[TriLUG] OT: solaris 10x86 jumpstart dvd

[Robert Dale]

On 6/20/07, stan briggs <stanbriggs at gmail.com> wrote:
> all,
>
> my apologies to inw'ers that have already seen this post.
>
> any solaris geeks out there that have done a solaris 10x86 jumpstart dvd?
>
> so far, i've been able to create one that boots and installs properly. now
> i'm starting to improve the dvd and here-in lies the problem. if i build and
> burn an iso image to a dvd and then boot from it it takes almost an hour to
> get to the point where i get an error. i then find and fix and build and
> burn again. another hour.
>
> what i would like to do is put the files that i'm changing (sysidcfg,
> preinstall, postinstall, archiveFile.profile) on a local disk on the server
> that i'm jumping, create a dvd that grabs those files and puts them in
> place, and then continues with the jumpstart process (which, by the way,
> does not write over the local disk).
>
> issues so far include:
> 1. miniroot boots read-only and i can't see a direct way to make it
> read-write;
> 2. i'm not sure where in the miniroot boot process i should put the
> mount/copy/umount commands (perhaps in miniroots /etc/rc3.d?).
>
> i am very open to suggestions and pointers. note that this a dvd and not a
> cd and it's solaris 10.

A couple options come to mind...

>From Linux experience, and I'm sure this is possible with solaris, is
to netboot.
This is simply replacing the dvd boot code with net boot code, everything else
should remain the same.  The nfs mount point would have your dvd
filesystem layout
and should act accordingly.  Might have to change a piece of code to
let it know not to
try to mount a DVD.  And this of course involves two machines.

A better option might be with vmware server (free version of course).  You can
'boot' from an iso image.  The part I don't know is if an iso image is
any iso image
(to include DVDs) or only cdrom.  If so, you can growisofs to a file
and switch to vmware and install.  I might try this later tonight and
see how it goes.

-- 
Robert Dale