Config a laptop network

[Andrew Mathews]

Alan Jackson wrote:
> Here's a sys-admin question for you experts.
> 
> A fellow at work has 10 Linux laptops he uses for portable training classes
> for Geophysical software. Right now he and a clerk are configuring and
> loading each one manually, one at a time. What would be the recommended
> simple, low-cost solution to both network them and then to image them
> down the wire? We'd like them all to be identical.
> 

You didn't mention which distro, but one good method is Red Hat's 
Kickstart tool. You simply have a bootable floppy disk with an 
anaconda-ks.cfg file which specifies the nfs server, packages, 
partitioning, and every other configuration requirement needed to build 
a complete system across the wire. Your networking options are quite 
variable, from docking station ethernet, to pcmcia network card, to 
wireless. Just depends on what is already owned, or can be afforded.
<ot>
I'd recommend wireless if your existing facilities are not cabled well. 
The Lucent Orinoco cards can be quite inexpensive. I'm looking forward 
to 802.11a supported cards for linux to achieve the (theoretical) 54Mbps 
speeds.
</ot>
For example, a system built by one of my fellow admins today took a 
total of 15 minutes to go from blank disks to a fully functional system 
across a 10Mbps cat5 network. We have 45 new systems to build in the 
next 2 months and it's going to save us a vast amount of time this way.
-- 
Andrew Mathews
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