Hi Jerry, Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a whirl. One question that springs to mind , do you know if identifying the USB drive via its label (which is how I am identifying it in my %pre script coincidentally) will prevent Anaconda from seeing the USB drive as a viable install target? Do you think I should also include an option of (ignoredisk --drives=LABEL="name") in the kickstart file, and is that syntax even supported? Just some thoughts . . . as I say, I will give it a whirl. Thanks again. Matt. ----------------------- Original Message ----------------------- From: Jerry Vonau <jvonau@xxxxxxx> To: Discussion of Development and Customization of the Red Hat Linux Installer <anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:31:57 -0500 Subject: Re: Can the install method be contained within a kickstart file that is referenced via a %include option Matthew Richards wrote: > Apologies in advance for the long post, and if this question is being posted in > the wrong place. It is rather kickstart oriented but I think this is the right > place for it. > > Short version: > > In a kickstart install, can the install method (specifically 'harddrive') be > contained within a file that is referenced via a %include option in the main > kickstart file? > > Long Version: > > I am re-spinning CentOS 5.2 (Anaconda 11.1.2.113-1) with the aim of making it > install unattended from a USB flash drive. > > The USB drive is identified differently depending upon the hardware > configuration of the system with which it is booted. Generally speaking if the > system has only IDE disks then the USB drive becomes /dev/sda. If the system > has a SCSI or SATA disk then the USB drive becomes /dev/sdb, etc. > > The problem I face is that Anaconda sees the USB drive as a viable install > target and bootloader option. To prevent Anaconda from installing to the USB > drive I am using the harddrive, ignoredisk and bootloader kickstart options, > e.g. > > harddrive --partition=/dev/sda1 --dir=/iso > ignoredisk --drives=sda > bootloader --driveorder=hda,hdb,hdc,hdd,sda,sdb,sdc,sdd --location=mbr > > (Ok, I know the configuration of the bootloader option is ugly but it meets my > requirements for now and my respun distro will probably never be installed on a > system with more than 3 local disks) > > I cannot hard code these kickstart options because the USB drive identity > changes with each different hardware configuration, so I have used a similar > approach to the dynamic partitioning example given in the %pre section of the > kickstart doco. That is, I am using the %pre section to probe the install > target and identify the USB drive and then generate a kickstart file-part that > contains the appropriate harddrive, ignoredisk and bootloader options as > outlined above. The kickstart-part is then included in the main kickstart file > via the %include option. > > It seems that when the install method is not in the main kickstart file that > Anaconda prompts for the install method. I believe this is because it does not > run the scripts in the %pre section until after it has loaded the stage2 image, > for which it needs to know the install method which is why it prompts the user > and puts and end to the whole unattended experience. My kickstart file looks > something like this: > > %include /tmp/ks-part > %include /tmp/ks-common # this has all of my other kickstart options in it. > %pre > # shell script to identify USB drive and echo 'harddrive' and 'ignoredisk' > options to /tmp/ks-part > > Can anyone suggest a way around this or an alternative solution please? > > Two that have come to mind while writing this post are (1) use custom udev > rules added via the initrd.img file to ensure that usb drive is always mounted > as /dev/sdX and then hard code this setting into the kickstart file, (2) use a > custom anaconda installer update (e.g. kickstart.py) to perform the dynamic USB > drive identification and exclusion, instead of using the %pre section of > kickstart. > > Thanks. > > Matt You can try labeling the usb drive, then use that label to identify the usb drive at the boot prompt with ks=LABEL="name":/ks.cfg. and method=hd:LABEL="name"/ Not sure if your version of anaconda will support that syntax. Jerry _______________________________________________ Anaconda-devel-list mailing list Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list _______________________________________________ Anaconda-devel-list mailing list Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list
