Response file installation can be handy for quickly replicating a series of systems or for recreating a specific installation for troubleshooting purposes or hardware migration where a new installation is preferred to simply copying the existing one. More complex installation patterns may also be configured using response files, as well. Here is a primer on using the Response file installation option in the ArcaOS installer. Note that this method will not provide any confirmation before beginning the actual installation, so if changes are required (volume letters, filesystems, etc.), these must be specified in the response file before beginning the install.
Simple use of a response file
To exactly replicate the installation choices of an already-installed system, copy:
X:\sys\install\rsp\Export
(where X: is the drive letter assigned to the ArcaOS boot volume) to a location which will be accessible to the system being deployed (e.g., the ArcaOS installation USB stick or another USB stick).
Boot the system to be deployed from the installation media, and proceed to the installer. (To re-use the same Preboot settings as the original install, see the section entitled Saving and restoring custom Preboot menu settings on the Special Installation Considerations wiki page.) On the Installation type page, select Scripted (response file required) and in the file selection dialog, browse to the location of the Export file copied earlier. Click OK to accept the export file, and follow the prompts to proceed with the installation.
Creating or modifying a response file
The response file itself is a plain text file consisting of a series of one line options for the installer. There is no naming convention for this file; feel free to label it whatever is most useful to you (just remember the FAT 8.3 filename limits if you plan to copy it to a FAT16 filesystem).
Each line is simply terminated with a standard carriage return / line feed. If editing the file on a system which uses Unix line endings, be sure to convert these to DOS style endings before use.
The first portion of the response file contains some general system information. Here are the defaults:
CPUARCH=i686 User_Preferences.MOUSE=RIGHT User_Preferences.KB=US103 User_Preferences.FONT=MEDIUM License.AGREE Installation_Type.MODE_CUSTOM
CPUARCH may be either i686 or pentium4, and refers to the default RPM platform to be used.
User_Preferences are preferences for the installer itself. MOUSE may be RIGHT or LEFT, KB should use a recognized keyboard identifier, and FONT refers to the relative font size used by the installer and ancillary applications (SMALL, MEDIUM, or LARGE).
License.AGREE is mandatory for the installation to proceed.
Installation_Type may be MODE_PERSONAL, MODE_CUSTOM, or MODE_UPDATE. If MODE_PERSONAL, this line should be followed with one and only one of the following personality identifiers:
PERSONALITY=EASY PERSONALITY=MULTIVOLUME PERSONALITY=WORKSTATION PERSONALITY=SMBSERVER
where EASY is single volume install, MULTIVOLUME is multi-volume install, WORKSTATION is enterprise workstation, and SMBSERVER is Samba server.
The next group of options pertains to the target volume(s) for the installation and the format of the boot volume. note that all ancillary volumes must be formatted ahead of the scripted install.
DriveSelection.VARTEMP=? DriveSelection.UNIXROOT=? DriveSelection.PROGRAMS=? DriveSelection.NETWORK=? DriveSelection.TARGET=C DriveSelection.FS_TARGET=JFS
where “?” directs the installer to simply use the TARGET (boot) volume. FS_TARGET may be JFS or HPFS. The boot partition must already exist, but may be unformatted. Formatted or not, it will be reformatted (except for Installation_Type.MODE_UPDATE, which performs no formatting whatsoever). Note that drive letters here do not include trailing colons.
The next group refers to the system locale and timezone:
Localization.SYNCHRONIZE Localization.DEFLANG Localization.TZ=EST5,EDT,3,2,0,7200,11,1,0,7200,3600 1 Localization.LOCALE=en_US,1,850,437 0
The SYNCHRONIZE option refers to the Enable Internet time synchronization option in the installer, which auto-starts the daemon. If omitted, the daemon is not started at boot.
The DEFLANG option refers to the Use locale to set preferred application language option in the installer. If omitted, [NEED THIS POSSIBILITY].
TZ requires an OS/2-style timezone string. The default is shown above.
LOCALE includes the language (en_US is the default), the sublanguage ID (1 is the default), primary and secondary codepages (850,437 are the defaults) followed by a space and terminated by a “0“.
The Software and Hardware lines in the file correspond to software or hardware selections as set in the ArcaOS installer pages. Each of these selections is identified by a value and one or more optional strings (depending upon the selection).
For a reference as to which installer selection is which, review cus6sware.pg in the \SYS\INSTALL\GUI\XX directory of the ArcaOS installation media for the version of ArcaOS which you are installing (and where XX refers to the language you are installing).
Software.120 Software.131 Software.132 [...] Hardware.102 Hardware.111 [...] Hardware.582 /CDS:1 Hardware.583 /REMOVABLES:0 /FLOPPIES:0 [...] Hardware.802
Following the software and hardware selections are the networking lines, consisting first of the logical network adapter name, e.g., LAN0, and its adapter NIF, followed by the Protocol, it’s logical number and the protocol NIF to be bound, and the Network selections (see cus8net.pg in the \SYS\INSTALL\GUI\XX directory of the ArcaOS installation media for the version of ArcaOS which you are installing).
LAN0=E1000B.OS2 Protocol=0, TCPIP.NIF Network.200 Network.310
Finally, the Workstation selections are listed, identifying the name of the home directory, the user, the workgroup, computer, TCP/IP addressing, and the location of the home directory (see ancillary directory listings, above).
Workstation.HOME= Home Workstation.USER= User Workstation.WORKGROUP= WORKGROUP Workstation.COMPUTER= GANYMEDE Workstation.DHCP Workstation.TARGET_HOME=?
Once the response file has been modified to suit, simply save it to some media which will be accessible to the new system, and select the file when prompted by the installer. The installation should pick up with the file copy of Phase 1, and continue to the end.
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