Automatic installation with YaST

Support knowledgebase (cg_autoinstall)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Versions up to (including) 7.3

General points

The purpose of this document is to describe the automated installation of SuSE Linux with YaST. This requires a specially prepared bootdisk and one of several installation media. The bootdisk can be simply generated from the normal SuSE boot-disk. Currently CD-ROM and NFS are possible media for the automated installation. The automated installation media can be created from the normal CDs as distributed by SuSE.

Automated Boot disk

The automated boot-disk can be generated from the standard boot- disk. You simply copy the image of the standard boot-disk from the first CD onto a disk.

   dd if=/cdrom/disks/bootdisk of=/dev/fd0
The disk now contains the following files (example for SuSE Linux 6.4 may differ for newer releses):
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root     631335 Mar 31 17:29 initrd

-r-xr-xr-x   1 root     root       8920 Mar 13 07:40 ldlinux.sys

-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root     816685 Mar 13 07:40 linux

-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       2424 Mar 13 07:40 message

-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        774 Mar 13 07:40 syslinux.cfg
The file 'linux' must be a kernel, which supports the hard-disks onto which you are installing. If a SCSI system is installed, the corresponding SCSI controller has to be compiled into the kernel. If the installation is to be carried out via NFS, support for the networking cards has also to be compiled into the kernel. If you want to be able to install a wider range of hardware from the same boot-disk, support for all SCSI controllers and networking cards which could potentially be used have to be compiled into the kernel.

Since SuSE 6.3 it is also possible to perform an automated insatllation with the standard kernel. You just have to add the modules to be loaded in the 'info' file on the boodisk. More details on this are in section 4 of this manual.

The file syslinux.cfg of SuSE Linux 6.4 contains this in the second line:

append initrd=initrd rw ramdisk_size=65536 
To make this disk capable of doing an automatic installation you need to add linuxrc=auto to the second line. It should then read as follows:
append initrd=initrd rw ramdisk_size=65536 linuxrc=auto
The instructions for the automated installation are kept in the file /suse/setup/descr/info, which needs to be created on the diskette. The contents of this file are described in section 4 of this manual. This file may also be located in the root directory of the bootdisk.

Installation media for automated installation

Currently, automated installation can be carried out via NFS or from CD-ROM.

Installation via NFS

To create an automated installation environment on an NFS server, you have two choices for setting up the NFS directory. You can either place all of the source files in multiple directories which are named after the CD's from which they originated or place all of the source files into a single directory.

Here is a description of the first method:

  1. Choose a base directory (e.g. /usr/AUTO)
         mkdir /usr/AUTO 
    
         cd /usr/AUTO
    
  2. Create sub-directories for the individual CDs
         mkdir CDROM1 CDROM2 CDROM3 CDROM4 
    
  3. Copy the contents of the different SuSE-CDs to the individual CD sub-directories.
         cp -av /cdrom/. CDROM1 
    
  4. Create suse sub-directory and copy the setup-directory from CDROM1.
         mkdir suse
    
         cp -av CDROM1/suse/setup suse
    
  5. Copy the cdrom identifier files of the CDs
         cp -av CDROM?/.S* .
    
  6. Create links to the sub-directories of the individual CDs
         cd suse
    
         ln -s ../CDROM?/suse/*[0-9] .
    
         ln -s ../CDROM1/suse/images .
    
         ln -s ../CDROM1/suse/inst-sys .^L
    
Here is a description of how to create one single directory:
  1. Choose a base directory (e.g. /usr/AUTO)
         mkdir /usr/AUTO
    
         cd /usr/AUTO
    
  2. Copy the contents of the SuSE-CDs into this directory
         mount /cdrom
    
         cp -av /cdrom/* .
    
         cp /cdrom/.S* .
    
  3. Repeat the above process for each of the CD's
Now you can start a NFS-installation from the directory /usr/AUTO . Theprocess is controlled by a few files including the file /usr/AUTO/suse/setup/descr/info. This file is described in more detail in section 4.

