automated installations (15)

04 Apr 2006 Yes! part 15

While installing a system with the new installation CD, an interesting problem arose.
We have backups of all our systems. But how do we get a backup back onto a system ?
The rescue CD doesn't have the backup software installed :)

Thinking further about it, it makes sense to integrate a rescue CD with backup software, onto the installation CD.
We use Timo's Rescue CD set as rescue CD.

My mission for the day will be to put this CD on my installation CD.
A quick glance onto the rescue CD tells me that the entire thing is a disk-image. This will make it a lot easier to integrate :)

The Timo CD contains 3 files that need to be copied. First there is the kernel and initrd, located in /isolinux/vmlinuz and /isolinux/initrdfs.gz respectively. Then there is the disk image, located in /boot/rootfs.isofs.img

Next step is to add the aliases in /isolinux/isolinux.cfg. I added a "rescue" and a "rescueram" alias.

After testing, I noticed that the Timo CD won't find the CD drive unless I also copy the file /RESCUECD, which is an empty file, to my installation CD.

Rebuilding the CD makes it about double its size (now 235MB, which leaves 400MB for other goodies :)). It boots nicely.