[mythtv-users] Multiple diskless frontends off one image

[Robin Gilks]

> Robin Gilks <g8ecj at gilks.org> wrote:
>> Greetings all
>>
>> I want to add another frontend, a second diskless Ztoac ION m/b. I'm
>> currently doing a diskless network boot (keeps the noise down) and would
>> like to do the same again for the new frontend which is identical, in
>> hardware terms anyway, but without having to maintain another 2G of
>> image
>> on the main backend/server. Disk space is not the issue, keeping things
>> in
>> sync is!!
>>
>> I would guess I'd need to have separate /var, /tmp and maybe /etc and
>> /home directories with /usr, /sbin, /opt, /mnt and /lib as common ones.
>> Does this sound reasonable and just how do I do it? (I'm sure someone
>> here
>> has done it before!!). Something has to get the mounts in the right
>> order
>> during boot so I'm hoping this is a wheel I don't have to re-invent :)
> Hi,
> im using a netbooted gentoo, everything except the home directories is
> the same for both frontends. Both Frontends use the same user so i'm
> simply mounting different nfs shares to /home/mythfrontend. Any other
> folders which requiere rw are mounted to tmpfs.
> The init script is a bit ugly and you could probably do it nicer with
> unionfs or something similar... but it's working...
>
>
> I give the kernel this skript in the init= parameter:
>
> #!/bin/bash
>  ### create ramdisks ###
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /tmp"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /tmp
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/lib/init.d"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/lib/init.d
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/lib/xkb"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/lib/xkb
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/lib/dbus"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/lib/dbus
>
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/log"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/log
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/run"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/run
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/lock"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/lock
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /var/cache/hald"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/cache/hald
>
>  mkdir -p /var/run/lirc/
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/run/lirc/
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /root"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /root
>  ### / ###
>
>  echo "ramdisk for dhcp-client"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /var/lib/dhcp
>
>  ### create ramdisk for /etc ###
>  echo "saving /etc from NFS-Mount"
>  cd /etc && tar cf /tmp/etc.tar *
>
>
>  echo "creating ramdisk for /etc"
>  mount -n -t tmpfs tmpfs /etc
>
>  echo "populating /etc"
>  tar xf /tmp/etc.tar -C /etc
>  rm /tmp/etc.tar
>  ### / ###
>
>  echo "Mounting NFS Home"
>  MAC_ETH0=`ifconfig |grep HWaddr| sed s/.*HWaddr\ //`
>  echo "found MAC: " $MAC_ETH0
>  MOUNT_OPTS="rw,intr,async,nfsvers=3,bg,actimeo=0,tcp"
>  echo "192.168.1.99:/var/gentoo-netboot/homes/home-${MAC_ETH0} /home nfs
> $MOUNT_OPTS 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
>
> exec /sbin/init </dev/console >/dev/console 2>&1
>
>

Thats excellent - I'm also running Gentoo so as soon as the new RAM sticks
arrive I'll start playing :)

Many thanks

-- 
Robin Gilks