Re: quickly partition disk, copy an image, install grub

From: Paul E Condon (pecondon_at_mesanetworks.net)
Date: 09/20/05

  • Next message: Scot Hilden: "Re: Fwd: qmailadmin 500 internal server error" 
    Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 11:18:35 -0600
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 11:49:25AM -0400, Gregory Seidman wrote:
    > On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 09:20:33AM -0400, Matt Price wrote:
    > } Hi,
    > }
    > } I have to install ubuntu or something similar on about 20 aging
    > } workstations without cd drives. THese are donated boxes with small hard
    > } drives (as small as 2.1 gig, but not all identical) all wiped clean.
    > }
    > } my thought is: do a workstation install of ubuntu on one drive and get
    > } it all cleaned up the way I want it; shrink the partition down to a
    > } minimum size to avoid copying lots of empty sectors; make a disk image
    > } with dd; shutdown, install a second drive;and then:
    > }
    > } fdisk /dev/hdb, and set up / and swap partitions
    > } mkswap /dev/hdb5 # do I need to do this?
    > } # Do I need to create an e2fs fs on /dev/hdb1?
    > } dd if=/path/to/image of=/dev/hdb1 # will this work if the partitions
    > } # are not of exactly equal size?
    > } dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=448 count=1 # does this install GRUB?
    > }
    > } so, my question is: is this the right way to go about this? am I
    > } missing any steps? is there a better way to do it?
    >
    > First off, if you're asking on a Debian list you should be talking about
    > Debian rather than Ubuntu. Based on the following assumptions:
    >
    > 1) You can find the smallest disk you will have to install on.
    >
    > 2) You will have some partition (/home? something else?) that should grow
    > to fill the remaining disk space on larger disks.
    >
    > 3) You will be using a filesystem that supports growing, such as ext3.
    >
    > 4) You can put all of these machines on a network together.
    >
    > 5) You have a spare machine to use as "machine B" below.
    >
    > 6) The various machines' disks are /dev/hda and they can all boot from CD.

    But see OP message above. They don't have CD.

    >
    > ...here's what I'd do:
    >
    > 1) Do a full install and configuration on the machine (A) with the smallest
    > disk. Configure everything, including partitions and swap, the way you
    > want it. Make sure the partition that will be grown to fill the larger
    > disks is the last partition.
    >
    > 2) On each filesystem (not swap) dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroes until it runs
    > out of room, then remove the file of zeroes. This is important for
    > compression, which comes later.
    >
    > 3) Set up a machine (B) with a network connection to your newly installed
    > box so that it is listening on some TCP port, say 2000, for a network
    > connection and will take any data from a connection and put it in a
    > file. It should also be listening on another TCP port, say 3000, to
    > which it will respond with the contents of the same file. I recommend
    > using socket or netcat (nc) for this. I prefer socket, so my examples use
    > socket:
    >
    > socket -r -q -p 'dd of=/tmp/diskimg.gz' -s 2000 &
    > socket -w -q -p 'dd if=/tmp/diskimg.gz' -s -l 3000 &
    >
    > 4) Reboot machine A with Knoppix or your favorite LiveCD. Tell it not to
    > find any swap partitions.
    >
    > 5) dd if=/dev/hda | gzip -c | socket -w -q MachineB 2000
    >
    > 6) Boot each of the other machines, in turn, with a LiveCD.
    >
    > 7) socket -r -q MachineB 3000 | gzip -d | dd of=/dev/hda
    >
    > 8) use parted to grow the last partition (or fdisk to delete it and create
    > it again to fill the disk), then use resize2fs (or the command
    > appropriate to your chosen growable filesystem) to fill the now larger
    > partition
    >
    > Note that the gzip in step 5 compresses all those nice zeroes you put on
    > the disk in step 2 so that the data that goes over the network is
    > minimized. This won't be incredibly speedy, but you should be able to
    > perform step 7 on all of your machines in parallel. You may also want to
    > set the bs parameter on the various dd commands.
    >
    > } thanks much,
    > } matt
    > --Greg
    >
    >
    > --
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
    > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
    > 

    -- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org 
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
  • Next message: Scot Hilden: "Re: Fwd: qmailadmin 500 internal server error"

    Relevant Pages