<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Upgrading Red Hat Linux from a serial console</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Remote Serial Console HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Kermit" HREF="upload-kermit.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Select boot disk" HREF="rhl-selectboot.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="APPENDIX" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Remote Serial Console HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="upload-kermit.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="rhl-selectboot.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="APPENDIX" ><H1 ><A NAME="RHL" ></A >Appendix C. Upgrading <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Red Hat Linux</SPAN > from a serial console</H1 ><DIV CLASS="TOC" ><DL ><DT ><B >Table of Contents</B ></DT ><DT >C.1. <A HREF="rhl-selectboot.html" >Select boot disk</A ></DT ><DT >C.2. <A HREF="rhl-biosserial.html" >Configure the <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >BIOS</SPAN > to use the serial port</A ></DT ><DT >C.3. <A HREF="rhl-ignoredtr.html" >Configure modem to ignore <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >DTR</SPAN > and assert <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >DCD</SPAN ></A ></DT ><DT >C.4. <A HREF="rhl-preparefloppy.html" >Prepare a network install floppy diskette</A ></DT ><DT >C.5. <A HREF="rhl-preparehttp.html" >Prepare <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >HTTP</SPAN > server</A ></DT ><DT >C.6. <A HREF="rhl-ifconfig.html" >Record network configuration</A ></DT ><DT >C.7. <A HREF="rhl-liloconfig.html" >Record LILO configuration</A ></DT ><DT >C.8. <A HREF="rhl-upgrade.html" >Upgrade Red Hat distribution</A ></DT ><DT >C.9. <A HREF="rhbootdisk.html" >Create boot disk for serial console</A ></DT ><DT >C.10. <A HREF="rhreferences.html" >Further references</A ></DT ></DL ></DIV ><P >Upgrades to Linux distributions are frequently released. A machine is not remotely manageable unless these upgrades can be installed without needing to physically touch the machine.</P ><P >This section examines the remote installation and remote upgrade of <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Red Hat Linux</SPAN >.</P ><P ><SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Red Hat Linux</SPAN > can be installed over the network from a <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >HTTP</SPAN > server using an install diskette. We modify this diskette to use the serial console. If we can control whether to boot from this diskette or from the hard disk then we can remotely upgrade the Red Hat Linux distribution from the serial port. If a blank diskette is placed in the drive when the machine is deployed then no on-site intervention is needed to upgrade the operating system.</P ><P >If you have upgrade procedures for other <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >Linux</SPAN > distributions please contribute them to the <I CLASS="CITETITLE" >HOWTO</I > maintainer.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="upload-kermit.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="rhl-selectboot.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Kermit</SPAN ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Select boot disk</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >
