Linux application

• SRPMs/RPMs for the CMS EVM Test Bench
• Step-by-step guide of kickstart

SRPMs/RPMs for the CMS EVM Test Bench

• Kernel 2.4.20-24 w/ TRACE

  kernel for FermiLinux 7.3 with TRACE V2.9, a small-overhead message logging facility. The 'jiffy' was also changed from 100 to 1024 for the binary packages.

  • kernel-2.4.20-24i.7.src.rpm
  • kernel-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  • kernel-smp-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  • kernel-bigmem-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  • kernel-source-2.4.20-24i.7.i386.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.4.20-24i.7.i386.rpm
  MD5 sums;

  0de83accaacd795248ae2ab398b45878  kernel-2.4.20-24i.7.src.rpm
  d29a27fa0024f3eb6b3efb71043bb6fa  kernel-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  ab9975daa0fa09d5256447a96147d994  kernel-smp-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  b8fe47f1ca0f507dc056119d53943aa2  kernel-bigmem-2.4.20-24i.7.i686.rpm
  4bc1437be52e0875e44fe0f5faaf9297  kernel-source-2.4.20-24i.7.i386.rpm
  c2d533986bb166ac8fb8f0ffca26ba09  kernel-doc-2.4.20-24i.7.i386.rpm
  	

  You can rebuild the binary RPMs from the source RPM. The command line is like this.

  rpmbuild -ba --target i686 --with fermitrace --with smalljiffy SPECS/kernel-2.4.spec
  	

Step-by-step guide of the kickstart for Fermi Linux 7.1.1

• Get bootnet.img from the Fermi Linux server.
• Prepare configuration files, syslinux.cfg and ks.cfg.

  The kickstart configuration file, ks.cfg, is modified from the original RedHat sample, sample.ks. Their kickstart document says it is included in the distribution. I found it somewhere on the Web. Options are explained in a RedHat document.

  You have to specify the root password in ks.cfg. I was not comfortable writing plain text password and used encrypted one with the --iscrypted option. A simple C program can generate the encrypted password string. (I don't know how to use MD5 encryption, sorry.) The code can be used as following. You give a password and a two characters 'salt'.

  	    % cc encrypt.c -lcrypt
  	    % ./a.out
  	    your_pass_word aB<Return>
  	    aBXXXXXXXXXXX
  	    

  In the %packages section of ks.cfg, you can either specify individual RPM files or groups of RPM files. A file in the Fermi server gives a list of pre-defined 'package's.
• Create a modified boot image for a kickstart.

  	    % cp bootnet.img ks.img
  	    % sudo mount ks.img /mnt -t msdos -o loop
  	    % sudo cp syslinux.cfg ks.cfg /mnt/
  	    % sudo umount /mnt
  	    

• Now, you copy ks.img into a floppy disk and use it for a kickstart!

• The sample ks.cfg I showed above is for DHCP boot. If you want static IP address, change the network option. I have a simple script to generate static IP boot images for a list of machines.

  	    % cat hosts.list
  	    192.168.7.1	foo.fnal.gov
  	    192.168.7.2	bar.fnal.gov
  	    % sudo ls # just to get a privilege
  	    % ./staticip < hosts.list
  	    % ls
  	    ...
  	    ks.cfg.foo
  	    ks.cfg.bar
  	    ...
  	    ks.img.foo
  	    ks.img.bar
  	    ...
  	    

• Initial version, 2001 Dec. 03, 16:25:50 CST
• Kerberos seems working, 2002 Jul. 15, 15:38:58 CDT