Here, we’re going to talk about using HTTP method to perform Kickstart.

Prerequisite:

1. Boot media (for creating a USB bootdisk, you can refer to my earlier article)
2. You should have the Centos installation CD/image to crate the installation tree
3. Running Webserver for Kick Start OS installation
4. Running DHCP server (Optional)

Setting Up Kickstart server:

1. Create a directory name “Centos5.5″ in your webserver DocumentRoot.
   • eg: mount -o ro /dev/sdc /media/cdrom
2. Insert the Centos CD-ROMs and copy all the binaries into that directory (copy the binaries from all the installation CD-ROMs)
   • eg: cp iVaf /media/cdrom/Centos /var/www/html/Centos5.5
3. Create an answer file for automate the installation process.
   • You can use any kick start configurator tool or refer to the file /root/anaconda-ks.cfg in any of your Linux machine.

   

   • Or you may download my sample ks.cfg (14) as reference
4. Copy the ks.cfg file to your Centos5.5 directory.
5. You will have 1 new directory and 1 ks.cfg created like below:
   • For example /var/www/html is your DocumentRoot
   • You will have /var/www/html/Centos5.5 and /var/www/html/Centos5.5/ks.cfg
6. Attached boot media and then boot up the machine that you want to perform Kickstart OS installation.
7. Configure the BIOS setting to make your boot media as “First Boot Device”
   • For my case cause I’m using USB hard disk, so my “First Boot Device” should be Removable.
   • Save the BIOS setting then continue

   

   

   

   

8. You will see OS installation menu screen, fro there type in below BOLD command
   • boot: linux ks=http://192.168.1.1/~chenhow/Centos5.5/ks.cfg
   • 192.168.1.1 is my Web server IP
   • ~/chenhow is my subdirectories (I’m using userdir module for lighttpd)

   
   
   

9. Then, the installation process will start and everything should be automated.

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So be ready by getting the latest itunes, so you can sync your data once your got the gadget.

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Prerequisite:

1. You must have a USB storage device like flash/pen drive or hard disk. In my scenario, I only have a USB hard disk and I’m gonna make it as a boot disk to kick start the network installation.
2. You should have the Centos installation CD/image.
3. Running Webserver for Kick Start (unattended) OS installation.
4. Running Linux/Unix OS to create the USB boot disk.

Create USB boot disk:

1. Connect you USB device to a running Linux machine and run “dmesg” to identify the device name.
   

   My USB hard disk being recognized as /dev/sdb

   

2. Use “fdisk” to partition /dev/sdb

   

   1. Create 2 partitions
      1. 100 MB for boot image, boot image partition is Primary 1
      2. Remaining for storage, storage image partition is Primary 2
      3. Tag boot image partition as bootable
      4. Set boot image partition type to FAT32 (type number 1)
      5. Save & Exit

      
      
      
      

   2. Format the partition
      1. Format boot image partition as FAT32

      

      2. Format storage partition as EXT3

      

3. Copy required files from Centos CD to /dev/sdb1
   1. Mount /dev/sdb1 to /mnt
      

      [root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

   2. Copy the contents of /Centos/isolinux to /mnt from the 1^st CD
      (p/s: isolinux.bin, boot.cat and TRANS.TBL are note needed)

      [root@localhost ~]# cp -R /root/Desktop/isolinux/* /mnt/ [root@localhost ~]# cd /mnt [root@localhost mnt]# rm -rf isolinux.bin boot.cat TRANS.TBL

   3. Rename isolinux configuration file to syslinux.cfg
      

      [root@localhost mnt]# mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg

   4. Copy the installer’s initial RAM disk /Centos/images/pxeboot/initrd.img from the 1^st CD to /mnt
      

      [root@localhost mnt]# cp -R /root/Desktop/initrd.img /mnt/

4. Make the USB hard disk bootable. The flash drive must be unmounted in order to work properly.
   1. Umount /dev/sdb1
      

      [root@localhost isolinux]# cd [root@localhost ~]# umount /dev/sdb1

   2. Install the SYSLINUX bootloader on a FAT filesystem
      

      [root@localhost ~]# syslinux /dev/sdb1

   3. Mount /dev/sdb1 & install Grub
      

      [root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt [root@localhost ~]# grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. Installation finished. No error reported. This is the contents of the device map /mnt/boot/grub/device.map. Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect, fix it and re-run the script `grub-install’. (fd0) /dev/fd0 (hd0) /dev/sda (hd1) /dev/sdb

