I have an ancient server with an ancient distro and ancient hardware.
1. Dell PowerEdge 2450
a. CD drive
b. No USB boot capability
2. Currently on CentOS6 (I *said* ancient)
3. I want to reformat the RAID SCSI disks while I'm at this (there are critical errors but it still works - for now)
4. I have hardware internet connectivity (yes, they had the internet back in the 2000's)
How do I do this for Rocky 9?
1. Apparently even the boot ISOs won't fit in 700M - much less anything else
2. Looking for ways of shoehorning just what I need for a command-line internet install
3. (I don't need to save anything - I'll back up the data I need and restore it after 'upgrade')
4. The last time I did this, multiple-CD ISOs existed (it's been a while)
From what Iāve duck-duck-goāed so far:
1. I saw https://git.resf.org/sig_core/kickstarts/src/branch/r9 - which seemed to focus on creating and then generative live disks - which is not my end goal but may be a necessary intermediary step?
2. There's also https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/best-way-to-create-a-custom-rocky-linux-iso-to-be-used-in-on-premise-installations/7916, which does talk about a couple live generators and kickstart files.
3. This looks like something to pay attention to - but: Will these generated ISOs fit on a CD? If not, what mods do I need to make to make that possible (I only need the ability to configure ip address/gateway/etc and the device destination for the actual install - the newly re-formatted drives)? In other words, does anybody have to have a pointer to that handy list of what this kickstarter file looks like?
Iām presuming the population count of people in my situation is dwindling - but not zero, and wonāt be zero for quite a while.
Btw: I do have other instances available such as Ubuntu via WSL, another box with CentOS6 on it (that will also get redone), and even a Raspberry Pi with updated RaspberryOS. And of course, docker. Which means āddā is accessible. I even have an a functioning CD-ROM-only burner (did I mention Iām ancient).
Yeah, Iām trying to bring my OS Iām using to the year 2024 while fixing drive formats, with absolutely zero hardware budget but with relics that I believe I can leverage. Suggestions on where to start?
So that means RHEL/alma is also out of the question? Am I migrating to Ubuntu/Debian? Something else? Maybe an older version of Rocky??? (itās ālater than current stateā)
ps: Once I get to select what might be possible, I still have the issue of creating an .iso that will fit on a CD - and wonāt know that until going through the selectedās doc. (after jlehtone: looks like Iām reading up on what 8.5 .iso sizes are - and if boot is still too large, knowledge of what I can cut in the kickstarter to get it down to size)
So thereās still the open question of: Is there an install .iso that is less than 750m that would fit on a CD (the only option I have from a BIOS)?
Iād take a solution that would boot up, download an .iso with an option to re-install another .iso over it.
If not, what would need to be done to create one (is it just the right kickstarter files)? Note: I do now how to read, given starter pointers. Yeah, I get that this would be separate from keeping in sync with RH. But as mentioned before, I bet Iām not the only one whoās old with no hardware replacement budget. Depending on the effort and skillsets involved, I would participate in such an effort or if itās feasible, just do it.
Yep, at best they can only run Rocky 8 though since the CPU they have isnāt supported in Rocky 9, although no idea what the performance will be like. For light stuff should be OK though like a web server or something not too intense.
Iād be more inclined to netboot it with Debian as their netboot CD is real small and just use Debian instead.
Yup. I was looking at small distros such as Puppy Linux, etc. Iāve been using this box lightweight for decades and was looking to continue the streak. I just checked BIOS - this version will only let me boot off of a CD, floppy, or hard disk. Thatās it - No USB (XPE). And while I have a recent external USB DVD burner, thatās useless here.
In the meantime, I discovered another box with CentOS6 on it. This one is slightly newer - new enough to have a DVD on it along with booting USB (and XPE) capability. So it looks like I can put RockyLinux 8 on it (it has x86_64-v1 - so not that much newer).
Thanks for the help and pointers. Obviously I havenāt kept up in years and the landscape has slightly changed. Hopefully I got it from here.
You can boot it with something now. You have (old) bootloader there? You could copy vmlinuz and initrd.img from the (too big) Rocky ISO into the /boot on the HDD and add an entry for them into bootloader. (These two files are about 100 MB together.)
If there are drivers for the drive controller and the network card, then you could boot to installer āfrom the HDDā and fetch packages from online repos. Naturally, the installation will (probably) wipe the disk, but by that time kernel and installer are in RAM. I.e. should be ok. (If something goes wrong, then reverting back for next attempt will be āinterestingā.)
Interesting: Since itās still running CentOS6, yes I have bootloader.
And if something goes wrong, can I revert from the Debian net disk for vmlinuz and initrd.img, then redo from the Rocky ISO vmlinuz/initrd.rd if needed, and then restart from online repos? If so, that should be the workaround should it be needed.
There you know more than I do. I have barely seen other distros (than RH family).
If you have Debian (CentOS 6, etc) disk that you can boot with, mount existing filesystems and/or create some (or make minimal install), etc, then that is the recovery option.
Another step is to try boot the Rocky 8 installer. If it does not boot, or does not have support for vital hardware, then is no need for recovery either ā the installer does not change the system before you choose the āstartā.