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