On Sun, 2008-06-29 at 12:35 +0200, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote: > Hi, > > I have my Dell Optiplex GX270 here with Fedora 7 and I'm thinking to > upgrade to CentOS 5.2. I'm planning to format the machine. > > My only issue: I don't have any monitor to connect to this machine (I > don't have a monitor here at all). > > Most of the servers today gives you the option to connect to a serial > port or VNC and do a remote install, but this machine doesn't have any > of those capabilities. I can boot from hard disk, floppy, but I cannot > setup the BIOS either ... since I don't have a monitor. > > So what is the best way to install CentOS to this machine "blind"? I > thought about creating a kickstart floppy but then I recalled that I > cannot feed any parameters to the boot line. I can't use any PXE > tricks either since I cannot go into the BIOS screen.. > > Suggestions? > > Thanks, > Hetz
I'd suggest the following. (Never tried it myself, but it should work) 1. Setup DHCP and tftp on a remote machine. (That sits on the same network). 2. Create the tftpboot environment on the remote machine; in the default options add the required anaconda parameters. (ip=x.x.x.x netmask=x.x.x.x method=installation_method vnc vncconnect=client_ip:port) 3. Create a bootable floppy with etherboot on it. 4. Boot from the floppy; it'll initiate a pxeboot. The network boot will load the default remote-install configuration from dhcp/tftpboot that will in turn initiate a remote CentOS installation. I'd suggest you read this links: Setting up pxeboot server: http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php Setting up pxeboot floppy: http://etherboot.org/wiki/removable RHEL/CentOS installation options: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-kickstart2-startinginstall.html - Gilboa ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
