jandersonlee
January 22nd, 2010, 08:51 PM
I'm trying to set up an Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 (actually Nehalem) server cluster in a remote location. We need to be able to do remote installs/reinstalls using just PXE boot and a serial console server. I've managed to preseed most of the install. The trouble I have is that the console server doesn't encode/transmit Fxx function-keys in a way that the nodes understand, so I cannot press F12 to PXE boot when I need a reinstall. Go in to tweak the bios boot order each time would be possible, but painful.
I'd like to set it up so that the PXE-boot brings up the ubuntu-installer, but add a "boot from first disk" option to the boot/install menu and make it the default with a timeout of 30 seconds. That way if a system reboots, the default action will be to restart the installed OS, but if I deliberately reboot it and monitor the serial console, I can see the boot menus and force a preseeded reinstall.
I'm trying to figure out how to tweak ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/* to add this hack. So far I've not found the appropriate documentation or sample code. Is it even possible? (I believe some of the CDs have that option.)
Once I have that working, the next step would be to get rid of the "graphical" boot menus and make them strictly textual so that *all* the boot menus get displayed to the serial console port as well as to the screen.
Thanks in Advance.
I'd like to set it up so that the PXE-boot brings up the ubuntu-installer, but add a "boot from first disk" option to the boot/install menu and make it the default with a timeout of 30 seconds. That way if a system reboots, the default action will be to restart the installed OS, but if I deliberately reboot it and monitor the serial console, I can see the boot menus and force a preseeded reinstall.
I'm trying to figure out how to tweak ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/* to add this hack. So far I've not found the appropriate documentation or sample code. Is it even possible? (I believe some of the CDs have that option.)
Once I have that working, the next step would be to get rid of the "graphical" boot menus and make them strictly textual so that *all* the boot menus get displayed to the serial console port as well as to the screen.
Thanks in Advance.