BleepingComputer.com: USB boot and copy files

Hey guys, I have about 200+ devices that I need to update some drivers on and I was thinking the best way for me to probably do this would be to setup some type of bootable usb flash drive that would boot and then replace the files.

I assume i could just create some type of small linux bootable usb and just mount the hdd then replace the files on boot, but does anybody have any suggestions or other ideas on how i might be able to do this?

I can't seem to find anything online that would help and i can only think it's because of how i'm searching and the "wording" i'm using.

Does anybody have any experience with this or any ideas on how i can accomplish this?

Thanks!

I know this is in the Linux / Unix Section, so I have to ask this question.

Is this for Linux or Unix or is it for Windows?

Also 200 device drivers?

cryptodan, on 02 February 2012 - 09:17 AM, said:

Yes I know, all the devices are running RHEL4, my intention was to use some linux distro on the bootable flash drive but I wanted to get other suggestions which is the reason I posted this thread.

I have 200 devices as in SBCs, VIA 1ghz 512mb ram. They have a few drivers that need to be updated to resolve some major problems we have been having. The best option I was thinking would be to create a bootable flash drive i can give to a tech to just stick in and it will do it's thing. I want to try and keep this as simple as i can for the techs to avoid any problems. I could just as easily create an sh file to accomplish this but i was trying to stay away from that.

My best advice to you is to upgrade from RHEL 4 to the latest version of RHEL, and see if that resolves your issues.

The driver updates should be done via the yum update process if the drivers are from the RHN

cryptodan, on 02 February 2012 - 11:26 AM, said:

Sorry i guess i should have explained it more in depth, the driver is a custom driver we had to update some bugs on, the "controllers" are just basically a SBC running ruby on rails to control equipment we have installed up and down the highway. The devices will NEVER be on anything other than a private network.

For the time being i just went ahead and created a shell script that will take care of everything, it's just annoying to have to login to the controller, mount the flash drive then run the script. I was hoping for a more of, insert usb, boot controller wait 5 minutes then remove usb and restart controller.

I'm going to play around with this some more tomorrow and see what i can come up with

Well you can set up your own RPM Repository and add it to the sources list for YUM and that will install it via a cron job.

cryptodan, on 02 February 2012 - 11:58 PM, said:

Excellent idea not sure why that didn't even cross my mind, I think I was trying to make it harder than it had to be! Thank you so much!

then I would build your own ISO and Installer using Anaconda so you dont have to do this on future deployments.