Can't find ks.cfg file after booting from network
 

Hi,
Experimenting with RedHat. I just created a DHCP/NFS server to do Kickstart installations. I can successfully boot from the network from this server, it goes thru the motions of loading the O/S it's ramdisk, but then I come to a point where it tries to find the kickstart file, I get a message saying "Error opening kickstart file (null): No such file or directory."

Firstly, where does expect ks.cfg ?
Second, where do I define the location of ks.cfg ?

>>> here's my entry in dhcp.conf, it finds the O/S to boot <<<

allow booting;
allow bootp;
class "pxeclients" {
match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
next-server 192.168.1.212;
filename "linux-install/pxelinux.0";

>>>>>>>> end <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I used system system-config-netboot and defined the location of ks.cfg in the "Kickstart field" nfs:192.168.1.212:/images/RedHat/ks.cfg

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

To test location and nfs, I successfully booted off a RH cdrom, typed "linux ks=nfs:192.168.1.212:/images/RedHat/ks.cfg and was able to install without any prompts.


any suggestions appreciated.
thanks in advance,
-dan

I use kickstart over FTP and HTTP (not NFS though) and I've noticed it can be very finicky about the way the network is set up. The first thing I'd check is the NFS server logs to see if the exported share is even being mounted. There might be some NFS permissions problem that is causing the NFS server to deny mount requests to that particular machine.

If it is being mounted, check that the path to file on the share is correct relative to the root of the NFS mounted partition. To be honest I'm not sure how kickstart does this so you might have to go to the anaconda text terminal (alt+F3 or alt+F4 during the install) and see the log of what exactly anaconda is doing to get the kickstart file.

If all of that fails, try to see if you can do it via FTP or HTTP and see if you have a similar problem. If so it may be a network problem in the way anaconda sets things up. Test if you can ping from the server to the machine being installed.

Hi,

Finally got it working.

I could not get to the Anaconda text terminal, but I was placing the ks.cfg inside the same directories containing the RPMS (in the RedHat directory and Fedora directory respectively).

I placed the ks.cfg files on the same directory Level as the RedHat/Fedora RPM directories and the PXE install found both ks.cfg files and the O/S Install trees.

#################### on DHCP/NFS server ######################
[root@venice images]# showmount -e
Export list for venice:
/images *
/images/Fedora6 *
/images/RedHat26 *

[root@venice images]# ls -la /images/Fedora6/
total 296
drwxr-sr-x 7 root root 4096 Jan 28 22:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 28 23:37 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5625 Oct 5 08:07 eula.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1345 Jan 28 22:15 FC_DISK1.contents
drwxr-sr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 28 22:16 Fedora
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2350 Oct 17 13:42 fedora.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18385 Apr 5 2005 GPL
drwxr-sr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 17 17:34 images
drwxr-sr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 17:34 isolinux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1121 Jan 28 22:04 ks.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12667 Oct 17 13:42 README-Accessibility
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 175924 Oct 17 13:42 RELEASE-NOTES-en_US.html
drwxr-sr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 17:44 repodata
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1910 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1706 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-beta
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1519 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2043 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-extras
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1722 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-legacy
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1105 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-rawhide
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1076 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-test
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1232 Oct 15 11:07 RPM-GPG-KEY-rawhide
drwxr-sr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 17:34 stylesheet-images
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 432 Oct 17 17:45 TRANS.TBL
[root@venice images]#


[root@venice images]# ls -la /images/RedHat26/
total 40
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4096 Jan 28 23:43 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 28 23:37 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 7 2005 images
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 7 2005 isolinux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1078 Jan 28 23:43 ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jan 28 23:37 RedHat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 7 2005 SRPMS
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 9319 Jan 7 2005 TRANS.TBL
[root@venice images]#


[root@venice images]# ls
Fedora6 RedHat26

[root@venice images]# cd Fedora6/Fedora/
[root@venice Fedora]# ls
base RPMS

[root@venice Fedora]# cd ../../RedHat26/RedHat/
[root@venice RedHat]# ls
base images RPMS TRANS.TBL


[root@venice images]# grep nfs RedHat26/ks.cfg Fedora6/ks.cfg
RedHat26/ks.cfg:nfs --server=192.168.1.212 --dir=/images/RedHat26
Fedora6/ks.cfg:nfs --server=192.168.1.212 --dir=/images/Fedora6


Kickstart Setting for RedHat26 --> nfs:192.168.1.212:/images/RedHat26/ks.cfg
Kickstart Setting for Fedora6 ---> nfs:192.168.1.212:/images/Fedora6/ks.cfg


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again for the suggestions.
-dan