[arch-releng] PXEboot + unattended install

[Dieter Plaetinck]

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:26:49 +0000
Greg Sutcliffe <greg.sutcliffe at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Apologies if this has been covered before - I've been Googling for the
> few days, and found a lot of info on both of these topics - but not
> both together.
> 
> As far as I can see, it's possible to boot an ArchLinux install
> instance over PXE (using the archboot project). I've managed to get
> that working just fine. I also understand that it's possible to pass a
> prewritten script to AIF to handle the actual install (and potentially
> the post-install steps?). I've not actually tried to write one of
> these yet, but it's next on my todo list.
> 
> It seems the last tiny link to integrate the two is missing - I cannot
> find any documentation on how to get the installer to automatically
> execute an AIF script. I did find a slideshow (http://goo.gl/6I8QP)
> which on Slide 13 states this integration is a "Missing Feature" - is
> that still the case?
> 
> As a bit of background (since this is my first post to the list) - I'm
> working heavily with Foreman (www.theforeman.org) which is a
> provisioning system for automatically deploying and installing
> machines. Since I'm a keen Arch user, I'm trying to add Arch support
> to Foreman. I have now added the PXE side of things (which works
> great), and I'm more than happy to help write/test any solutions to
> the above problem, since I can now re-image (via PXE) my Arch hosts
> with about 4 clicks in Foreman's interface :)
> 
> Looking forward to learning more about this :)
> 
> Cheers,
> Greg

AFAIK archiso images boot fine over pxe. (archboot is not official)
archboot doesn't even use aif, but archiso does, and it accepts a 'script' boot parameter,
which can do whatever you want, such as starting an aif automatic install.
at least, that's how I remember things are.  I didn't ever try this myself but IIRC other people have.

Dieter