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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Help needed with PXE network install of 7.10 Alternate CD



Slim Backwater
April 22nd, 2008, 08:03 PM
I've successfully used PXE to install other Distros (CentOS, RedHat, System Rescue CD), but Ubuntu 7.10 is giving me some trouble.

What I think is happening is that the installer is looking out to the internet for updates and then complaining when my 7.10 Alternate CD doesn't have them.

I'd like to do an installation with just what's on the CD, as if I were installing from the CD, only here the CD is on the network. Or somehow tell it to not look out to the Internet for Updates.

My pxelinux.cfg/default looks (mostly - numerous entries removed) like this:



PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 300

LABEL gutsy-desktop
kernel ubuntu-installer/i386/linux
append initrd=ubuntu-installer/i386/initrd.gz locale=en_CA console-setup/layoutcode=us url=http://waiter/Ubuntu-7.10-i386-desktop-preseed.cfg --



My Ubuntu-7.10-i386-desktop-preseed.cfg looks like this:


# Gutsy Desktop
# Set apt-mirror
d-i mirror/suite string gutsy
d-i mirror/country string enter information manually
d-i mirror/http/hostname string waiter
d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386/ubuntu
d-i apt-setup/universe boolean false

# Setup clock and timezone
clock-setup clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i time/zone string Canada/Eastern
d-i time/zone select Canada/Eastern
#d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server

#d-i base-installer/kernel/override-image string linux-server

popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean true

d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

tasksel tasksel/first string ubuntu-desktop


On my machine "waiter" I have mounted the 7.10 Alternate CD into the ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386 directory.

The installer loads and runs fine, right up until it tries to download:

e2fsprogs-udeb_1.40.2-1ubuntu1.1_i386.udeb

Which, of course, doesn't exist on the 7.10 Alternate CD as this is a package that was updated since 7.10 was released.

One post says to disconnect Internet access during the installation, which isn't really practical, (and I understand why it may work) but it doesn't work, the installer fails with a "Bad archive mirror".

Is it possible to do a Network Install of a CD Image?

Thanks.

dstew
April 23rd, 2008, 06:29 PM
You can do this. Look at the Installation/LocalNet (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LocalNet) community document. Down the page are instructions for booting a locally-stored Live CD image, with an example pxelinux.cfg/default file.