F17 pxe boot to nfs

[daytooner]

(Don't know if this is the right forum for this. If not, please let me know)

If this has been answered, please point me to the solution. I have googled my keyboard to shreds on this.

I have been using PXE boot to install previous versions of Fedora (F14, F15, F16). I am now trying F17, primarily since it seems to install with less than 1G RAM.

I have a working tftp server set up (along with DHCP). All I do to switch install versions is replace the vmlinuz and initrd images with that version's images (and mount the corresponding ISO). Adding the command line kernel line option "askmethod" would allow me to select nfs and enter the server and export path. But that apparently has bee deprecated.

Now everything is changed. I won't go through everything that I tried - at least not at this point. What I would like to know is:

1) what is the proper, working, kernel command line to get the install via nfs. I know the server IP and the path to the mounted ISO image.

2) which vmlinuz and initrd images to use. I am assuming that I still use the ones from the pxelinux directory from the F17 DVD.

Please note that I can only do minor changes: specifically edit text files on the tftp server; I cannot rebuild any images.

Please, any help will be greatly appreciated.

TIA

ken

[AdamW]

2) yes.

1) repo=nfs:serverIP:/path

See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Options . You don't actually have to mount the ISO - you can just put the ISO in a directory and point at that directory. Or you can mount it, either way works.

[daytooner]

Originally Posted by AdamW

2) yes.

1) repo=nfs:serverIP:/path

See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Options . You don't actually have to mount the ISO - you can just put the ISO in a directory and point at that directory. Or you can mount it, either way works.

Thanks, that works. Well to a point...

I finally get to the install DVD (which is mounted and exported via NFS). But anaconda says that I need 768M of RAM. According to this post: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=279993, I should only need 512M - which I have. So I put "inst.memcheck=0" on the kernel command line, I get through all of the "Starting ..." messages, then the screen goes blank and the system freezes - hard, needing reset. This is doing a graphical install/upgrade (prefer the latter).

Should I only use text mode? If so, can I do an upgrade instead of a full install?

Also, on a separate point: there is an existing F14 system installed, which has a swap partition. Can I tell anaconda to use that swap space?

Thanks for the help. I am almost there...

ken

[AdamW]

That sounds like you're using an old F17 build, maybe Beta? The RAM limit has been lowered for a while. I'd recommend using the current build, RC4: http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/17.RC4/