Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
Hi Peter, have you tried install-mbr ? eg: install-mbr -i n -p D -t 0 /dev/hda Quoting Peter Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Dear Lazy Web, I am presently debugging PXE installs for our product. This involves a lot of round trips like this: 1. enter bios setup, disable disk boot 2. netboot and install Linux, when that reboots 3. notice the reboot, hit DEL, enable disk boot 4. shiny new linux boots, not perfect, figure our what went wrong, go back to step 1 The bios doesn't have a Press F12 to enter boot menu which would be particularly useful, because I could then leave disk boot enabled. So, dear reader, if you have got this far, how hard is it to add a Whack Master Boot Record to the *grub* boot menu, alongside memtest86, which would overwrite the MBR with all zero? That option, combined with a h/w reset, could be used to cause a fresh install. Has such a thing been written? what is the package name? Regards Peter Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] /\/\*http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/ PGP public key ID: 1024D/D0EDB64D fingerprint = AD0A C5DF C426 4F03 5D53 2BDB 18D8 A4E2 D0ED B64D See http://www.keyserver.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. You got the Dumb Bird sitting on your shoulder. -- Dr. Phil -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 09:58:21AM +1100, Peter Miller wrote: The bios doesn't have a Press F12 to enter boot menu which would be particularly useful, because I could then leave disk boot enabled. So, dear reader, if you have got this far, how hard is it to add a Whack Master Boot Record to the *grub* boot menu, alongside memtest86, which would overwrite the MBR with all zero? That option, combined with a h/w reset, could be used to cause a fresh install. Has such a thing been written? what is the package name? Attacking this from another direction you can get grub to create a network boot menu option. This way you can tell grub to simply netboot when you want it to. This URL has some details, looks like you might need to rebuild your grub package. http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~draheim/boot/grub-netboot.html Grub will need to support your network card. It has a fair few you basically add something like --enable-eepro100 to ./configure. Cheers, -- John http://www.inodes.org/ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 09:58 +1100, Peter Miller wrote: Dear Lazy Web, I am presently debugging PXE installs for our product. This involves a lot of round trips like this: 1. enter bios setup, disable disk boot 2. netboot and install Linux, when that reboots 3. notice the reboot, hit DEL, enable disk boot 4. shiny new linux boots, not perfect, figure our what went wrong, go back to step 1 The bios doesn't have a Press F12 to enter boot menu which would be particularly useful, because I could then leave disk boot enabled. So, dear reader, if you have got this far, how hard is it to add a Whack Master Boot Record to the *grub* boot menu, alongside memtest86, which would overwrite the MBR with all zero? That option, combined with a h/w reset, could be used to cause a fresh install. Has such a thing been written? what is the package name? I'd probably do it with a trivial initramfs that dd's 0's to the relevant device : -Rob -- GPG key available at: http://www.robertcollins.net/keys.txt. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 09:58:21AM +1100, Peter Miller ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Dear Lazy Web, [snip] So, dear reader, if you have got this far, how hard is it to add a Whack Master Boot Record to the *grub* boot menu, alongside memtest86, which would overwrite the MBR with all zero? That option, combined with a h/w reset, could be used to cause a fresh install. Has such a thing been written? what is the package name? microsofts fdisk. have an old version of a boot disk handy and type fdisk /mbr (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69013) You can even do this through a bootable CDROM: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm in case you do not have a floppy drive. The advantage of doing this it boots FAST. jobst Regards Peter Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] /\/\*http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/ PGP public key ID: 1024D/D0EDB64D fingerprint = AD0A C5DF C426 4F03 5D53 2BDB 18D8 A4E2 D0ED B64D See http://www.keyserver.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. You got the Dumb Bird sitting on your shoulder. -- Dr. Phil -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- Computers are like air conditioners, they stop working properly if you open Windows! | |0| | Jobst Schmalenbach, [EMAIL PROTECTED], General Manager | | |0| Barrett Consulting Group P/L The Meditation Room P/L |0|0|0| +61 3 9532 7677, POBox 277, Caulfield South, 3162, Australia -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Peter Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Lazy Web, I am presently debugging PXE installs for our product. This involves a lot of round trips like this: If you don't need to test directly on your hardware you could run the PXE install in a VM with either VMware or KVM. I've done this before and it works great. Lindsay -- http://slug.org.au/ (the Sydney Linux Users Group) http://holmwood.id.au/~lindsay/ (me) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] whack MBR
On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 12:40 +1100, Lindsay Holmwood wrote: I am presently debugging PXE installs for our product. This involves a lot of round trips like this: If you don't need to test directly on your hardware you could run the PXE install in a VM with either VMware or KVM. I've done this before and it works great. I'm trying to model a hands-free factory install. The BIOS defaults have other ideas. Regards Peter Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] /\/\*http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/ PGP public key ID: 1024D/D0EDB64D fingerprint = AD0A C5DF C426 4F03 5D53 2BDB 18D8 A4E2 D0ED B64D See http://www.keyserver.net or any PGP keyserver for public key. It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets. -- Alan Cooper, About Face signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