Installation from CD-ROM

An automated installation from CD-ROM really only makes sense if you use CDs created for this purpose. Basically the complete tree of a NFS server installation can be put onto a CD, giving you your automated installation-CD.

Description of the control file /suse/setup/descr/info

This section describes the various entries in the various control files. Several of these control files may exist. There are at least two: one on the boot-disk and one on the installation medium. In terms of their format, the files are identical, although some entries only really make sense on the boot-disk (see below). If the info file contains path names which refer to the installation medium itself, the wildcard "$I:" is used. This path cannot be specified exactly, because YaST only decides at runtime where the installation medium is to be mounted during installation. This means that the same info files can be used for NFS- and CD-ROM-based automated installations.

Specific entries for the boot-disk only

The file /suse/setup/descr/info on the boot-disk contains the information which Linuxrc needs to set up language and keyboard and to gain access to the installation medium. These entries of course only make sense in the info file on the boot-disk. The individual entries have to following meaning: Keyword Language: Chooses the language of the installation. Options available: "german" and "english". Keyword Display: Determines, whether a color or monochrome monitor will be used. Options available: "color" and "mono". Keyword Keytable: Determines the keyboard table which is to be loaded. Options available: "de-lat1-nd", "us", "fr-latin1", "it". Keyword Bootmode: Determines whether the installation medium is a CD or an NFS server. Options available: "CD" and "Net". The following entries only make sense, when Bootmode has been set to "Net" They contain the information necessary for Linuxrc to access the installation medium via the network.
Keyword Netdevice:

Determines the names of the network devices.

Options available: "eth0", "tr0", "fddi0".

Keyword Server:

Determines the IP-address of the NFS-server.

Options available: the IP address of the NFS server.

Keyword Serverdir:

Contains the NFS installation directory on the NFS server. This is the directory containing the sub-directory suse . In the case of the example from section 3 the directory /usr/AUTO should be entered here.

Keyword IP:

Determines the IP-address of the machine that you are currently installing. If this keyword has not been set, the system tries to query a bootp or DHCP server for the IP address and all successive values.

Keyword Netmask:

Determines the netmask of the network.

Keyword Gateway:

If the NFS server is not located in the same sub-net as the machine to be installed, the IP-address of the gateway computer has to be entered here.

Keyword Nameserver:

This is where the Nameserver can be specified.

Keyword insmod

Since SuSE 6.3 it is possible, with the standard kernels of the SuSE distribution, to peform an automatic installation by indicating the drivers that are necessary (SCSI and network card) for the installation with the 'insmod' statement. Should the automated installation be possible on a variety of SCSI controllers or network adapters you have to provide multiple 'insmod' staements. For an installation on SCSI controllers of Adaptec and NCR the following could be provided:

          insmod aic7xxx

          insmod ncr53c8xx
Similarly, one could add support for multiple network drivers as follows:
          insmod 3c59x

          insmod tulip
Naturally, for this to work correctly, the modules have to be on the bootdisk. Because of space limitations, it is not possible to include all of the modules on a single bootdisk. We will only be concerned with the modules that are necessary for the installation. To see which modules ar available on the current disk, perform the following steps:
Example of an info file for an installation via NFS server:
Language: german            # "german" or "english"

Display: color              # "color" or "mono"

Keytable: us                # Keytable for us



Bootmode:   Net             # Needed for network installation



IP:         192.168.103.2

Netmask:    255.255.255.0

Gateway:    192.168.103.1

Server:     192.168.102.10

Serverdir:  /usr/AUTO       # From this example

Nameserver: 192.168.102.1   # as the name says

Netdevice:  eth0



insmod aic7xxx

insmod ncr53c8xx

insmod rtl8139

insmod tulip

insmod 3c59x
Additionally, of course, the info file on the boot-disk can contain all the entries of a normal info file. These entries will be described in the following sections.

Hierarchy of the various control files

As with an automated installation, several info files can be used to control the process and most entries can be in any info file. We now need to clarify which entry takes precedence in case several entries contradict each other.

