I'm somewhat familiar with kickstart, having used it last year to install FC7 on most of my 30+ workstations, and I'm using it again this year to install F8 on them.

I went to the first machine, booted from a CD burned with F8 boot.iso file, and got the screen with the 5 options:
(1) install/upgrade,
(2) install/upgrade text mode,
(3) rescue,
(4) boot from local drive,
(5) memory test.

I hit [tab] to modify the command line, added the ks=... stuff and hit return. The line looked like:

> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img ks=http://server/path/to/ks.cfg

and this *worked*. Woo hoo!

Then I go to the next machine, which is the *exact* same make/model as the first machine, and I do the same thing, with the same boot CD. But this time, I'm asked for my language, keyboard, install method, and so forth, as if the installer just ignored the "ks=..." stuff. So I reboot from the boot CD and repeat the procedure, being extra careful to type correctly. Same result.

The fact that my first attempt on the first machine worked flawlessly suggests that my procedure is correct, but maybe I just got lucky and there's something else I'm supposed to do. Can anyone suggest anything to try differently?

I notice that all the documentation reports typing

linux ks=method://path/to/ks.cfg

But I'm not sure where one types "linux." I remember that from old installers (several years ago), but that no longer seems to be the case. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

If there were a network failure, would that cause this behavior? That is, the installer can't find the ks.cfg file due to the network trouble, so it reverts to the usual installation procedure?

Thanks very much.

Scott

Replying to my own post, I found and eliminated a network problem that prevented the workstation from accessing the web server that held the kickstart ks.cfg file, and that fixed the problem.