I am experimenting with setting up machines to dual boot so that I can demonstrate the joys of Linux. So… we build an XP machine in half the disk, sysprep it, then put opensuse on the other half. ( remembering to change the boot so it doesn’t do it by id ) then we use G4U to upload the image … Then we download the image to the clients ( we have 550 but I’ve only done 5 at the moment ) … so far so good…
However, they now have 2 network cards that show up in yast. After a lot of messing around I got to having 1 card as eth0 and everything worked perfectly. I am guessing that the cloned machine has some reference to the card that was in the original machine that was used to build the image. There has to be a simple way of getting the machine to start again from scratch and detect eth0 ( the machines only have 1 network card ) rather than me messing around trying to delete network cards that reappear next time I start yast
Ta
M
PS … If I’m doing this all wrong could someone point me in the direction of a idiots guide
Don’t have a solution available, but this is what is happening: the clones have the networkconfig on them for the card used in the original machine. If you clone one of the clones, the following clone will have three NICs.
You would have to clone, without a few things configured, then run a script to finish it off.
Another method is using autoyast, it is designed precisely for automating installs. It would be
slower than cloning, but it can cope with differing hardware.
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Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
I agree with Carlos here, and don’t believe that Knurpht’s answer is the whole picture, because what you describe (OP multiple eth interfaces) will happen even if the hardware is identical because the NIC will have a different MAC address.
Although Carlos’ recommendation would be the best solution, if you don’t want to mess around with extra install scripts and don’t mind extra eth interfaces (one will always work, the others won’t), just configure your image to use “Network Manager” to manage your network connections instead of “IFUP/IFDOWN.”
Also, depending on your future anticipated needs, suggest you also consider other methods like PXE, LiveCDs, maybe virtualized clients(eg VMware, Xen, etc)… Depending on where you intend to go, any or all might fit your strategy for an “OS on demand” across the network.