The hierarchy works as follows (higher precedence first):

  1. Info-file on the bootdisk
  2. Class-specific info files
  3. Info-file on the installation medium
Should several files contain the same entry, the entry from the file is valid, that is the topmost in the above list. This means that, if necessary, all entries on the installation medium can be disabled with a suitable bootdisk.

Entries controlling partitioning and formatting

This section covers the entries in the info file which are to do with partitioning and formatting the system to be installed.
Keyword AUTO_FDISK

Determines whether automatic partitioning is to happen.

    Options available: 0, 1, 2

               0:   No automatic partitioning

               1:   Automatic partitioning will be executed. 
                 Before the partitions are entered on the disks, 
                 the partitioning plan is displayed to the user who 
                 has to explicitly confirm the partitioning. It can 
                 also be edited manually at this stage.

               2:   Automatic Partitioning is carried out without 
               user approval.
Sample entry:
    AUTO_FDISK        1
Keyword AUTO_FDISK_DISK

Contains a list of disk-device names which could be used for automatic installation. The installation will be performed on the disk corresponding to the first device name from the list. The partitioning of the disk is controlled through the files named 'part_NNNNN' in the directory suse/setup/descr on the installation medium (where NNNNN is a five-digit number, which represents the size of a hard drive in MB, more on this below). The files named 'part_NNNN' each contain partitioning plans, wich are used during automated installation. The plans specify which partitions will be created and how large they should be. The files are designed to give flexibility to the sysadmin in the event that automatic installations are being done on various sized hard drives.

The various 'part_NNNNN' files which have been created with various partitioning plans are dynamically selected during the installation. Which 'part_NNNNN' file gets used will depend on the size of the hard drive that is being partitioned. The file is selected by comparing the NNNN number with the size of the hard drive. The highest NNNNN number will be chosen that is below the size of the hard drive in Megabytes.

EXAMPLE

You are doing automatic partitioning (the variable AUTO_FDISK is set to 2) of a 2 GB hard drive. There are two files 'part_00000'and 'part_02500' in the directory suse/setup/descr. The partitioning plan in the file 'part_00000' will be used. In the above example, if you had a 4 GB hard drive, then the partitioning plan from the file 'part_02500' would have been used.

Sample entry:

    AUTO_FDISK_DISK   /dev/hda /dev/sda
Since SuSE 6.3 there is an alternate format for with a partitioning plan. This format allow more detailed specification about the partitioning and the caretd filesystems.

Example file containing a partitioning plan (old format):

    SWAP        110

    /           200

    /var        300

    /usr        800

    /home       0

The file above would create the following partitioning on a SCSI-disk (Device /dev/sda): As first partition (/dev/sda1) a swap-partition of at least 110 MB will be created. The next partition will be the root-partition (/dev/sda5) of 200 MB minimum. The next partitions will be /var (/dev/sda6) and /usr minimum. The next partitions will be /var (/dev/sda6) and /usr (/dev/sda7) with at least 300 and 800 MB each. The last partition to be created will be /home, which takes up the whole of the remaining disk space. The sizes mentioned are minimum sizes. The partitions can in fact be bigger, as only complete cylinders go into a partition. Several entries can have the keyword SWAP, so that several swap partitions can be created. If the last line lists the size 0 (as shown in the example above), the remainder of the hard drive will be allocated to this partition.

Example for a 'part_NNNNN' file using an alternate format :

    /      size=200 id=83 bs=1024 err=c maxm=20 idns=4096 respc=5 

    SWAP   size=110 id=82

    /var   size=300 id=83 bs=1024 err=c maxm=20 idns=4096 respc=5

    /usr   size=800 id=83 bs=1024 err=c maxm=20 idns=4096 respc=5

    /home  size=0 id=83 bs=1024 err=c maxm=20 idns=4096 respc=5
The above example will create the same partitioning scheme as the previous plan in the old format. By changing the values of the keywords you have more control over the various partitioning and filesystem options. The keyword are defined as follows:

Keyword size=nnnn Sample entry: size=400
Size in megabyte for the partition.

