It's theoretically possible to do something like this with PXE boot loading
up a mini OS. Then that mini OS runs as part of its init scripts a menu
system that does what you're talking about. That's basically what jumpstart
and kickstart do.
On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 8:18 PM, Jason Spatafore <
jasons@spatafore.net>
wrote:
> This may trigger some discussion and I've been researching it for days
> now. It sounds like it is "impossible" but I wanted to utilize all my
> resources. PLUG is a resource. :)
>
> So, here's the situation.
>
> 1. I would like to use a system where servers can be PXEBooted to the
> network.
> 2. The system needs to be able to boot from image files after being
> PXEBooted. For example, image files can/will be .iso (CD-ROM), .usb (USB
> Drive Images created with dd), .img for floppy images, and .dvd for DVD
> based images.
>
> Here's how I see the system working. A technician boots to the PXE
> environment and is presented a menu...say the menu is asking for an 8 digit
> number. The technician inputs the 8 digit number (12345678) and a script of
> some kind locates the corresponding image file. The script then determines
> the type of image that is used based off the extension. In this example,
> let's say the filename is 12345678.iso. The script now knows that it must
> use iso9660 for the filesystem. The script then loads that iso file and the
> system boots just like it was running from a CD-ROM.
>
> Now, everything I have read so far states that this is impossible due to
> the way systems boot.
>
> Does anybody have ideas on how to get something like this to work? Can you
> boot an ISO file *as if* it was a direct attached CD-ROM drive? Can you do
> the same with other image types?
>
> I am trying to make this simple for our people. For example, I would like
> people to be able to just use dd to create the image files.
>
> Anyway, any help/input is appreciated. Even confirmation that this is
> impossible would be nice as I have already come to that conclusion myself
> based off all the other items I've read online.
>
> Thanks ahead of time!
>
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--
James McPhee
jmcphe@gmail.com
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