On Thu, Oct 14, 1999 at 08:13:01PM -0400, paul wrote: > I've been asked to install Debian on a server that resides several > thousand miles from where I am (I am in Philadelphia, the server is in > Korea). Is it possible for me to replace the current RH installation with > Debian from my present location? Where are docs pertaining to this?
Alas, there are none. The one time I had to do something similar, I ended up having them ups me the hard drive, I did the install, and then upsed it back. They'd gotten the system into a completely wedged state though, and trying to do it remotely wasn't an option. > The owner of the machine (call him john) wants to avoid the reboot, and > does not know (or trust) anyone at the remote location. I BELIEVE I could > do this by installing and configuring a (minimal) base system complete > with his root password here, and then gzipping it, telnet to the remote > host as root, chroot to a ramdisk, reformat /dev/hda, install the gzipped > and ready base system (configured for remote root access and RARP), start > a script that will reboot the machine after I have logged off, then > john can telnet to his server, log in as root, change root's password and > run dselect to install the rest of his system. All this really depends on their disk partitioning situation. If they have enough free space on /home, you could move all the /home/whatever directories into /home/saved and then untar a working minimal system into it. I'd do a quick make bzDisk though so you can reboot off a floppy if you run into any >1024 cylinder problems and still get into the debianized partition. Once you're running off the debianized /home, you can then nuke the old / and rerun lilo again and be ready to go. > John does not think this will work he should know, he's had 20+ > years working with Unix and Ive only two years on Linux. But he has not > suggested any other method. If you do manage to get it switched, it'd be nice if you wrote up exactly how you did it. jpb -- Joe Block <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CREOL System Administrator Social graces are the packet headers of everyday life.