Automatically Installing Linux from Bootable CD?

phorm asks: "While there are newer many distributions of linux that come bootable from CD, I've found that some are a bit difficult to customize and wonder how hard it would be to create my own. Currently we are looking at replacing some of our Windows desktops at work with Linux test-machines - and it would be nice to make the installation process as simple as possible. How hard would it be to create a bootable CD that would automagically install Linux onto the first detected hard-drive? How would you go about 'imaging' an existing machine to use as the base? I suppose that in many cases a tar-gzip of the entire OS would work, provided you could partition the drive correctly, recreate some important handles as in /proc, and run lilo/grub to install a boot loader. Does anyone here have experience with this? I know morphix/knoppix make nice bootable distros but what I really want is a basic Linux bootCD which installs a preconfigured version of the OS of my choice."

Re:Ghost

[ottawanker]

..and all your boxes will have the same hostname and IP address. Or, you could use DHCP.

Re:Ghost

[Oriumpor]

On imaged systems, it's a bad idea for them not to access the network on first boot.... that means legwork after the image process. I would recommend configuring a DHCP client (with DHCP assigned hostname.)

For me, this is all I need, as each machine can be assigned statically via the DHCP server.

Still, IMO Kickstart is a much better methodology. Still better is PXE controlled kickstart mini-distros.... (Ala Ghost/Image Blaster Image partitions.) But I have yet to see someone do this.

I've done this...

[.@.]

I've done something like this for work. Created a custom bootable Linux CD (SuSE 8.2-based), with all the necessary drivers for the hardware it'd run on.

Then, I have an image server elsewhere on the network, full of dd images of various installs. So, when I build a new machine, I simply boot from the CD, and then pipe dd through ssh ("ssh remotehost 'dd if=foo.dd' |dd of=/dev/sda"), and within an hour (they're 18GB images), the new system is built.

I can use the same process in reverse for imaging an existing system (or simply use the ssh-piped dd on a live system), to create the stored images.

I spent so much time rewriting bits of systemimager that I got frustrated. Finally, I ran into hardware systemimager wouldn't support out-of-the-box (devices that only had drivers in 2.4, and SI's 2.2-based), and figured since I was going to have to build a new bootable ROMfs anyway, I may as well make a bootable CD and ditch SystemImager altogether.

Re:For god's sake...

[lortho]

Come on, people, enough of the 'just search Google, n00b' mentality - I mean, sure, any one can go search Google for "custom linux boot cd" and get a hundred possible options, just like anyone can search the yellow pages for a doctor and get a list of a hundred names; But people post questions here to see what experiences real, tech-savvy people have had with potential solutions, much like one might ask friends/family members about their experiences w/ certain doctors, in order to make a more educated decision. So next time you see a question like this, don't scorn the poster for wasting your time - be flattered that they have come to seek your personal expertise!

Re:Gentoo can do it

[nathanm]

I'm a very happy Gentoo user myself, but I can't imagine an installer much more primitive than Gentoo's. And from the original questions, it sounds like creating the custom livecd would be much more complicated than they're asking for.

Not for the newbies

[Crayon Kid]

There are many already available solutions from established distro's out there. Use one of them, like the previous posters suggested. Making a custom boot CD to be used for rescue/backup is not exactly easy for a Linux newbie, since it requires a fair understanding of the operating system's inner workings. Sure, there are tutorials and examples out there, that's how I've learned too, but my guess is that in a corporate environment you can't afford to lose time in this manner.

Re:Ghost

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I sure hope I keep a clean shop, if the attacker could get through both sets of firewalls and the guy was already in your DHCP server you're in a lot more trouble than just having a few workstations rooted.