[pinhead]

if you're over answering the same questions repeatedly during install
(eg rebuilding all machines to 3.1)

have install scripts to do post build config and pkg add but no answer for pre os load questions ie: dhcp, timezone, ftp server etc

is there any way known to put an autoanswer file on the boot floppy ? or
another way to achieve same end (insert floppy, turn on, make coffee, come back and reboot)

thanks in advance

[frisco]

is there any way known to put an autoanswer file on the boot floppy ? or another way to achieve same end (insert floppy, turn on, make coffee, come back and reboot)

yes.

what *exactly* are you trying to achieve? do you want a way to easily reclone one machine? do you want a way to clone a lab full of machines? are you just fooling around and asking questions (that's fine too!) ?

look into release(8) and particularly at the .profile that gets put onto the ramdisk for install floppies. that might help - you could have it launch a script instead of prompting (i)nstall/(u)pgrade/(s)hell.
You could write a whole script to fdisk/disklabel the disk then untar the packages (plus your own system specific package), write the biosboot stuff, then reboot. look at the install script to see what else might need to be done, or just hack apart the install script to not prompt you.

[pinhead]

have existing machines v3.0 already partitioned

wish to upgrade to v3.1
have various auto install config script used for rapid rebuild/DR
have rebuilt all pkgs
boxes have been on internet so paranoid stance says format where possible

i'm thinking the effort taken to script the non fs install questions may be worth alot of time given new obsd every 6 mnths (disks are all different
so i'll leave that out)

i was thinking either floppy would be 105% or a binary etc OR someone else had done it all b4 and a prefab answer file was available so ask 1st

thanks for the reply BTW

[frisco]

Since you're also having to do some stuff manually, i think your best and easiest bet is to edit your own install script and run that instead. you can choose 'shell' at the prompt and then run your custom install script - look at /usr/src/distrib/miniroot/install.sh and /usr/src/distrib/miniroot/install.sub
make a floppy with your scripts, mount that, run those instead.

If you wanted a cd/floppy that you could just insert, boot and have it do the rest then you'd also want to edit /usr/src/distrib/miniroot/dot.profile and have it launch your scripts. that would be a bit more work since you'd have to also build your own ramdisk.
I'm actually working on something like this right now - creating a cd that will boot and install a very basic OpenBSD into mfs's. Expect a howto once i'm done.