How to install fedora on a headless system

[sanjay_ankur]

hi,

I have an old CPU with me that I'd like to convert into a server. It has no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor. It has a dvd drive, a CD-RW drive. How do I go about installing Fedora on this? I've researched some and found that kickstarts and vnc may be the way to go. Since I've never done this before, and never used either kickstarts or vnc before, can someone please provide a detailed guide? I'd be happy if the additional hard ware required (switch? hub?) etc. could also be mentioned.

Thanks !!

Ankur

[macemoneta]

The easiest and fastest way I've found to do this is to remove the hard drive from the target system and connect it to another machine running Linux. I use an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, like this one, but you can connect it directly to your desktop system internally.

I then perform the installation via a virtual system, as root. For example, if the target drive is /dev/sde, and the installation media is in Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso:

qemu-kvm -m 2048 -smp 2 -boot once=d -hda /dev/sde -cdrom Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso -net nic -net user

You can adjust the memory ("-m 2048" is 2GB in the above example) and number of virtual processors (-smp 2 is a virtual dual core) as you need.

I've even installed on troublesome laptops this way. It saves a lot of time.

You can then boot the newly installed system with:

qemu-kvm -m 2048 -smp 2 -hda /dev/sde -net nic -net user

and configure it virtually as you like (e.g., set up ssh) before moving it back to the target system.

[sanjay_ankur]

hey!

I'll try this out and see what I can manage. I'll post my experience.

Thanks!

[sanjay_ankur]

hey,

I purchased a sata/ide to usb adapter. When I connected my hard disk via usb to my laptop, it shows up in lsusb, but apparently not in fdisk -l. Is there something more I need to do? Do I need to check for a driver for the USB adapter thing??

[root@070905042 ~]# lsusb 
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard Wireless (Bluetooth + WLAN) Interface [Integrated Module]
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 05e3:0718 Genesys Logic, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05ca:1810 Ricoh Co., Ltd Pavilion Webcam [R5U870]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

[root@070905042 ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa354ce15

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          66      524288   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              66        3982    31457280   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            3982        4243     2097152   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4            4243       14594    83140608    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4243       14594    83139584   83  Linux

Thank you !
regards,
Ankur

---------- Post added at 07:04 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 06:41 PM CDT ----------

Actually,

I do have a /dev/sdc, which I'm not able to access. Looks like somethings wrong here :|

Ankur[COLOR="Silver"]

[macemoneta]

Check dmesg for the device that was attached. You'll see something like this:

usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     USB 2.0  USB Flash Drive  1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] 15663104 512-byte logical blocks: (8.01 GB/7.46 GiB)
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sde: sde1
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 9:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk

In the case above the device is [sde], which you use as /dev/sde.

[sanjay_ankur]

I have a lot of this in the dmesg:

[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0306480, nr=0x80, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0306480, nr=0x80, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1

dmesg | grep sdc couldnt give me anything. I did a dmesg -c to clear the buffer but this is still all I get.

PID 1735 is this.

root      1735  6.0  1.5 123752 38624 tty1     Ss+  Sep01 106:58 /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -nr -verbose -auth /var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-q4z68C/database -nolisten tcp vt1

Can I disable this dmesg logging (what looks like garbage) somehow so dmesg can give us some info?

BTW, are these adapters plug and play? Or do we need some drivers to get them working?

Thanks for your time. Really appreciate it.

regards,
Ankur

[macemoneta]

You are looking for the most recent messages, right after you plug in the device.

1- Unplug the device
2- Plug in the device
3- dmesg | tail -n 20

[sanjay_ankur]

You are looking for the most recent messages, right after you plug in the device.

1- Unplug the device
2- Plug in the device
3- dmesg | tail -n 20

I tried that already:

I plugged in the device and straight away went:

[root@070905042 ~]# dmesg | tail -n 20
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0306480, nr=0x80, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0306480, nr=0x80, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086482, nr=0x82, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40046483, nr=0x83, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0xc0406481, nr=0x81, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1
[drm:drm_ioctl], pid=1735, cmd=0x40086409, nr=0x09, dev 0xe200, auth=1

It's still just spam

regards,
Ankur

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 PM CDT ----------

I connected it to a friends system in the meantime. Here's the output:

[CODE]

tg3 0000:10:00.0: PME# enabled
tg3 0000:10:00.0: wake-up capability enabled by ACPI
tg3 0000:10:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 19
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0718
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
usb 1-1: Product: USB Storage
usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 000000000033
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi20 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 19
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 20:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB TO I DE/SATA Device 0041 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
sd 20:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
sd 20:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[CODE]

Ankur[COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added at 08:23 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 PM CDT ----------

Fixed the dmesg spamming thing. Was a kernel argument in my grub.conf

Here's the dmesg output from my own machine:

scsi8 : usb-storage 1-2:1.0
scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     USB TO I DE/SATA Device   0041 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

Thanks!
regards,
Ankur

[sanjay_ankur]

The easiest and fastest way I've found to do this is to remove the hard drive from the target system and connect it to another machine running Linux. I use an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, like this one, but you can connect it directly to your desktop system internally.

I then perform the installation via a virtual system, as root. For example, if the target drive is /dev/sde, and the installation media is in Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso:

qemu-kvm -m 2048 -smp 2 -boot once=d -hda /dev/sde -cdrom Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso -net nic -net user

You can adjust the memory ("-m 2048" is 2GB in the above example) and number of virtual processors (-smp 2 is a virtual dual core) as you need.

I've even installed on troublesome laptops this way. It saves a lot of time.

You can then boot the newly installed system with:

qemu-kvm -m 2048 -smp 2 -hda /dev/sde -net nic -net user

and configure it virtually as you like (e.g., set up ssh) before moving it back to the target system.

hey,

Turns out my converter was faulty. I borrowed one from my friend, and now I'm using this method to install Fedora (qemu is running at the moment).

Thanks a bunch

Ankur