trying to convert scripted install iso to pxe install but fails trying to mount acd0

highurtenflurst

highurtenflurst

I am new to this but hoping someone will take the time to help point me in the right direction.

I have a FreeBSD ISO that someone else put together as a scripted install. It works fine if I burn a DVD. But I would like to install it over the network as part of a PXE menu. First I converted the ISO to a gunzipped IMG file but I actually think that may have been unneccessary at this time as I can get to the same point by loading the ISO directly as the initrd file. It loads to the main screen and starts to boot but then errors trying to mount the cdrom to /dist.

Is there an easy way to tell it that everything it needs is in the ramdisk? Or am I better off trying to offload the main files to be pulled down separately by tftp?
 
What version of FreeBSD, and which PXE loader? pxelinux can load an ISO image directly, which works with some versions of FreeBSD.
 
Sorry for the delayed reply. I got busy with other projects but have now circled back to this one.

FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE along with pxelinux 4.05 I believe.

As I mentioned, I can boot the ISO directly but I am retty sure what it is failing on is when it gets to the point that it needs the rest of the distribution and it is expecting to find them on a physically mounted CD/DVD when they are now loaded into the RAM drive.
 
I have tried append iso raw and it stops in the same spot with the same error. I will keep reading and hoping that someone has the answer. We can still just use the DVD to load but I prefer to keep the images on the network and deploy from there whenever possible.
 
There was a message here not too long ago with details about how the FreeBSD image could not be loaded until the kernel was rebuilt. It was just that the image was too large. The mfsBSD page even talks about limits on size. So try the mfsBSD image as a test. If it works, then the problem is the size of the image, and rebuilding the kernel in your custom image with larger settings is the next step.
 
I could mention that the specific error I get is:

Code: 
Error mounting /dev/acd0 on /dist: Input/Output error (5)
I was just hoping that someone knew how the ISO could be edited so that when it gets to this point it looks at the information that is already loaded in the ramdisk instead of trying to mount the DVD drive.
 
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