With ZENworks for Desktops 4, Novell is recommending that customers move from the Linux partition and use PXE instead. If you still want to, you can put a Linux partition on each of your workstations. This Linux partition is the boot partition, and upon boot-up of the workstation, contacts the imaging server to determine whether it has any requested work (based on administration in the workstation object). If it has work, the imaging engine either gets or puts an image. If it has no work, the imaging system continues the boot process, booting the workstation to the native operating system. If you are placing a Linux partition on a previously functioning system, this process assumes that the workstation has already registered with the network, has an associated Workstation object and that the image-safe data agent has run on the workstation. Having the workstation already registered prevents the imaging server from attempting to place a new image on the workstation. However, if you are placing the Linux partition on a new workstation this process can place a new, standard image on the workstation, preparing it for use in your organization. The ZENworks for Desktops 4 boot system does not function with such booting programs as System Commander. These systems need to be disabled or marked such that the Linux partition is automatically booted. The ZENworks for Desktops 4 boot system functions properly with the Windows boot manager by fixing the BOOT.INI file to properly boot. NOTE The imaging system has special recognition for Compaq systems and does not destroy the Compaq partition that is used to run machine configurations.
WARNING Placing a Linux partition destroys the disk and all of the other partitions unless you take special care in saving the partitions or using another program to create a new partition without destroying the current partitions.
To place a ZENworks for Desktops 4 Linux imaging partition on a workstation, you need to perform the following steps. Be sure to save any data on the workstation; any time that you are messing with partitions, you must prepare yourself should a failure occur and the data is lost. Make sure that an empty place exists on the disk that is sufficient to hold the Linux partition (the size was identified in the creation of the boot disks and is 15MB minimum). This can be leftover space or be created by some program such as Partition Magic. If sufficient free space is present on the hard drive, the Linux install process should consume that space only when the free partition is partition 0 (in other words, the first partition in the partition table). The following steps describe how to place the Linux partition without loss of data and without any other tools: Create your ZENworks for Desktops 4 boot disks with the proper configuration, including the setting to reboot manually. See the preceding section for tips on how to do that. Boot the workstation with the ZENworks for Desktops 4 Imaging boot disks. Be sure to request manual mode when the system comes up. Typing manual at the prompt following the boot to Linux does this. If you type nothing at the prompt in 60 seconds, the system boots to automatic mode. If this is a previously functioning workstation, take an image of the workstation by entering the following command: img makep <address/DNS of image server> <filename for image file>. The address can be an IP address or the DNS name of the image server. The filename is the name of the image file you want to hold the image. The filename must include the following format: //servername/dir/dir/../filename.img. The servername is actually ignored because the address of the server that is receiving the image stores the file on its disk. (Redirection of image servers does not work in manual mode.) Enter img dump to view the list of known partitions on the disk. Remember the numbers of the partitions. Enter /bin/install.s to install the Linux partition on the disk. This destroys all data on the workstation's hard drive. It creates a new Linux partition on the disk at the specified size and place of the Linux boot system on that partition. The ZENworks boot loader is automatically installed in this process. A message should appear stating that the boot process could not fully function. This is because Linux creates logical partitions for all the partitions that are seen at boot time. You just added a new partition and it cannot create a logical partition for it. When it reboots the boot manager system automatically reinstalls itself when it is assumed that all partitions are now present. Enter img dump to view the list of known partitions. There should be one less partition listed than in Step 4 because the Linux partition is hidden from this listing. You should also note that all the other partitions are destroyed (in other words, they have no file system type associated with them). Perform a reboot of the workstation to make sure the Linux partition is functioning properly. This can be done by typing reboot, or by turning the workstation off and on. Make sure you have removed the Linux boot disks. This should boot to the Linux partition and show the Linux prompt (because the system has been configured to not automatically reboot). If you took an image in Step 3, bring down the image that was taken by typing image rp <address of image server> <image filename>. The image is brought down to the disk. The image is then reduced in size sufficiently to take the remaining space on the disk. If the image is too big to be reduced, an error occurs. Installation of an image from ZENworks for Desktops 4 takes special care to not destroy or overwrite the Linux partition. When the image is successfully down, you have the same workstation data and environment with the exception of a new Linux partition. Enter img dump to view the list of partitions again. There should be the same number as in Step 6 (one less than in Step 4) and there should now be file system types for the partitions that you have just restored. Reinitialize the boot manager by running /bin/lilo.s. You should do this any time you bring down any image to the workstation. In automatic mode, the system performs this automatically. Perform a reboot of the workstation. This can be done by typing reboot or by turning the workstation off and on. Make sure you have removed the Linux boot disks. This should boot to the Linux partition and get to the Linux prompt (because the system has been configured not to automatically reboot). The workstation should now boot to the Linux partition that goes into automatic mode communicating with the image server. It should find no work if the workstation is registered and the image configuration flags are off. If the workstation is not registered and you did not lay down an image in Step 8, the image server goes through its rules processing (see Server Policy Package, Imaging Server Policy) and determines an image that should be placed on this workstation. If one is found, that image is placed on the workstation. If you manually placed an image down on a workstation that had not been previously registered, the imaging server compares the name of that image file with the image determined by the imaging server. If they are the same, the imaging server does not attempt to lay down a new image. This should result in the workstation having no work and again booting to its native operating system.
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