man sysinstall

[Jared Barneck]

--- Jared Barneck <rhyous at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> --- "mailinglists at bsdcertification.com"
> <mailinglists at bsdcertification.com> wrote:
> 
> > Ceri Davies wrote:
> > 
> > >On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 07:28:39PM -0500, Tom
> > Rhodes wrote:
> > >  
> > >
> > >>On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:54:47 +0000
> > >>Ceri Davies <ceri at submonkey.net> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>    
> > >>
> > >>>On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 11:05:13PM -0800, BSD
> > Certification Team wrote:
> > >>>      
> > >>>
> > >>>>Hello all,
> > >>>>
> > >>>>The man page for sysinstall is pretty out of
> > date.  I
> > >>>>am trying to PXE boot to an unattended
> install.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>I figured out that I needed to add dists=base
> > kernels
> > >>>>GENERIC even though kernels and GENERIC are
> not
> > in the
> > >>>>list in the man page.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>Is there anyone in charge of updating this
> > >>>>information?  I have never submitted an
> update.
> > >>>>        
> > >>>>
> > >>>I guess that's me.  Could you please raise a PR
> > and send me the number?
> > >>>      
> I sent in a PR.  Let me know if you don't get it.
> > >>>
> > >>I tried with almost every version of 5.X to get
> an
> > unattended
> > >>install working.  Never worked.  It seems as if
> > sysinstall
> > >>was looking only for a USB floppy drive. 
> > Originally I started
> > >>looking over the code to send in a PR and
> perhaps
> > a patch,
> > >>but became busy with other things.
> > >>    
> > >>
> > >
> > >I can't speak for 5.x because I didn't really run
> > it, but this worked
> > >for 6.x a year ago:
> > http://typo.submonkey.net/articles/2006/02/12/
> > >
> > >  
> > >
> > I am actually pxe booting to it now.  However, I
> am
> > using pxe-1.4.2 
> > instead of having it all in the dhcp config. 
> > 
> > Also, I saw a not that the floppy drive is not
> > working.  I couldn't get 
> > it to work either.  I am doing this all PXE style.
> > 
> I was using FreeBSD, isc-dhcp-server, pxe-1.4.2, and
> tftp and ftp from inetd to pxe boot and didn't
> really
> try the floppy so I tried the floppy.
> 
> I have tested two separate hardware machines and
> VMWare  5.d and I cannot get the floppy to detect
> and
> read the install.cfg.  I have tried both MS-DOS
> floppy
> and a floppy formatted with UFS, so I am guessing
> this
> is broken too.
> 
> So with the PXE solution, I have almost everything
> working: I cannot get the machine to automatically
> reboot.  This is the one last thing I need for full
> automation.
> 
> So it looks like there are three issues that some of
> us who "donate time" could address:
> 
> 1. Update man sysinstall which I submitted a PR for.
> 2. Fix the floppy not being detected.
> 3. Figure out how to reboot once the unattended
> install completes.

I found the answer for how to reboot in the code.  To
reboot add the following to the end of the
install.cfg:

shutdown

I found it in this source file:
/usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/dispatch.c

This source file has a list of a lot of the functions
that can be called in the install.cfg. Even though the
function is called "shutdown" it is a reboot not a
shutdown, which is perfect because I wanted it to
reboot.

Also, I found that a lot of variables are in this
file:
/usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/sysinstall.h

I will try write a few changes to the man page, and
send it to you with a diff file and get you my working
install.cfg in my next email.

> 
> > 
> > >The OP's note about adding the kernels line is
> > definitely needed and I'll
> > >fix that (though I would really love a PR for
> it),
> > but for anything
> > >else, you have to send hardware (a laptop or
> > Soekris, I'm not fussy!) :)
> > >
> > >Ceri
> > >  
> > >
> 
> I will settle for the updated man page for now.  I
> wish I could just send everyone a laptop.  :-)  
> 
> 
> 
>  
>
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