kickstart network install of rh 9
 

I'm trying to automate the install of RH 9 over the network.

I'm almost there.

What I've been able to do so far:

1) Install over the network with a boot CDROM burned from the boot.iso file in the images directory.

2) Craft a ks.cfg that works except for pausing to ask for resolving dependencies.

3) Do it over the network with the boot CDROM and ks.cfg on a floppy.

Besides any help on 2) (though I'll do more research on my own into kickstart parameters), what I'm really asking for help on is how to do the network kickstart without the floppy.

I have the ks.cfg in the / directory of the NFS server that hosts the installation files. From what I'm reading, I should be able to do something like:

linux ks=IPADDRESS:/ks.cfg

where IPADDRESS is IP address of the NFS server. To repeat,

linux ks=floppy

works just fine. What I want to do is load the ks.cfg file from the NFS server.

What am I doing wrong?

-baz

To answer my own questions, if anyone is interested.

The root of my NFS server is exported. I've got to put that ks.cfg file in a directory that is exported. (duh!)

I need to add the "--resolvedeps" option to the %packages directory in my ks.cfg file to fully automate it.

I won't get to testing these tomorrow, but I expect them to fix my problems.

I too need help with kickstart via NFS. I have no problem installing from just a plain floppy "linux ks=floppy". What's your progress on this?

-twantrd

Installing without a boot disk can be done with a PXE installation. I've never done it (I'm still figuring out the kickstart part), but I know a few people that have done it and they say it works great.

There's a good HOW-TO document on this:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~alfw/PXE-Kickstart/

Have fun!
-jim

ks=nfs:<IP Address of your NFS server>:/path/to/your/exported/kicstart.cfg

Thanks for the reply. I tried that too but that didn't work. So for now, I'm just kickstarting via floppy.

-twantrd

Really? Anything in the logs of the NFS server?

I really haven't tried it with RH9, but it works with RHEL3.

How about adding the kickstart file to the CD, and then ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg ?

Pretty much I put my ks.cfg file (I specified my NFS server in the ks.cfg file) on a floppy then do a 'linux ks=floppy' and then it does the work. However, to do this I also need to create a network driver disk. That's how I've been doing it lately.

However, I don't want to use floppies anymore.

-twantrd

I'm confused... :confused:

Do you have to put your kickstart file in a folder called /kickstart and name it <IPADDRESS>-kickstart? I've seen that you're supposed to do this on several kickstart HOW-TOs (like here), but I'm starting to wonder if it even really matters as long as you specify it correctly on the installation command line. (Like I've seen here.) Can someone clarify this for me?

-jim

[EDIT] Oops hehe. I guess I answer my own question by reading down a bit further on the second link. ;)

Is it possible for you to use PXE installation? It's pretty easy to setup.

btw when you say that you have exported root, do you mean / or /root? Can you mount that directory using some other computer?

Yes, I would be very interested in PXE installation. You need tftp running or something right?

-twantrd

I have tftp, dhcpd & nfs running on my installation server.

/etc/dhcpd.conf
ddns-update-style ad-hoc;
not authoritative;
allow booting;
allow bootp;
allow unknown-clients;
subnet 10.10.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 10.10.10.10 10.10.10.20;
filename "pxelinux.0";


/etc/xinetd.d/tftp
service tftp
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /install/tftpboot
disable = no
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}

/etc/exports
/install *(sync,ro,no_root_squash)

then my /install/tftpboot directory has pxelinux.0 file and directories :
kickstarts (here I keep all kickstartfiles for all servers)
msgs (here is the menu file that is displayed when I boot some server from network, it displays all different Linux versions I can install (and a couple for diskless booting)
OS (here are vmlinuz(s) & initrd(s))
pxelinux.cfg (here is one file, default)

And my default file has entries like this:
prompt 1
display msgs/boot.msg
label RHEL
kernel OS/RHEL.vmlinuz
append initrd=OS/RHEL.initrd.img ksdevice=eth0 ks=nfs:10.10.10.1:/install/tftpboot/kickstarts/RHEL.ks.cfg ramdisk_size=10000

I'm sure that there was few mistakes, but I'll correct them when I have access to my installation server.

Again I'm not sure if it will work with RH9, but it works with RHEL3.

Thank you. I'll make sure I try that out when I perform another kickstart installation. THANKS!

-twantrd

Else do this with dumps of disks from a working sys
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...light=diskless