mkautoinstalldiskette - creates a bootable floppy for autoinstalling clients

mkautoinstalldiskette [ -help ] [ -version ] [ -quiet ] [ -floppy DEVICE ] [ -out-file PATH ] [ -flavor FLAVOR ] [ -kernel PATH ] [ -initrd PATH ] [ -append STRING ] [ -config PATH ] [ -ssh-key PATH ]

This manual page documents briefly the mkautoinstalldiskette command.

mkautoinstalldiskette creates a floppy disk which can be used to boot an autoinstall client and initiate an autoinstall.

A summary of options is included below.

-help

Show summary of options

-version

Display version and copyright information.

-quiet

Don't print any output, just provide an appropriate exit code. (requires -floppy)

-floppy DEVICE

The 1.44MB floppy drive device containing the disk to format. If not specified, /dev/fd0 is assumed. This command understands "/dev/fd0" through "/dev/fd7". (if you specify -floppy, this command will run non-interactively)

-out-file FILE

Create a 1.44MB floppy image in FILE. dd can be used to write this image to a floppy later. This is useful for some systems that allow you to boot nodes using a "virtual floppy" file that is retrieved via TFTP (some PXE loaders and some remote management boards).

-kernel PATH

Specify an alternate kernel to use. This is useful if you have clients that have network cards or disk controllers that are not supported by the default kernel provided by SystemImager. See the SystemImager manual for instructions on creating a custom autoinstall kernel.

-flavor FLAVOR

The flavor of the boot package to use. If this option is not specified, you will be asked to choose a flavor from the available list interactively.

-initrd PATH

Specify an alternate initial ramdisk to use. This is rarely useful, but may be necessary in some cases (e.g. needing to add more special files in /dev). See the SystemImager manual for instructions on creating a custom initial ramdisk.

-append STRING

This option allows you to pass options to the autoinstall kernel. For example, to tell the kernel to use ttyS3 as the serial console:

-append "console=ttyS3"

-config FILE

Where FILE contains all the settings necessary for the client to set it's hostname and configure it's networking information without DHCP. This file is copied to /local.cfg on the autoinstalldiskette.

-ssh-key=FILE

Where FILE is the SSH2 id_dsa or id_rsa private key of the user account that the autoinstall client will use to connect to the imageserver. It is usually found in the user's .ssh directory.

To use this private key, you must also add the corresponding public key to this user's .ssh/authorized_keys file on the imageserver. The public key is usually called .ssh/id_rsa.pub or .ssh/id_dsa.pub. The .ssh/authorized_keys must be readable only by this user. (chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys)

mkautoinstallcd(8)

More details can be found in the SystemImager manual.

This manual page was compiled by dann <<dannf@debian.org>> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).