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Install any ISO on KVM when host does not support remote or custom ISOs?
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Install any ISO on KVM when host does not support remote or custom ISOs?

albuckalbuck Member
edited November 2019 in Help

I have bought a string of KVM VPSes lately, mainly to have the flexibility to run containerized apps. On an old thread here, I found this procedure:

  1. Power-On server
  2. Attach to VNC
  3. Hit CTRL-B at gPXE BIOS prompt for command line
  4. Enter:
    dhcp net0
    kernel http://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.kpxe
    boot

Then I had a huge choice of images from netboot.xyz to install on my VPS.

Unfortunately, yesterday I bought another KVM VPS from a new (to me) vendor, and the VNC window responds to Ctrl-Alt-Del without any delay, tries to boot from disk, and then CD-ROM, and freezes at a "boot:" prompt. Via support ticket, the vendor informed me they do not support remote installs.

Is this common for KVM vendors? I guess the other vendors did have wording on their offers about "run any OS", so I started to take that for granted. I can still run docker with one of their stock ISOs, but this seems to neuter the main advantage of KVM.

The vendor offers a "System Rescue" choice as a CD-ROM boot image option. Is this enough to install a remote image of my choice?

Thanked by 1o_be_one

Comments

  • aRNoLDaRNoLD Member
    edited November 2019

    wget -N --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/veip007/dd/master/dd-od.sh && chmod +x dd-od.sh && ./dd-od.sh
    

    maybe, this script will do the job?
    reference: https://www.hostloc.com/thread-583956-1-1.html

    Thanked by 2davi Trav
  • @albuck said: Is this common for KVM vendors? I guess the other vendors did have wording on their offers about "run any OS", so I started to take that for granted. I can still run docker with one of their stock ISOs, but this seems to neuter the main advantage of KVM.

    My personal policy is that if a KVM provider says no to custom ISOs, then most likely, I won't be their customer (unless I have a good reason to be their customer despite their rejection of custom ISOs)

    Thanked by 1AlwaysSkint
  • @aRNoLD said:

    wget -N --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/veip007/dd/master/dd-od.sh && chmod +x dd-od.sh && ./dd-od.sh
    

    maybe, this script will do the job?
    reference: https://www.hostloc.com/thread-583956-1-1.html

    It works for me and is there any possibility to get English version of windows os

  • LunaLuna Member
    edited November 2019

    If you have vnc...
    You need a Debian/Ubuntu,and use apt to install grml-rescueboot(support UEFI and large iso)/grub-imageboot.
    Then copy your iso file to /boot/grml or /boot/images.
    Last,run update-grub.
    Grub will find your iso.
    Reboot, and choose your iso in grub menu.
    (Please care that your memory size must larger than iso file,so you ought to use netboot/minimal iso to install)

    Thanked by 1TimboJones
  • Thanks for the suggestions! I was able to smoothly install via iPXE using the script in this post:

    http://www.panticz.de/Install-GRUB-iPXE-netboot

    It edits the GRUB configuration to include an iPXE boot image. I substituted the .lkrn from openboot.xyz:

    https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.lkrn

    Everything worked normally during the iPXE based install, and the VPS rebooted normally into the new OS. Alas, there is still one issue. After the remote installation, the VNC console will not boot to a login prompt. It hangs with one line on the console:

    /dev/vda1: clean, XXXXX files, XXXX/XXXXX blocks

    The VNC console is hung and responds to no input, except Ctrl-Alt-Del, which reboots the VPS. Without the out of band VNC console for troubleshooting, I can't put anything important on the VPS with this installation mechanism. Still looking into this problem.

  • I switched from Ubuntu 18.04 to Debian 10, and VNC works fine after install. Might be something with the firstboot script in Ubuntu.

  • @albuck said:
    Thanks for the suggestions! I was able to smoothly install via iPXE using the script in this post:

    http://www.panticz.de/Install-GRUB-iPXE-netboot

    It edits the GRUB configuration to include an iPXE boot image. I substituted the .lkrn from openboot.xyz:

    https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz.lkrn

    Everything worked normally during the iPXE based install, and the VPS rebooted normally into the new OS. Alas, there is still one issue. After the remote installation, the VNC console will not boot to a login prompt. It hangs with one line on the console:

    /dev/vda1: clean, XXXXX files, XXXX/XXXXX blocks

    The VNC console is hung and responds to no input, except Ctrl-Alt-Del, which reboots the VPS. Without the out of band VNC console for troubleshooting, I can't put anything important on the VPS with this installation mechanism. Still looking into this problem.

    I forget which provider, but I wrote to support and they said that's expected. They said to SSH in and reboot, or just ctrl+alt+del.

  • The VNC hang was rather persistent. It survived multiple reboots via SSH, and multiple clicking on Ctrl-Alt-Del in VNC.

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