Keyword num=nn Beispiel: num=3
Number of the partition. Becareful with the use of this keyword. Make sure that you do not destroy an existing partition. You are responsible for the results.

Keyword id=xx Sample entry: id=8E
Partition Id written in Hex

bs=nnnn Sample entry: bs=4096
Blocksize of the created ext2 filesystem.

idns=nnnn Sample entry: idns=4096
Inode density for the partition. The value represents the average size of a file on the filesystem.

maxm=nnnn Sample entry: maxm=999
Maximal mount count. After the partition has been mounted nnnn times, a filesystem check will be forced.

err=[c|r|p] Sample entry: err=c
Reaction to errors in the filesystem (c=continue, r=remount-ro, p=panic)

respc=nnnn Sample entry: respc=2
Percentage of blocks reserved for root (respc and resbl may not be configured simultaneously).

resbl=nnnn Sample entry: resbl=10000
Number of blocks reserved for root (respc and resbl may not be configured simultaneously).

fsys=reiser Sample entry: fsys=reiser
The created filesystem is not ext2. Instead a reiser filesystem is created (available since SuSE 6.4). For a reiser filesystem the keywords bs, idns, maxm, err, respc und resbl are ignored.

Keyword FSTAB_SEARCH

Contains a list of partitions. All specified partitions are searched for the file /etc/fstab. If it is found on one of the partitions listed, partitioning does not happen automatically, but the contents of /etc/fstab will be read and the installation takes place according to the partitioning plan in this file. If you use this entry in combination with the following keyword (FSTAB_FORMAT) you determine that during automated installation partitions relevant to the system (such as /var /usr) will be installed from scratch, where as other partitions which are not relevant to the system (e.g. /home /space) are not effected.

Sample entry:

    FSTAB_SEARCH      /dev/sda1 /dev/hda1
Keyword FSTAB_FORMAT

Contains the mount points of the partitions which are regarded as relevant to the system. This entry really only makes sense in combination with the previous entry (FSTAB_SEARCH). It includes the mount points of those partitions which during automated installation have to be re-initialized after an existing file /etc/fstab has been read. All partitions whose mount points are not listed remain untouched during such an installation.

Sample entry:

    FSTAB_FORMAT      / /var /usr
Keyword AUTO_FDISK_TABLE

This entry allows you to assign a specific partitioning file to a particular hard-disk. The entry contains the keyword, the device name of a hard-disk and the path name to the file containing the partitoning plan. Within this path name the wildcard "$I:" stands for the path to the medium for installation. Several entries with the keyword AUTO_FDISK_TABLE may exist. If they refer to the same disk, the partitioning file will be handled according to the hierarchy explained in section 4.2. If the entries refer to different disks, the entries from all partitioning files are taken together and several disks used for installation. It is then up to the user to make sure that these partitioning files fit into a valid filesystem hierarchy. This means that there has to be an entry for the root file system and that no mount point may be assigned several times. Entries refering to hard-disks without write access will be ignored. If at least one AUTO_FDISK_TABLE entry with a writeable hard-disk is found, this is used for partitioning and the entries in AUTO_FDISK_DISK will be ignored.

Sample entry:

    AUTO_FDISK_TABLE   /dev/sdb $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/part_test

General configuration options

Keyword FAST_INSTALL

The entry serves to centrally disable all features of an automated installation. If this has be done a manual installation of the SuSE distribution can be executed from this installation medium.

Options available: 0, 1, 2

               0:   No automated installation.

               1:   The user is asked to confirm if the automated 
                 installation should be carried out.

               2:   Peform always an automated installation.
Sample entry:
    FAST_INSTALL      2
Keyword AUTO_LILO

This entry determines whether Lilo-configuration is to happen automatically. Lilo-entries called linux or linux.old , which refer to the kernels /boot/vmlinuz or /boot/vmlinuz.old , are assigned automatically. If a DOS-partition is present, this is also entered into Lilo.

