade

And you're done.

-- 
Cheers,   The difference between common sense and paranoia is that common sense
Rick Moen     is thinking everyone is out to get you.  That's normal; they are.
rick at linuxmafia.com      Paranoia is thinking they're conspiring.  -- J. Kegler