Cannot install multiple-CD OS? CentOS 5.2

[mdinaz]

Running Solaris 10 host, Virtual Box 2.1.4 - trying to install CentOS 5.2, which has multiple CD images. When requiring the 2nd CD, the entire system locks up, both VB and Solaris. On one try it did come up with a message box saying "insert 2nd disc", but could not unmount previous disk nor would it accept the second disk. On other tries it simply locked everything up, requiring a complete reboot and having to repeat the entire process. Does anyone know a work around or the correct way to proceed to the second disk? This system does not have a network connection so I cannot download any images to it - can only use CD's to install.

mc

[TerryE]

Unmount the CD. Use the VM Devices menu to disconnect the Virtual CD. Swap the CD. Use the VM Devices menu to reconnect the Virtual CD. Mount the CD.

[mdinaz]

The system (host and VB) was completely locked up, so I left it and went home. This morning I was able to access the terminal again, and unmounted the CD in the host, then accessed the Devices and unmounted the virtual CD, mounted the next virtual CD, and the system started copying files. I was not able to mount the CD in the host, it couldn't find the drive or mount point. It copied the next several packages off the 2nd CD and is currently locked up again while installing the boot loader (both host and VB are locked up). I'll leave it again for a while and see if it times out and continues on.

[aribi]

How about making iso images first, and then installing from these? That way you will circumvent possible showstoppers as volume management et al. To make an iso image you can simply dd the raw cd-device to a file. Lookup the devicename (c0t6d0 in example) with iostat and then copy (with 1 Mb blocks in example) its contents:

Code: Select all

 
# iostat -En
c0t6d0          Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0 
Vendor: TOSHIBA  Product: DVD-ROM SD-M1401 Revision: 1007 Serial No: 06/22/00 
Size: 18446744073.71GB <-1 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0 
Illegal Request: 0 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0 
c1t0d0          Soft Errors: 0 Hard Errors: 0 Transport Errors: 0 
Vendor: SEAGATE  Product: ST336704FSUN36G  Revision: 0726 Serial No: 0119D20RT8 
Size: 36.42GB <36418595328 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 0 No Device: 0 Recoverable: 0 
Illegal Request: 0 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0
# dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s0 bs=1048576 of=/home/me/.VirtualBox/VDI/disk1.iso

Kind regards, Arie Bikker

[mdinaz]

I eventually ended up using ISO images with the following procedure:

Downloaded all the ISO images
Copied them directly to a DVD as .ISO files
Loaded the DVD into the target system, mounted using standard procedures
Copied all the .ISO files into a directory large enough to hold them (in this case a zpool named /TEST1)
Unmounted the DVD using standard procedures
Made directories for each .ISO file that VB will mount to:

Example for disk 1: mkdir /mnt/disk1

Using loopback file device, made a mountable disk image:

Example for disk 1: lofiadm -a /TEST1/cen_0001.iso

This command returns the following value: /dev/lofi/1

Then mounted the ISO image:

Example for disk 1: mount -o ro -F hsfs /dev/lofi/1 /mnt/disk1

Repeat procedure for each ISO file into the appropriate directories.

Then, going into VB and selecting "Devices", attach the CD/ISO image by using "ADD" and finding the file in the proper directory,
e.g. /TEST1/cen_0001.iso. Now VB can access the image like the CD. Once VB is ready for the next disk, find the proper image after
unmounting the previous image and selecting the next one (assuming you mounted disk x using the procedure above).

When finished with all the disks, unmount each disk:

Example for disk 1: umount /mnt/disk1

I was able to get everything loaded and booted ok. I would highly suggest this method over trying to mount physical CDs and then
trying to attach them in VB.

thanks

mc