Re: Installing C, etc without using CD

IBM installation CDs have a standard format, with the filesets, .toc and
other files in specific locations. If you tell smitty you're using a CD, it
will look for what it wants in those locations.

However, if you mount the CD yourself and just tell smitty the mount point
it's not smart enough to realise that it's actually a CD, so it doesn't know
where to look.

It's also worth noting that some other vendors' installation CDs may follow
the IBM standard but most don't.

On a related subject, if you ever do decide to copy filesets off a CD to use
later you should always use bffcreate. In theory, you can simply mount the
CD then copy the filesets out of /usr/sys/inst.images. However, having
tried that I can tell you that it doesn't always work correctly! When I
tried it I discovered that IBM include what they call packaging PTFs. These
are small files which look like PTFs, but are not regular PTFs. If they're
present then inutoc will fail later and it's a real pain to sort it out.
(Obviously IBM are building the original .toc on the CD in a different way.)
In theory you could copy the .toc off the CD, too, but then you'd never be
able to change it.

--
Simon Green
Altria ITSC Europe s.a.r.l.

AIX-L Archive at https://new-lists.princeton.edu/listserv/aix-l.html
New to AIX? http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/redbooks.nsf/portals/UNIX

N.B. Unsolicited email from vendors will not be appreciated.
Please post all follow-ups to the list.


-----Original Message-----
From: IBM AIX Discussion List [mailto:aix-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of N.
Leenders
Sent: 15 February 2006 22:10
To: aix-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Installing C, etc without using CD

<SNIP>

So you are saying, when using a CD, smitty (installp) will traverse the
directories on the CD and find /usr/sys/inst.images/.toc?

But if you are installing from a directory, smitty (installp) won't
traverse the directories to find
/whereEverTheDirectoryIs/usr/sys/inst.images?

Relevant Pages