Setting up Mandrake for network installs

Step by Step procedure

Setup the ftp server

I call my ftp server ftp. Pretty original huh?
In my ftp path I create the following directories: /pub/Mandrake/9.2.
- Mandrake
- RPMS
- disk1
- disk2
- disk3
- isos
Copy the three Mandrake 9.2 iso images into isos

Add the following to a file called mountem in the ftp directory:


		for i in 1 2 3
		do
		    mount -r -t iso9660 -o loop isos/Mandrake92-cd$i-*.i586.iso disk$i
		done

chmod +x mountem
./mountem
cd /pub/Mandrake/9.2/Mandrake
ln -s ../disk?/Mandrake/* .
cd /pub/Mandrake/9.2/RPMS
ln -s ../disk?/Mandrake/RPMS*/* .

That last step is not strictly necessary. I just like to have a single place to go to find a particular RPM.

Create a network boot floppy

cd disk1/images
dd if=network.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k

Use netowrk_gigabit_usb.img instead of network.img if you have a gigabit or a USB network device.

Do a network install

Boot from the floppy created above in the system to be installed
When asked, select FTP Install
Enter the name of your ftp server ftp
Enter the path to Mandrake /pub/Mandrake/9.2
Enter the ftp user name (can leave blank if anonymous ftp is allowed)
Enter the ftp user password (can leave blank if anonymous ftp is allowed)

Proceed with the install normally.

Add a package after installation is completed

Mandrake saves the install path and login information in its urpmi database so at any time after installation is complete you can add additional packages by simply entering: urpmi package-name as root and the package will be installed. No more searching for the boot disks and no more fumbling trying to find the right one.