I'm trying to install Fedora 11 using Cobbler. The test machine I am using is a quite old Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 laptop with a brand new (meaning blank) hard drive. The laptop is capable of PXE booting. I've tried to follow the directions given for setting up Cobbler. I have cobblerd running. The DVD for Fedora 11, i386 is mounted at http://localhost/fedorainstall. I ran this: [root@deafeng3 html]# cobbler import --mirror=http://localhost/fedorainstall/ --name=Fedora11 /usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/Cheetah/CacheRegion.py:30: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead import md5 unsupported protocol [root@deafeng3 html]# cobbler sync /usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/Cheetah/CacheRegion.py:30: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead import md5 What is the above telling me? Does it mean the import action failed? -------------------------- Possibly related to the above, when I list /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg I see this structure: [root@deafeng3 pxelinux.cfg]# ls -al total 12 drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 2009-06-28 15:14 . drwxr-xr-x. 7 root root 4096 2009-06-28 15:14 .. -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 211 2009-06-28 15:14 default [root@deafeng3 pxelinux.cfg]# cat default DEFAULT menu PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE Cobbler | http://cobbler.et.redhat.com TIMEOUT 200 TOTALTIMEOUT 6000 ONTIMEOUT local LABEL local MENU LABEL (local) MENU DEFAULT LOCALBOOT 0 MENU end ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Toshiba laptop, there is nothing in the DVD drive (first boot device), the hard drive is blank (second boot device), nothing is in the floppy drive (third boot device), so the machine defaults to "NETWORK" as the fourth boot device. Here is what I see on the screen: Intel (R) Boot Agent Version 4.0.19 Copyright (C) 1997-2001, Intel Corporation PXE:E61: Media Test Failure, check cable PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM How do I get TFTP working? I think there needs to be a wiki page that can walk new users like me through a Cobbler-based install on a remote machine.

> I should have used > > cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 > --arch=i386 > Don't do this. Use either a mounted DVD or an rsync mirror. --Michael

Robert L Cochran wrote: > On 06/29/2009 10:25 AM, Michael DeHaan wrote: > > >>> I should have used >>> >>> cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 >>> --arch=i386 >>> >>> >>> >> Don't do this. Use either a mounted DVD or an rsync mirror. >> >> --Michael >> >> >> > I'm a little confused. That path is indeed a mounted DVD...it's loop > mounted to /var/www/html/fedorainstall. Am I still doing this wrong? > > Bob > > > Are you sure? Why would you mount a DVD under /var/www/html and not /mnt ?

Robert L Cochran wrote: > On 06/29/2009 04:55 PM, Michael DeHaan wrote: > > >> Robert L Cochran wrote: >> >> >> >>> On 06/29/2009 10:25 AM, Michael DeHaan wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>>> I should have used >>>>> >>>>> cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 >>>>> --arch=i386 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Don't do this. Use either a mounted DVD or an rsync mirror. >>>> >>>> --Michael >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> I'm a little confused. That path is indeed a mounted DVD...it's loop >>> mounted to /var/www/html/fedorainstall. Am I still doing this wrong? >>> >>> Bob >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> Are you sure? Why would you mount a DVD under /var/www/html and not /mnt ? >> >> >> > Oh, I see. Well if you mount the DVD under the web server's document > root, like this: > > mount -o loop /home/rlc/Download/Fedora-11-i386/Fedora-11-i386-DVD.iso > /var/www/html/fedorainstall > > Then of course you can install Fedora 11 to a machine over the network, > using the "medialess install" method discussed in the Fedora 11 > installation guide. > If you are using Cobbler, the whole purpose of such an application to do network installs, you should be using cobbler's instructions and not the Fedora 11 media guide. Just go with the Cobbler documentation. > Also you can see a list of files and access the > entire document tree of the DVD and download those files over http if > you use this method. The Cobbler wiki simply suggests loop mounting the > DVD, the wiki doesn't say where exactly to mount it on. So I mounted it > on /var/www/html/fedorainstall as I was accustomed to, then I fed > cobbler this incantation: > > > The import command will copy the content into web-readable space. It uses /var/www/cobbler, in fact, and already has Apache configured to serve content up out of this location. It also offers up numerous other services, such as a dynamic kickstart templating engine, that are served dynamically, not out of files. Anyway, the point of Cobbler is to be glue around things you need to do for installation purposes, so you don't need to know how to set those things up yourself.... this is one of those things. > cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 --arch=i386 > > and that did indeed seem to generate quite a lot of cobbler output to the terminal. I can post screenshots or logfiles if those exist of what I'm talking about if I'm still being confusing. > > > It posts a lot of output because it's creating the network accessible copy of the tree for you. IMHO it's not a good idea to leave ISOs mounted in webroot. That all being said, where you mounted it is unimportant, your import probably worked fine, in which case you can unmount it and will be good to go. > Bob

Robert L Cochran wrote: > On 06/29/2009 04:55 PM, Michael DeHaan wrote: > > >> Robert L Cochran wrote: >> >> >> >>> On 06/29/2009 10:25 AM, Michael DeHaan wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>>> I should have used >>>>> >>>>> cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 >>>>> --arch=i386 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Don't do this. Use either a mounted DVD or an rsync mirror. >>>> >>>> --Michael >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> I'm a little confused. That path is indeed a mounted DVD...it's loop >>> mounted to /var/www/html/fedorainstall. Am I still doing this wrong? >>> >>> Bob >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> Are you sure? Why would you mount a DVD under /var/www/html and not /mnt ? >> >> >> > Oh, I see. Well if you mount the DVD under the web server's document > root, like this: > > mount -o loop /home/rlc/Download/Fedora-11-i386/Fedora-11-i386-DVD.iso > /var/www/html/fedorainstall > > Then of course you can install Fedora 11 to a machine over the network, > using the "medialess install" method discussed in the Fedora 11 > installation guide. > If you are using Cobbler, the whole purpose of such an application to do network installs, you should be using cobbler's instructions and not the Fedora 11 media guide. Just go with the Cobbler documentation. > Also you can see a list of files and access the > entire document tree of the DVD and download those files over http if > you use this method. The Cobbler wiki simply suggests loop mounting the > DVD, the wiki doesn't say where exactly to mount it on. So I mounted it > on /var/www/html/fedorainstall as I was accustomed to, then I fed > cobbler this incantation: > > > The import command will copy the content into web-readable space. It uses /var/www/cobbler, in fact, and already has Apache configured to serve content up out of this location. It also offers up numerous other services, such as a dynamic kickstart templating engine, that are served dynamically, not out of files. Anyway, the point of Cobbler is to be glue around things you need to do for installation purposes, so you don't need to know how to set those things up yourself.... this is one of those things. > cobbler import --path=/var/www/html/fedorainstall --name=Fedora11 --arch=i386 > > and that did indeed seem to generate quite a lot of cobbler output to the terminal. I can post screenshots or logfiles if those exist of what I'm talking about if I'm still being confusing. > > > It posts a lot of output because it's creating the network accessible copy of the tree for you. IMHO it's not a good idea to leave ISOs mounted in webroot. That all being said, where you mounted it is unimportant, your import probably worked fine, in which case you can unmount it and will be good to go. > Bob