Name

nstliveinst — NST script to customize the liveinst process for a hard disk installation.

Synopsis

nstliveinst [ -m TEXT | --mode TEXT ] [ -a TEXT | --anaconda-args TEXT ] [ -f [true]|false | --firstboot [true]|false ] [ --passwd TEXT ] [ --desktop TEXT ] [ --server TEXT ] [ --server-baud INTEGER ] [ --xhost [true]|false ] [ -h [true]|false | --help [true]|false ] [ -H [true]|false | --help-long [true]|false ] [ -v [true]|false | --verbose [true]|false ] [ --version [true]|false ]

Description

The nstliveinst command is used in a NST distribution when you want to install the NST distribution onto a hard disk after a "live" boot. This script has several modes of operation which are selected via the: "--mode MODE" command line argument.

Unless you are comfortable with the terms "liveinst", "%post", "chroot", and "anaconda", you should invoke this script with a minimal number of command line arguments (you might want to include "--desktop gui"). Or, log into the graphical desktop and launch the installer from the GUI desktop environment.

This script makes use of the anaconda package for performing the actual hard disk installation. Unfortunately, anaconda is a very unstable package - probably due to all of its dependencies and the effort required for testing. Because of this, features advertised by anaconda may not always work. For the NST distribution, we will always verify that the default installation method (simply typing the nstliveinst at the command prompt) will always work before releasing a binary ISO image. Advanced installation modes (such as VNC installation) may or may not work.

Warning

This script invokes the anaconda installation utility during a installation. It is quite possible that your system will be rebooted after the installation. Make sure that you save all of your work prior to running this script.

Example Installations

Example 1. Minimum Interactive Graphical Install

The following example demonstrates how one would perform an installation with a minimal amount of human interaction. You will only need to decide on disk usage and partitioning.

        [root@probe ~]# nstliveinst;
      

Example 2. VNC Remote Graphical Install

The anaconda installation utility supports many alternative installation methods. This example passes the "VNC" argument to anaconda instructing it to startup a VNC server on display ":1". This allows one to complete the installation remotely by running a VNC viewer client and connecting to display ":1" on this NST system. The anaconda graphical installer will be presented. Complete the installation based on your desired need.

This example install also includes the desktop option (--desktop) which will configure NST to boot in a graphical mode by default.

Note

Run the "getipaddr" command to get the "IPv4" Address of this NST system for the VNC connection.

        [root@probe ~]# nstliveinst -a " --vnc" --desktop gui;
      

Example 3. NST Server: Serial Console Using VNC Remote Graphical Install

This is the preferred method for installing NST from a serial console. This installation setup provides a nice feature in that the "nstliveinst" script is run from the serial console and the NST hard disk configuration and installation is completed graphically. This example passes the "VNC" argument to anaconda instructing it to startup a VNC server on display ":1". This allows one to complete the installation remotely by running a VNC viewer client and connecting to display ":1" on this NST system. The anaconda graphical installer will be presented. Complete the installation based on your desired need.

Note

Run the "getipaddr" command to get the "IPv4" Address of this NST system for the VNC connection.

In addition, the serial console port is specified by the --server option along with a baud rate setting option: --server-baud. These server options will enable the Grub Bootloader to be present on the serial console when NST is booted after installation.

Note

Send all errors to file: "/dev/null" for clean installer output when run from the serial console.

        [root@probe ~]# nstliveinst -a " --vnc" --server ttyS0 --server-baud 57600 2> /dev/null;
      

Example 4. VNC Connect Remote Graphical Install

This example passes the "VNC" and "VNCCONNECT" arguments to anaconda instructing it to startup a VNC server on display ":1". Once anaconda and the VNC server have started, a connection to a listening VNC client viewer on host: "172.30.1.54", port: "5500" will be made. It is assumed that a VNC client viewer is setup in "listening" mode on host: "172.30.1.54", port: "5500" prior to starting the NST hard disk installation. This setup configuration allows one to complete the installation by using the VNC client viewer on the remote host: "172.30.1.54". The anaconda graphical installer will be presented. Complete the installation based on your desired need.

This example install also includes the desktop option (--desktop) which will configure NST with a default graphical desktop login.

        [root@probe ~]# nstliveinst -a " --vnc --vncconnect=172.30.1.54:5500" --desktop gui;
      

Example 5. Text Mode Install

This example uses anaconda's text mode for installation.

        [root@probe ~]# nstliveinst --mode install --anaconda-args " --text" 2> /dev/null;
      

Note

You will not be permitted to install the NST distribution to a disk which has a partition that is currently mounted.