Options available: 0, 1, 2

               0:   No automatic Lilo-configuration

               1:   At the end of the automatic Lilo-
                 configuration, Lilo-output is displayed to the 
                 user. In case of problems, the user can repeat the 
                 Lilo-configuration manually.

               2:   Automatic Lilo-configuration as standard. 
                 Lilo-output is stored under /var/adm/inst-
                 log/lilo.inst on the installed system.

Sample entry:
PassMaxLen     AUTO_LILO        2
Keyword LILO_DOS_NAME

The automatic Lilo-configuration creates an entry for booting a DOS-partition, if this should be present on the system. This entry determines the Lilo-name for booting the DOS-partition in the Lilo-configuration.

Sample entry:

    LILO_DOS_NAME     win98
Keyword AUTO_NET

If networking is to be installed, the network configuration settings (netdevice, IP-address, net mask, gateway) may automatically be adopted for the system that is being installed.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   No automatic network configuration

               1:   Network data is automatically configured for 
                 the system during installation.
Sample entry:
    AUTO_NET     1
Keyword AUTO_NAME

If an installation is carried out via bootp- or DHCP-server and if this server supplies a nameserver, the machine name specified by the nameserver can automatically be adopted for the system that is being installed.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Machine name is not being adopted.

               1:   The machine name, that was determined by the 
                 nameserver for the IP address, is being adopted.
Sample entry:
    AUTO_NAME    1
Keyword AUTO_NAMESERVER

If an installation is carried out via bootp- or DHCP-Server and if this server also supplies a nameserver, this nameserver can automatically be adopted for the system that is being installed.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Nameserver is not adopted.

               1:   Nameserver is adopted for the system being 
                 installed.
Sample entry:
    AUTO_NAMSERVER    1
Keyword AUTO_SERVICES

Determines whether the user will be queried which network services are to be available, or not.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Query concerning network services to be 
               started.

               1:   Do not query concerning network services to be 
                 started.
Sample entry:
    AUTO_SERVICES     1
Keyword AUTO_INSTALL

This entry specifies the selection file that is to be used for automatic installation. The selection file contains the names of all packages on the SuSE distribution that are being installed. A path for the selection file can be entered. Within this path the string "$I:" stands for the path to the installation medium.

NOTE: It is best to copy the format of the existing selection files. One example is the Minimal.sel which is located on CD1 in /suse/setup/descr/ directory. The same applies for the ADD_INSTALL variable described below.

Sample entry:

    AUTO_INSTALL      $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/AUTO.sel
Keyword ADD_INSTALL

With this entry additional selection files can be installed. Several entries containing the keyword ADD_INSTALL may be present. All selection files will be installed. In the context of class-specific installation this entry opens up the possibility of installing different sets of packages on certain classes of machines.

Sample entry:

    ADD_INSTALL       $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/Tex.sel
Keyword INSTALL_WAIT

Once the packages have been installed, the user can check the installation logs. This entry serves to suppress the wait for user input. Installation logs are stored in /var/adm/inst-log

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Do not wait for user input after package 
                 installation.

               1:   Wait for user input after package 
               installation.
Sample entry:
    INSTALL_WAIT      0
Keyword AUTO_KERNEL

Contains the name of the kernel to be installed. Sonce SuSE 6.4 you can specify either a kernel RPM or the name of a self compiled kernel. The selfcompiled kernel has to be present on the installation medium under suse/images/<Kernelname>.ikr . at least the appropriate SCSI support hast to be compiled into the kernel, if the installations happens on a SCSI system. The old method of installing self compiled kernels is still supported. Note that since 6.4 the SuSE CDs only contain the kernel in RPM format.

Sample entry:

    AUTO_KERNEL       k_deflt.rpm
               SuSE default kernel RPM in suse/images

    AUTO_KERNEL       mykernel
               Selfcompiled kernel in  suse/images/mykernel.ikr
Keyword CDROM_DEVICE

If the installation happens via NFS, this is where the device name for the CD-ROM-drive can be specified.

