Hi all!!

This is my first post and i hope some one can help me.

I m very new to linux and this is related to a project for my intro to linux class.We were asked to create a USB unattended bootable device using Centosos5.4 and i have spent alot of time on this and i am almost there but this error has got me very frustrated. Please help! Here is what is going on: when i am ready to boot from the USB i get the following error

"Error downloading kickstart file"

"unable to download the kickstart file. Please modify the kickstart parameter below oe press Cancel to proceed as an interactive installation"


Below is ks.cfg and syslinux.cfg sfile, i think i might be doing something in those files.

default linux
prompt 1
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg
label text
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks initrd=initrd.img ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg
label kickstart
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg
label local
localboot 1
label memtest86
kernel memtest
append - ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg






# Kickstart file automatically generated by anaconda.

install
harddrive --partition=sdb1 --dir=ISO
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp
rootpw --iscrypted $1$UPAbq5N.$IHBXiBZ.Gq5Qb3M//yrUy.
firewall --enabled --port=22:tcp
authconfig --enableshadow --enablemd5
selinux --enforcing
timezone --utc America/New_York
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=hda,sda
# The following is the partition information you requested
# Note that any partitions you deleted are not expressed
# here so unless you clear all partitions first, this is
# not guaranteed to work
#clearpart --linux --drives=hda
#part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=100 --ondisk=hda
#part pv.7 --size=0 --grow --ondisk=hda
#volgroup VolGroup01 --pesize=32768 pv.7
#logvol / --fstype ext3 --name=LogVol00 --vgname=VolGroup01 --size=1024 --grow
#logvol swap --fstype swap --name=LogVol01 --vgname=VolGroup01 --size=512 --grow --maxsize=1024

%packages
@admin-tools
@base
@core
@development-libs
@development-tools
@editors
@legacy-software-development
@legacy-software-support
@system-tools
@text-internet
keyutils
kexec-tools
trousers
fipscheck
device-mapper-multipath
imake
audit


Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I have tapped out.

You have the option of building your own kickstart files in Fedora.

Are you absoluetely certain that while booting the USB drive, the drive is seen as sdb1?
With most BIOSs, if you modify the boot order, the selected device becomes the first device (meaning sda1).

ongte,
Thanks for the suggestion.

I have checked with both sdb1 and sda1 and i get the same error.

My question is did i configure the syslinux.cfg file correct? I was told to add the ks=hd:sdb1:/ks.cfg statement at the end of all the append lines?

Thanks,

This is a tough one. Looking around the net, it seems very few people have managed to get this kinda setup working. It seems to depend entire on the BIOS correctly recognizing the USB as a hard drive. This kinda setup is not going work with every system.

I am facing a similar issue here. We have hardcoded the value of --partition argument to /dev/sdb1. Is there any way we could fetch this value dynamically based on the mounted partition value? Or is this a limitation?

Wow. You sure revived an old thread. It's like almost 2 years old.

Anyway. Like you guessed, it's a limitation. You have to figure out what the partition will called. There's no support for UUID or LABEL either.