[et-mgmt-tools] Cobbler trac-ticket 36: Non-Linux OS support for PXE (Enhancement)

[Pablo Iranzo Gómez]

	Hi

	I've been playing arround with http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

	That proyect contains some files, between them, a kernel and a
initrd which contain a small linux system which mounts via samba a
ntinstall/install resource as drive Z: on DOSEMU/Non Linux and as /z on
Linux from where it gets the whole files it needs (perl, etc) as well as
automatization scripts.

	After having all information ready (asks for partitioning,
formatting, profile, etc) it just launches a "dosemu" session which does
the non-linux install part (the one where it get files from network
share), which, indeed, is the "problematic one", as on normal systems,
you'll require network drivers, etc which usually linux has incorporated.

	After first copy-and-install part, system reboots, installs
operating system, and at the end starts again mounting samba share and
continues doing the post-installation.

	Integration with cobbler could be:

	- cobbler check information regarding the share for samba pointing
to standard folder for cobbler "import"'s (this utility want's OS in "os/"
of the mount point

	- Profile with referenced kernel and initrd for starting the
"unattended" system

	- Unattended profile creation from defined kickstart dunno what's
the schema for Debian/SuSE profiles, as I did no tested this, so that may
not differ so much.

	This could enable multi-os installations as previously said on
this list:

	- First start kickstart for partitioning (/boot, vfat, and LVM)
	- Change profile to Non-Linux installer
	- Install Non-Linux on vfat just formatting contents
	- Trigger change profile to Linux installer
	- Install linux on the /boot and LVM and install bootloader just
	  ormatting contents

	At the end you will have one system with multiboot and two
profiles for Linux and Non-linux that will just install on available
partition (some kind of partitioning test will be nice to check if
partition schema does not contain required partition, and then, change
Profile to partitioning one and return back to this (¿cobbler feature for
"toggling profile***"?)

	ÂHas anyone played with this?

	Regards
	Pablo

PD: The point in using a dosemu system to install another os could open
the door to manage the installation of any other OS with DOS-based
installer, or even more complex installations based on specific virtual
machines/emulators that just prepare hard drive for other-os installer



***: Flip your current profile to another one, then change it back to that
profile when final cobbler step is done.