On Thu, 25 Jun 2009, Dave Miner wrote:
>> So, how does it work when I want to script the menu.lst
>> such that the machine does AI once and then just does, say,
>> a network boot (if that's what the boot order has set)
>> thereafter?
>>
>
> It's more usual to selectt network boot as a one-time, not persistently in
> the BIOS or OBP. If you need to do the latter for some reason, then it's
> not going to work, but since most reasonable BIOS versions allow the former
> easily (and OBP always has), providing an optimal solution for that case
> seems wise.
OBP isn't much of a problem because -
a) AI would only be invoked by the user explicitly
specifying "boot net:dhcp - install" on the command
line
b) The OS can dictate that the machine boot from disk
after an initial AI.
So, even if the user has "boot net" set in the OBP, AI
isn't going to get invoked accidentally and reinstall
the installed system.
BIOS is more of a problem because the OS cannot dictate
the boot order. I agree that network boot won't be
selected as the default in 90% of the cases, but it
would be selected in 10% of the cases for diagnostic
purposes.
And, for those 10% cases AI shouldn't be automatically
invoked. The proposed solution does make it harder for
the majority but it also protects the minority.
I'm sorry if I'm being dense here but I just don't see
how scripting menu.lst makes it easy for the majority
and safe for the minority at the same time. Could you
please elaborate?
Alok