   4. Verify that the USB hard disk has a /boot/grub directory, if no, create it manually.
      

      [root@localhost ~]# cd /mnt/boot/grub/

   5. Create grub.conf in /boot/grub. Below is a sample config for ‘grub.conf’
      

      default=0 timeout=5 root (hd1,0) title Centos 5.5 Linux Installer kernel /vmlinuz initrd /initrd.img

   6. Umount /dev/sdb1
      

      [root@localhost boot]# cd [root@localhost ~]# umount /dev/sdb1

5. USB hard disk should be bootable by now.
6. Remember to change the BIOS setting to give priority to boot removable device 1^st

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Below is the PC specs and price(with minimum budget):
Motherboard: Biostar MCP6PB-M2 NVIDIA 6150 SOCKET AM2 (supports virtualization)
CPU: AMD PHENOM II X2 555 3.2GHZ 7MB SOCKET AM3 BOX PROCESSOR
RAM: CORSAIR 2 GB DDR 800MHZ
Hard Disk: SEAGATE 250GB 8200 SATA 2
Casing: No brand casing (just find the cheapest one with PSU)
Keyboard and mouse: PS/2 keyboard and mouse
Monitor: LG W1943Se 19′inch LCD

Total: Less than S$650

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But fear not, everything have been settled and I will start writing again to repay you all. And I will also open a new section focusing on Linux server deployment, by providing step by step guide with explanation to help Linux administrator to perform their daily tasks.

So stay tuned!

• March 13, 2009 -- I’m Back! (0)

And because of him, I came to know this programme called ‘World Vision‘. Through this programme, you can sponsor a child in need by contributing only minimum RM50 per month.

The ultimate goal of this programme is giving sponsored child a better and healthier world to live by providing them clean water, health care and food. And part of the fund will be used to teach villagers how to improve harvests so they can have a stable income.

Here is my sponsored child and his name is WIN, Than Hlaing. WIN is from Myanmar and he has 2 brothers and sisters. His father is a fisherman and mother is an unemployed.

When my parents came to know that I’m sponsoring a child, they actually very proud of me, just that they are curios why I choose to sponsor a child without front teeth.. =.=  well we shouldn’t based on their appearance to choose whether want to help them or not, so I just sponsor whoever assigned to me from World Vision.

Anyway, helping people’s really makes yourself feel better. So, come join me, give more loves and cares to those who are needed and make the earth a better place to live.

If anyone interested in sponsoring a child, you can goto http://www.worldvision.com.my/ or click the “sponsor a child” banner on the left sidebar.

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1.) Edit /etc/apt/source.list

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:~$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/source.list

### Add following into source.list file ###

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

2.) Add GPG key

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:~$ sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

3.) Update source list then install chromium.

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get update

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

4.) Once finish install Chromium, follow below steps to enable flash

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:~$ cd /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:/usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins$ sudo ln -s ../../adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

chenhow@chenhow-laptop:/usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins$ sudo vim /etc/chromium-browser/default

### Edit chromium flags in default file ###

# Options to pass to chromium-browser
CHROMIUM_FLAGS=”–enable-plugins”

5.) You can now check your browser by typing “about:plugins” in the url bar, if you see the plugins is installed,  you should be able to play flash content.

• July 28, 2008 -- Firefox 3 Crashes With Flash (1)

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Pohmeng is someone that I meet in my ex company, he has good attraction to women with his innocent looks and charming smile, eventhough I think he looks more like a pervert than innocent.

He is a good listener, always pay attention when people’s speak and give his opinion later, that makes him such a like-able figure in the company.

He definitely 1 of the person that I trusted most and 1 of my buddy.

He is curently single, so anyone interested in this guy should drop by his blog to makes friend’s with him

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Goto the line you want to start delete, press

Esc dd # Will delete present line

2.) Delete from line 1 to end of line.

:1,$ del # Delete from line 1 to EOL

3.) Delete from present line to end of line.

:.,$ del # Delete from present line to EOL

or

Goto the line you want to start delete, press

Esc d Shift g # Will delete all the lines from present line to EOL

. -> present line

1 -> line 1

$ -> End of Line

del -> Delete

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