make-fai-bootfloppy(8)

NAME

make-fai-bootfloppy - create a FAI boot floppy

SYNOPSIS

make-fai-bootfloppy [OPTIONS] [<kernel parameters>]

DESCRIPTION

Creates a boot floppy for the Fully Automatic Installation

(FAI) package. This shell-script wrapper simplifies the complexi

ties of creating a FAI boot disk for use with DHCP or BOOTP pro

tocols. It creates a bootfloppy using grub (default) or lilo as

boot loader. The installation kernel is also put onto the floppy

disk which supports DHCP, BOOTP protocol and a fixed IP address

for the installation server. All parameters are used as addition

al kernel parameters.

The exit code returned is 0 if all commands to build the

root directory exited successfully and >0 if an error occurs.

OPTIONS

-B Make a big 2.88M floppy instead of the default

1.44M floppy.

-C CFDIR

Use CFDIR instead of /etc/fai for reading the con

fig file fai.conf.

-d LABEL

Use LABEL when selection the default boot kernel

(and parameters). Possible values of LABEL:

a for any: the linux kernel will try all compiled

in protocols in turn, until one succeeds;
b for BOOTP;
d for DHCP;
f for using a fixed IP address on the FAI client

(see option '-s');
r for RARP.

Without this option, the kernel setting 'ip=dhcp is

used.

-F Append default flags to kernel parameters. Same as

"FAI_FLAGS=verbose,sshd,createvt"

-f FILE

Make a floppy image in FILE.

-i FILE

Make a iso9660 image in FILE (requires also -f

FILE).

-I IF Use IF as client interface (default: eth0).

-g Use GRUB as boot loader (default).

-l Use LILO as boot loader.

-m DIR Use DIR as mountpoint for either floppy device or

file. Defaults to /floppy.

-s HOST

Prepare a host specific bootfloppy which will boot

the kernel with the fixed IP of HOST (i.e., insert network con

figuration into kernel command line's "ip=" statement). All nec

essary data are gathered by DNS A lookup.

-v Print verbose output

EXAMPLES

Create a generic boot floppy

make-fai-bootfloppy

Create a generic boot floppy for James ;-)

# make-fai-bootfloppy "FAI_FLAGS=sshd,createvt BOND=007"

Make a common floppy which uses the DHCP protocol as de

fault, some common flags and action sysinfo

Create a bootable cdrom image, that can be burned using

cdrecord(1)

# make-fai-bootfloppy -f /tmp/fai_floppy.img -i

/tmp/fai_iso.img "FAI_FLAGS=sshd,createvt"

Make a common floppy which uses the DHCP protocol as de

fault, some common flags and action sysinfo

# make-fai-bootfloppy -vF FAI_ACTION=sysinfo

Make a boot floppy with fixed IP adress, enable verbose

messages and additional terminals.

# make-fai-bootfloppy -l -d f "10.0.2.5:10.0.2.1:10.0.0.1:

255.255.0.0:client5:eth0:off FAI_FLAGS=verbose,createvt"

To make a boot floppy for my old SMC EtherCard Plus Elite

16T, I use

# make-fai-bootfloppy "reserve=0x300,32

ether=10,0x300,eth0"

NOTES

make-fai-bootfloppy will attempt to access /dev/fd0 unless

the option -f is used. IT IS NOT DEVFSD compatible unless your

devfsd installation remaps the floppy device to the common device

alias /dev/fd0.

SEE ALSO

This program is part of FAI (Fully Automatic Installa

tion). See the FAI manual for more information on how to use

make-fai-bootfloppy. The FAI homepage is http://www.infor

matik.uni-koeln.de/fai.

FILES

/etc/fai/fai.conf
CFDIR/fai.conf

The FAI configuration file. CFDIR is set with op

tion -c

AUTHOR

Thomas Lange <lange@informatik.uni-koeln.de>

FAI 3 11 september 2006 make-fai

bootfloppy(8)