Getting the VMware Boot/POST screen

I was trying to re-kickstart an install of a Linux server in my VMware cluster, but I couldn't get the VMware Boot/POST screen so I could choose the PXE network install option. I also was having a rough time with my Google search queries to find the answer. Since I had a tough time finding it, I thought I would write it here, so if anything, I could find it again.

I had to modify my .vmx file for my virtual machine and add the line

bios.bootDelay = "10000"

The numeric value is the number of seconds the POST/Boot screen is shown. So in my example, this would be 10 seconds, which deceptively goes by pretty quick.

"Live" distribution PXE install server idea

I've had netbooks on the brain for the past few days now. I'm thinking about buying one for couch/living room use for the wife and I, since we use my failing Compaq laptop for web access and email. Late last night, it had me thinking about OS re-installs without physical media; considering netbooks seem to only support SD cards for removable media.

I'm not sure how practical this is, but I had an idea for reinstalling netbooks if you have another PC on your home network. I don't want to dedicate a host on my network to be a server for PXE installs (ex. Jumpstart or Kickstart), but what about a Live CD (or DVD) that has these services configured? If I needed to re-install my netbook, I'd just boot my desktop PC off the Live disk and then run the PXE install on my remote host. Does anyone know if I'm re-inventing the wheel, or if this idea is practical? I did a cursory search on Google, and didn't see any projects or distributions related to this.

On the netbook front, I'm torn if I should purchase one or not. I do own an iPhone, but that doesn't help my wife with Internet access around the house. She already has a recent iPod nano, so purchasing her a Touch would be a waste of money. I'm also seeing notebook prices dropping, and wonder if I'd just be better off buying one of those instead for a couple hundred dollars more. A co-worker of mine did mention that if I wasn't happy with a netbook, there would be plenty of interest in buying one used, and that the resale value on Craigslist or eBay would probably be about a $100 loss on my part. I'm looking at the Asus Eee and Acer Aspire One models, and I'm leaning towards this one. I would normally be interested in one using Linux since they seem to have SSD, but with the wife also being a user, I don't want to have to play sysadmin/helpdesk at home.

Setting up LVM in RHEL kickstart file

Another piece of fun today...

Task:
Set up and configure a linux box with the following partition information.

Non-LVM
/boot - 100MB

LVM
/ - 9GB
/opt - 12GB
/var - 8GB
swap - 8GB

Kickstart Entries:
clearpart --all
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=100 --ondisk=sda
part pv.4 --size=0 --grow --ondisk=sda
volgroup VolGroup00 pv.4
logvol / --fstype ext3 --name=root --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=9216
logvol /opt --fstype ext3 --name=usr --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=12228
logvol /var --fstype ext3 --name=var --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=8192
logvol swap --fstype swap --name=swap --vgname=VolGroup00 --size=8192

My big mistake was trying to set the "pesize" in the volgroup line. Apparently, it will assume to use all if not set, which is what I wanted. RedHat documentation about kickstart options can be found here.