Howto boot computers for suse network installation using floppy or CD (Suse 9.1)

We can PXE boot most of our computers here to get the network install, but the odd one cannot do this so:

Suse provided boot floppy image

You can try the Suse provided boot image here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/nashif/

and do something like:
dformat /dev/fd0
dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

Then edit the menu.lst file on the floppy.

It did indeed boot, but no network, so not much use. Maybe I was missing
something....?

Suse boot floppy using grub

download grub package from:
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/
or
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/
to /temp
tar xvfz grub-0.95.tar.gz
cd /temp/grub-0.95
./configure --enable-natsemi
OR
./configure --enable-natsemi --enable-tulip
OR
Whatever network drivers you want.

make
/sbin/mke2fs -m 0 /dev/fd0
mount /floppy
cp ./stage1/stage1 ./stage2/stage2 ./stage2/e2fs_stage1_5 /floppy
cp /boot/message /floppy
cd /floppy
vi menu.lst
"
dhcp
gfxmenu /message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 1
timeout 8

title SuSE Linux Auto Installation
   kernel (nd)/linux install=nfs://XXXX/
autoyast=nfs://XXXX/autoyast/ay.xml
load_ramdisk=1
textmode=1
   initrd (nd)/initrd
title Booting from local hard disk
   root (hd0)
   chainloader +1
"

cd
/temp/grub-0.95/grub/grub
install (fd0)/stage1 (fd0) (fd0)/e2fs_stage1_5 (fd0)/stage2 p
(fd0)/menu.lst
quit
umount /floppy

boot from the floppy
configfile /menu.lst

dunno why the menu.lst file is not picked up automatically as it is
supposed to be, but it does work.

Grub CD boot image creation

mkdir iso
Make a directory for GRUB:
     $ mkdir -p iso/boot/grub
Copy the file stage2_eltorito:
     $ cp /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito iso/boot/grub
If desired, make the config file menu.lst under iso/boot/grub (see
Configuration), and copy any files and directories for the disc to the
directory iso/.

Finally, make a ISO9660 image file like this:
     $ mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot \
         -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o grub.iso iso

record_cd grub.iso

Creating a boot CD from the standard Suse net install CD

Unfortunately I could not get grub to use the e1000 driver, but I then tried using the Suse install CD (network one downloadable from any suse mirror and called: suse/i386/9.1/boot/boot.iso).
This is a rather good CD img to use as it has a lot of network drivers on it. Before creating the CD it is good idea to use the standard boot.iso, choose "Manual Installation" and then add some kernel parameters (in the text line at the bottom of the screen like this:

install=nfs://IP/PATH autoyast=nfs://IP/PATH2/file.xml

Of course replace IP with the IP address of your nfs server, PATH with the path to the Suse repository and PATH2 with the path to the autoyast xml file.

Once you know what the kernel parameters are that you want then you can get the content from the boot.iso CD and then edit it a little bit:

mount -o loop -t iso9660 -rw ./suse_netboot_91.iso /mnt
cp -r /mnt/* /temp/boot_suse_cd/
vi /temp/boot_suse_cd/boot/loader/isolinux.cfg
"
default autoyast

# autoyast
label autoyast
  kernel linux
  append initrd=initrd showopts install=nfs://IP/PATH autoyast=nfs://IP/PATH2/file.xml load_ramdisk=1 textmode=1 loghost=
"

mkisofs -r -o /tmp/bootcd.iso -b boot/loader/isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table /temp/boot_suse_cd/

Then Burn the /tmp/bootcd.iso to a CD (using cd record or some such thing) and then go boot a computer.