Sample entry:

    CDROM_DEVICE      /dev/scd0
Keyword NO_ASK_SWAP

This entry controls whether the question concerning to use of a swap partition will be asked.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Question concerning use of swap-partition will 
               be asked.

               1:   Question concerning use of swap-partition will 
                 not be asked.
Sample entry:
    NO_ASK_SWAP       1
Keyword END_MESSAGE

This entry controls whether the user will be asked at the end of the installation whether he wants to boot the system he has just installed.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   System will be booted automatically.

               1:   The user will be asked whether the system 
                 should be booted now.
Sample entry:
    END_MESSAGE       0
Keyword END_STARTUP

This entry determines whether or not the message stating that the system is now installed appears at the end of the first start-up.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   Message is not displayed.

               1:   Message is displayed.
Sample entry:
    END_STARTUP       0
Keyword CHECK_DEPENDENCY

This entry controls whether the installation should be interrupted, while the automatic dependency check of the packages installed detects unresolved dependencies.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   No interruption in case of unresolved 
               dependencies.

               1:   Interruption in case of unresolved 
                 dependencies.
Sample entry:
    CHECK_DEPENDENCY       0
Keyword NEVER_STOP

Determines that all queries will be answered with the default- value. This prevents windows waiting for user input from being displayed during automatic installation in case of problems. When this entry is set to '1' the installation will run smoothly and without interruption. It cannot be guaranteed however that a system installed in this way is usable.

Options available: 0, 1

               0:   In case of unexpected problems the user will 
               be queried.

               1:   The user is never queried. Installation will 
                 run through.
Sample entry:
    NEVER_STOP   0
Keyword RC_CONFIG_0

These entries can determine the contents of the file /etc/rc.config. Following the keyword RC_CONFIG_0 the entries contain the name of the entry in /etc/rc.config. The rest of the line is taken up by the value set for this name in /etc/rc.config. The info-files read can contain any number of such entries. They are all incorporated into /etc/rc.config. If an entry with the same variable name is present several times in /etc/rc.config, the value for this variable is determined according to the rules of hierarchy in section 4.2.Note that you can also use this variable to configure a variable that will be in a file located in /etc/rc.config.d/

Sample entry:

    RC_CONFIG_0      START_GPM  yes
Keyword RC_CONFIG_1

Entries in /etc/rc.config, which can only be incorporated once the packages from the additional CDs have been installed. This entry only makes sense when an automatic installation from several CD-ROMs takes place. In the case of an installation via NFS or from a single CD, RC_CONFIG_1 is functionally equivalent to RC_CONFIG_0 and should therefore not be used.

Sample entry:

    RC_CONFIG_1       DBROOT  /opt/adabas
Apart from the entries for automatic installation the info-file on the installation medium also contains entries which describe the system to be installed itself. They are primarily used and analysed when a system is updated using YaST. These entries only exist in the info-file on the installation medium and should not be edited.

This refers to the following entries:

     ELF

     MIN_YAST_VERSION

     DIST_STRING

     DIST_IDENT

     MIN_DIST_VERSION 

     HAS_LIVE_CD

Integration of customised scripts and packages

During an automated installation packages can be installed which are not part of the SuSE Linux distribution. The customer can choose these packages according to his own needs and simply integrate them into the automatic installation. It is also possible to execute customized scripts at any point during the installation.

There are three points during the installation which can be used for customized scripts and packages:

  1. Before the installation of the first package from the SuSE distribution. These are the entries marked with the keywords PRE_INSTALL or PRE_SCRIPT in the info-file.
  2. After the installation of all packages on the SuSE distribution, which can be installed without a change of media. During an installation from CD-ROM this corresponds to all packages on the first CD. These are the entries marked with the keywords POST_INSTALL or POST_SCRIPT in the info- file.
  3. After the installation of the last package on the SuSE distribution. These are the entries marked with the keywords LAST_INSTALL or LAST_SCRIPT in the info-file. These entries only make sense when an automatic installation from several CD-ROMs is taking place. If the installation happens via NFS or from a single CD-ROM, LAST is functionally equivalent with POST and should therefore not be used.
The packages should be available in RPM-format. For reasons of backward compatibility tgz-archives can also be installed. As these are not present in the RPM-database however we do not recommend this.

