On 11/08/18 22:43, Ben Hutchings wrote: > On Sat, 2018-08-11 at 20:14 +1200, Richard Hector wrote: >> Hi - I hope I'm in the right place; feel free to redirect me. >> >> I want to install on a KVM-based VPS, using an ordinary installer (ie >> not using the image provided). >> >> I used the provider's method to provide an ISO, and supplied the >> standard amd64 netinst image - it boots fine, but can't find the 'cdrom' >> afterwards. They suggest the netinst image doesn't have the drivers for >> the KVM virtual cdrom - does that sound right? Are there alternative >> images that would? > [...] > > I think you are confusing netinst with netboot. > > A netboot installer image is an initramfs with input, graphics and > network drivers included, but not storage drivers. It downloads > additional installer components from the network, not from local > storage. > > A netinst installer image is a disk image. It includes one or more > boot loaders, kernels, and initramfses; and additional installer > components. The initramfs additionally includes storage drivers. > > If the netboot method doesn't work for you (maybe network auto- > configuration doesn't work properly in this VPS?) you could try > extracting the kernel (vmlinuz) and initramfs (initrd.img) from the > netinst installer image and providing those instead of the netboot > images.
Thanks Ben. I'm mostly familiar with the netinst image, and it's what I generally use to install on real hardware. I'm less familiar with netboot, but have used it for PXE installs (right?) What I'm missing is how I can use either of them on a remote KVM VPS, where I get to see the boot process on some kind of remote console, and I have the opportunity to provide a bootable ISO, but not much else. I've tried providing the netinst ISO, and it boots but can't find itself for installing packages. Is that a matter of the appropriate storage drivers not being included, or is it the way the VPS provider set up the virtual CD? I've used virt-install on my own KVM machines, which I think does something similar to a netboot, but I'm not sure what exactly (didn't make much progress reading the source, unfortunately). I can't use that method exactly, because I don't have raw access to the host machine. I don't know how I could use netboot in this case, but any suggestions are welcome. I think they're using OnApp for managing this, if that helps - at least that's the name that shows up with the prebuilt templates. I could of course use their Stretch template, but I'd rather start clean if I can - and possibly make some custom partitioning and filesystem choices. Thanks, Richard
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