User:Tonyr/Journal/Nov07

07Nov07

Net install with preseed
Vagrant reworked the ppc net boot/install directories. I added a preseed.cfg file to initrd.img, replaced the existing copy, and tried a net install with promising results. Some settings still asked for user response:

• oem login name
• password re-enter
• partition scheme Guided
• confirm disk to partition
• country with mirror
• mirror url

The hostname is assigned by the dhcp server. Comments in the example preseed file note that the dhcp assigned name will take precedence. If there is no way to change this behavior, the hostname can be changed from the System->Preferences menu after installation. This might be incorporated into a post-install script.

12Nov07

Net install with preseed
I modified preseed.cfg to take care of the login name, password re-enter, and the partitioning scheme. The other items that ask for user response are resisting solution. I found a related foruim post that has some suggestions that sound promising, but the target platforms were x86, so they might not work for powerpc: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=434405

There are some other example preseed.cfg files out there along with some other info, having varying degrees of applicability:

• http://blogs.cae.tntech.edu/mwr/2007/04/17/unattended-debian-installations-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-preseedcfg/
• http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/example-preseed.txt
• http://dotfiles.org/~voyeg3r/preseed.cfg
• http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-unattended-ubuntu-network-install-preseed-p5
• http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed

eMac woes
eMacs have a history of having bad capacitors. There is plenty info about it out there in netland. Some of the main symptoms are freeze-ups and failure to start up at all. A lesser symptom is choppy video performance during playback of video files. Even if an eMac appears to work, the presence of failed capacitors will eventually lead to poor machine behavior, if not complete failure. There is nothing that can be done about this short of replacing the logic board or replacing the individual capacitors. Neither of those solutions is feasible here at FG. One post I read indicated that some of the capacitors involved may only be stressed during video playback. If I can find that reference again I'll add it in here.

I'm mentioning it here because there are several eMacs in storage or in process. The one that was being prepped last Saturday was exhibiting the choppy video playback symptom. Another on that arrived on Saturday seemed to work but showed caps with bulging tops. Both of these should be recycled after harvesting the drives and memory. In future, any eMacs with blown caps should be harvested and recycled. These affected machines should be used only internally at FG, if at all.