Debian style net-install ISOs (from FudCON Raleigh)

Ralf Corsepius rc040203 at freenet.de
Thu Jan 31 04:42:52 UTC 2008


On Thu, 2008-01-31 at 15:35 +1100, Lex Hider wrote:
> On 1/31/08, David Cantrell <dcantrell at redhat.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:59:24 +0000 (UTC)
> > Kevin Kofler <kevin.kofler at chello.at> wrote:
> >
> > > Michael DeHaan <mdehaan <at> redhat.com> writes:
> > > > Fedora could really use Debian style net install ISOs.
> > > >
> > > > For those unfamiliar with the concept ... assume a minimally sized image
> > > > that is enough to start up a net install for all content.
> > >
> > > We already have that, it's called boot.iso.
> >
> > There are actually two minimal images that have already been pointed out, but for clarification:
> >
> > boot.iso - Just stage 1 part of the installer, does not contain the large stage 2 image.  With this disc, the stage 2 image will be downloaded if you select HTTP or FTP install methods and then mounted.  If you do hard disk or NFS, it will just find the stage 2 image and mount it.
> >
> > rescuecd.iso - Both stage 1 and stage 2.  Regardless of your install method, the stage 2 image is always read from the installation media with this disc.
> >
> > I tend to go with the rescuecd.iso disc and do HTTP installs.  Works great, download time is minimal for the image itself.  And if you have a local mirror of the release, installation won't take forever.
> >
> 
> Is it possible to do what I do with debian.
> I normally make a tarball with the packages from /var/cache/apt/archives
> Install the base system and when I get to package selection, switch to
> console and unpack tarball. This way I don't have to download packages
> I have downloaded previously.
> 
> Is it possible to do similar thing with /var/cache/yum ?
Yes.

Setting
keepcache=1
in /etc/yum.conf keeps all previously downloaded rpm in /var/cache/yum*
and allows you to reuse them later.

I am nfs-mounting /var/cache/yum and sharing them across my local
network.

Ralf





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