On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Tom Munro Glass <[email protected]> wrote: > Although I am using Mandriva, I suspect this question would apply to many > distros. > > I need to install Mandriva on several machines, and each installation needs to > be set up the same way with a number of packages installed, the same > users/passwords defined, etc. It seems to me that what I need to do is > install and configure a master machine, then create some kind of installation > image from this, but I don't know where to start. > > Any pointers would be much appreciated. > > Tom Munro Glass > >
mandrivel was originally a fork of redhat, and redhat uses a system called kickstart for exactly this purpose. I am not sure if kickstart works with mandrivel, worth a look. google also produces this: http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ Also you can just clone the disk, especially if they are the same size. You can do this by: 1. temporarily placing the target disk in the master machine and using dd or cp or rsync (or probably other tools) to clone the master disk. 2. leaving the disk in the clone machine, boot the clone machine with a live cd and then use rsync to clone the master hard drive to the clone disk.
