Stateless Linux How To:

Stateless Linux sounds like a great idea for those of us that have many systems with similar configurations to manage. If you have never heard of the idea RTFM. I have stateless linux almost working here at my house. Here are the steps that I followed thus far.

on server system:
yum -y install cobbler
configure cobbler to manage dhcpd and start it
download Fedora 9 DVD ISO
sha1sum the iso to make sure the checksums match
mount the iso somewhere with the -o loop option eg. mount -o loop Fedora9.iso /media
import the distro into cobbler eg. cobbler import –mirror=/media/ –name=Fedora9
cp /sbin/lspci to /usr/sbin/lspci (if you skip this anaconda fails later under fedora 9)
mkdir -p /export/NFSroots/F9/
install os image into that directory eg. anaconda –headless -r /export/NFSroots/F9/ -m http://black/cobbler/ks_mirror/Fedora9/ –kickstart /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts/f9base.ks
chroot into newly created environment
update environment (yum -y update)
create initrd
edit /etc/sysconfig/readonly-root
exit chroot
create cobbler distro
create cobbler profile
create cobbler system

on client system:
boot from lan.