The install Mode of Operation

The "install" mode of operation will invoke the liveinst system command. This will in turn start up anaconda to install the NST distribution from the Live boot onto a hard disk.

In addition, if you have some special installation needs, you may also append additional anaconda command line options using the: "--anaconda-args ' ARG0 ARG1 ...'" command line argument. For example, if you want to perform a text based installation, specify: "--anaconda-args ' --text'" (it is required that you quote and include a leading space to the list of anaconda arguments).

The post-update Mode of Operation

The "post-update" mode of operation is meant to be used after a major "update" of an NST system. Currently, this mode will run the nstpasswd command to reapply the administrative password to all relevant applications that may have been updated (however, it does not touch your ssh password). It will next regenerate all NST menus for discovery of any new applications that may have been added. Finally, it will run all "NST Tweak" scripts found in directory: "/etc/nst/tweaks" to complete final adjustments. Follow any instructions prompted by this mode of operation.

The post-minimal Mode of Operation

The "post-minimal" mode of operation is meant to be used after an "NST Live Minimal" hard disk installation followed by the "yum install nst-live" RPM package install. It will perform various post setup scripts to configure NST as if one did the full "NST Live" hard disk installation. Follow any instructions prompted by this mode of operation.

Options

The following command line options are available:

[-m TEXT] | [--mode TEXT]

This option controls the mode of operation of the script. If omitted, it defaults to "install". The recognized modes of operation include: "install", "template", "post-update" and "post-minimal". See the script documentation for more details about the various modes of operation and how they are used.

[-a TEXT] | [--anaconda-args TEXT]

This command line argument allows you to specify command line argument(s) which should be passed to anaconda when performing the installation. This option may be omitted (in which case no extra arguments will be passed to anaconda). Run the command: "anaconda --help" to see a list of all of the possible arguments. Some common choices are: "--text", " --graphical", "--serial" and " --cmdline". You MUST QUOTE and include a LEADING SPACE when specifying your anaconda arguments. For example: -a " --vnc".

[-f [true]|false] | [--firstboot [true]|false]

By default, installation will disable the "firstboot" stage of the installation process. This means the system will skip the normal anaconda post boot setup steps and come up ready to use. If you would like to enable the post boot setup stage, then include this command line argument.

[--passwd TEXT]

By default, this script will use the default password of "nst2003" for the hard disk installation. You may use this command line argument to specify a different system password for the initial install. It should be noted that using this option invokes the nstpasswd script during the installation stage (which changes many passwords) whereas the normal anaconda installation only sets the password for the root account.

[--desktop TEXT]

You may use this argument to specify either: "--desktop console" or "--desktop gui". If omitted, "console" will be assumed and the system will boot in text mode. If you would like to boot to a graphical desktop login, specify: "--desktop gui".

[--server TEXT]

If you are installing the distribution to a "server" and would like a serial console configured, you may use this option to specify the serial device ID. For example, if you wanted to use serial device "ttyS0", you would specify "--server ttyS0" on the command line.

[--server-baud INTEGER]

You may use this argument to specify the baud rate for the serial port when installing to a "server". If omitted, the default value will be used (57600). Some common baud rates include: 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, and 115200. The minimum value permitted is 300.

[--xhost [true]|false]

This option is provided as an aid to adding desktop icons and menu launching commands. When specified, the command: "xhost +" will be run prior to launching anaconda and a "xhost -" will be run at exit. This allows one to add a menu item to the fluxbox window manager's menu system. This option is applicable only in the "--mode install" mode of operation.

[-h [true]|false] | [--help [true]|false]

When this option is specified, nstliveinst will display a short one line description of nstliveinst, followed by a short description of each of the supported command line options. After displaying this information nstliveinst will terminate.

[-H [true]|false] | [--help-long [true]|false]

This option will attempt to pull up additional nstliveinst documentation within a text based web browser. You can force which browser we use setting the environment variable TEXTBROWSER, otherwise, we will search for some common ones.

[-v [true]|false] | [--verbose [true]|false]

When you set this option to true, nstliveinst will produce additional output. This is typically used for diagnostic purposes to help track down when things go wrong.

[--version [true]|false]

If this option is specified, the version number of the script is displayed.

Files

/usr/share/nstliveinst

Directory containing resource files used by nstliveinst.

Environment

TEXTBROWSER

This controls what text based browser is used to display help information about the script. If not set, we will search your system for available text-based browsers (Ex: elinks, lynx ...).

See Also

Anaconda, FedoraLiveCD, Network Security Toolkit