[OT] automated remote install of Linux from WinNT4

[OT] automated remote install of Linux from WinNT4

[Torrey Hoffman]

Apologies for the off topic post. I have searched Google, Freshmeat 
and Sourceforge without success, and this is where the smart people 
are...

I need to do an automated, remote installation of Linux on a large 
number of networked computers running Windows NT 4.0.  I can place 
an executable on each of these computers and run it with Admin 
privileges.  These computers are using an NTFS file system and have
unpartitioned space available.

So, I need a Windows NT program that can create a bootable Linux 
partition, and then reboot into Linux from that partition.

Does anyone know of anything like that?  

If nothing like this exists, I will have to write it in the next
month or two.

My hypothetical plan is to (1) port a recent LILO or GRUB to 
Windows, and then (2) write a Windows NT program that creates a 
small FAT32 partition, formats it, mounts it, and copies in the
kernel, modules, init, and a minimal set of essential files.  

It would then run the Windows NT port of LILO/GRUB to set up the 
MBR to boot Linux from the new partition.  

The minimal Linux install would bootstrap the rest of the Linux 
install over the network.

Thanks for any advice or hints anyone can provide...

Torrey Hoffman
torrey.hoffman@myrio.com

Re: [OT] automated remote install of Linux from WinNT4

[mirabilos]

I'd rather create a minimal partition with no (but != &h80) type,
write kind of lilo+kernel+initrd into it and execute that by let
it being called from either the MBR or NTLDR, where you can take
the images' bootsector as a file.
I start lilo from NTLDR 5 by using kind of chaining, which moves
its own code and then loads the MBR of the linux boot partition.
It's so simple that I wrote it in debug. You might wish to use it
when the install's finished.
-mirabilos
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