I've been looking around but figured I would ask here to see if anyone has ever been faced with my current situation:

I have a box I want to throw some flavor of linux onto but I don't have a keyboard, mouse or monitor to do so. I need a way to drop a disc into the CD drive and install itself or at least allow for an option to VNC or shell into the install to make any edits or changes necessary.

Can anyone recommend any reading on the topic or any experience on trying this?

12/6/2010 12:57:05 PM

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/UnattendedCD


here's an idea for something that's even more unattended.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=883017

Quote :

"- install virtualbox - install ubuntu on a virtual machine in virtual box - configure it the way you want it & add install sshd to have ssh access - install bootcd - use bootcdwrite to create an image for the system you just configured - write the image to a disk and boot the laptop - use the image to boot the laptop - ssh into the system running on the laptop - use bootcd2disk to write the system from the cd to the hdd on the laptop( you may have to partition first )"

[Edited on December 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM. Reason : the first link wants a keyboard.]

[Edited on December 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM. Reason : kk]

12/6/2010 1:04:40 PM

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Installation_Guide/sn-automating-installation.html

there's also a boot param you can pass to enable a VNC server, IIRC.

12/6/2010 4:04:41 PM