At all three points any number of scripts can be started. As their first parameter the scripts contain the directory where they are located. This is also where you put additional files which are to be copied into the distribution. The second parameter to be passed on is PRE, POST or LAST, depending on when the script was called. The scripts are called up with "sh -x"and all output is directed into /var/adm/inst-log/<Scriptname>.log .

When you are creating your scripts, it is important to remember that the script will not understand the variable $I (it represents the directory on the installation medium), which is used in the info file (described above). When you specify a directory on the installation medium from within a script, you will have to use the full path, which will start with /var/adm/mount/suse. /var/adm/mount is the directory under which the installation medium is mounted during the installation. Additionally the path to the script is provided as first parameter of the script, so every install script can use $1 to access the directory where the script itself is located.

Keyword PRE_INSTALL

Insert the package specified into the list of packages which are to be installed before all packages of the SuSE distribution.

Sample entry:

    PRE_INSTALL  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/preinst.rpm
Keyword POST_INSTALL

Inserts the package specified into the list of packages which are to be installed after all the packages in the SuSE distribution which can be installed without change of media.

Sample entry:

    POST_INSTALL  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/postinst.rpm
Keyword LAST_INSTALL

Inserts the package specified into the list of packages which are to be installed after all packages in the SuSE distribution. This entry only makes sense during an automated installation form several CD-ROMs. If the installation happens via NFS or from a single CD-ROM, LAST_INSTALL is functionally equivalent with POST_INSTALL and should therefore not be used.

Sample entry:

    LAST_INSTALL  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/lastinst.rpm
Keyword PRE_SCRIPT

Incorporates the script specified into the list of scripts, which are to be executed before the first package from the SuSE distribution is installed.

Sample entry:

    PRE_SCRIPT  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/scripts/prepare
Keyword POST_SCRIPT

Incorporates the script specified into the list of scripts that are to be executed after all the packages from the SuSE distribution that are installable without change of media have been installed.

Sample entry:

    POST_SCRIPT  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/scripts/add_user
Keyword LAST_SCRIPT

Inserts the script specified into the list of scripts which are to be executed after all the packages from the SuSE distribution have been installed. This entry only makes sense when an automated installation from several CD-ROMs is taking place. During an installation via NFS or from a single CD-ROM LAST_SCRIPT is functionally equivalent with POST_SCRIPT and should therefore not be used.

Sample entry:

    LAST_SCRIPT  $I:/suse/ADD_FILES/scripts/last

Class-specific installation

It is possible to determine classes of machines for installation and to specifiy deviations from or additions to the standard installation for these classes. For each of these groups an additional info-file can be specified which contains different settings. These settings will overwrite or supplement the entries in the central info-file. The prefix info. is added to the name specified in the class definition. If tex is specified as the name of the supplementing info file in the class definition, the file info.tex from the directory suse/setup/descr on the installation medium is read.

To determine the membership in a class of machines a list of machine names and / or IP-addresses is supplied. For machine names '*' can be used as a wildcard, for IP-addresses ranges can be specified. Therefore specifications such as *.subnet.company.de as well as 192.168.102.20-40 are both possible. In the list several comma-separated areas can be strung together.

A machine can belong to several classes. In this case the info- files of the various classes are read one after to other. The definition of machine classes really only makes sense if the IP- addresses are assigned automatically during an installation via a bootp or DHCP server.

Sample entry:

    CLASS    192.168.102.1-20,192.168.103.100-110   tex

    CLASS    *.subnet.company.de                    x11

Keywords: AUTOMATIC, INSTALLATION, YAST1

SDB-cg_autoinstall, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 06. Feb 2001
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 23. Apr 2002 by snbarth (sdb_gen 1.40.0)