On Wed, 2009-10-28 at 18:33 -0400, Peter Scheie wrote: > > From: > Peter Scheie > <peter.scheie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Reply-to: > Discussion list about Kickstart > <kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx> > To: > Discussion list about Kickstart > <kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx> > Subject: > Re: putting ks.cfg into > initrd.img > Date: > Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:04:49 -0500 > (17:04 EDT) > > > Thanks, Chip. I have a copy of your presentation in my desk > and refer to it > regularly. But I'm at home today (sick kid) and since it was > out of sight, it > was out of mind. > > I fixed my kickstart-in-initrd.img file problem (was editing > wrong initrd file), > but I'm having some other difficulties and there some aspects > to > kickstart/anaconda that I don't quite understand, and it > occurs to me that I > should probably describe what I'm trying to do to make sure > it's even possible. > > Currently, we distribute a stripped down Centos to customers. > We do this by > creating an ISO that is just a syslinux system with a ks.cfg > loaded via http > (ks=http://blah.blah.com/). Within the ks.cfg, the > installation method > specified is http as well, so basically everything is pulled > from the web > server. To carry it one step further, we have our customers > download a > customized Unetbootin which pulls down this installer ISO file > and installs it > onto a USB flash drive. The customer then boots their server > from the flash > drive, the kernel and initrd.img file are loaded, the > kickstart is retrieved > from the http server, as is minstg2.img, and the installation > goes on its merry > way. It works wonderfully--IF the customer's server can get > an IP address from > a DHCP server. But often it cannot, because, for example, it > is in a DMZ; > besides, ultimately, we require them to enter a static address > for the server, > althought that doesn't happen until after installation. The > solution at the > moment is to have the customer edit the boot command of the > installer and append > an IP, netmask, gw and dns address. No big deal if one is > used to Linux, but > Sales & Marketing is telling me our customer's can't handle > this. So, my > thought is to prompt the customer for the network info at the > very beginning of > the boot process, and then somehow pass that to anaconda so it > can connect to > our web server. Interestingly, right now when the installer > does not get an > address from a dhcp server, it does pop up the network > configuration dialog. > Unfortunately, this info does not get passed to minstg2.img > because while > minstg2.img does get downloaded, it then gives errors that the > kickstart file > could not be downloaded; tcpdump showed new dhcp requests > coming from the > installer at this stage. My first thought was to put the > kickstart into the > initrd.img in the ISO and use the ks=file: parameter in the > boot command, and in > %pre put some shell commands that would prompt the user for > networking info. > But it's still trying to pull minstg2.img from the web server. > At 37MB, > minstg2.img is more than four times the entire installer ISO, > but if it gives me > an environment for prompting the user for network info, I'll > put it into the ISO. > > So, my questions are: > > 1. How do I tell anaconda that minstg2.img is on the same > medium as initrd.img > and ks.cfg and so on? > > 2. When DHCP fails and the dialog for network info pops up, is > there a way that > info can be passed to minstg2.img, such that ks.cfg could be > pulled from the web > server and not have to be in initrd.img? > > 3. One would think that the asknetwork parameter would answer > #2 above, but it > doesn't seem to. Should it? Am I just doing something > incorrectly? > > Thanks. > > Peter > Peter, I not sure if this helps, but quite a while back, I created a customized cdrom install for some customers where the install asks for the specific IP, subnet mask, gateway and nameserver at the beginning of the install. I used this guide to get it working: http://lingxiang.tang.googlepages.com/createalesssizecentos5 Here are the relevant portions of the ks file, watch out for email text wraps. --- install text lang en_US.UTF-8 keyboard us %include /tmp/buildnet xconfig --resolution 1280x1024 --depth 24 --defaultdesktop=GNOME --startxonboot rootpw --iscrypted $1$YgYDO$VBMrl0IkjTjv3Xu817AZa/ authconfig --enableshadow --enablemd5 firewall --disabled selinux --disabled timezone America/New_York reboot --eject zerombr bootloader --location=mbr clearpart --all part /boot --fstype ext3 --size=150 --asprimary part / --fstype ext3 --size=5000 --asprimary part swap --recommended part pv.00 --size=1 --grow volgroup vg00 pv.00 logvol /var --name=var --vgname=vg00 --fstype ext3 --size=2000 logvol /usr1 --name=usr1 --vgname=vg00 --fstype ext3 --size=1 --grow services --enabled rsh,rlogin,telnet,nfs,vsftpd services --disabled auditd,bluetooth,ip6tables,ntpd,sendmail,iptables,smartd,pcs cd,avahi-daemon,restorecond,mdmonitor,irqbalance,hidd %pre # setup the network interface to use static ip chvt 3 exec < /dev/tty3 > /dev/tty3 echo "--Static Network Configuration--" echo "Please enter hostname for this machine, IE: myhost" read HOSTNAME echo "Please enter ip address for this machine, IE: 192.168.0.100" read IPADDR echo "Please enter subnet mask for this machine, IE: 255.255.255.0" read NETMASK echo "Please enter gateway address for this machine, IE: 192.168.0.1" read GATEWAY echo "Please enter nameserver address for this machine, IE: 192.168.0.1" read NAMESERVER chvt 1 exec < /dev/tty1 > /dev/tty1 cat << EOF > /tmp/buildnet network --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip=$IPADDR --netmask=$NETMASK --gateway=$GATEWAY --hostname=$HOSTNAME --nameserver=$NAMESERVER --noipv6 EOF cat << EOF > /tmp/installnet ip=$IPADDR netmask=$NETMASK gateway=$GATEWAY host=$HOSTNAME EOF %packages --nobase @admin-tools @authoring-and-publishing @base @base-x @core @development-tools @engineering-and-scientific @gnome-desktop @gnome-software-development @graphical-internet @graphics @java @legacy-network-server @office @printing @ruby @sound-and-video @system-tools @x-software-development acroread acroread-plugin arts bsh compat-libstdc++-33 cyrus-sasl dbus-devel ddd desktop-printing dkms elinks emacs flash-plugin glibc-devel httpd im-chooser jre-1.6.0-fcs libxml2-devel ncurses-devel openmotif openmotif-devel openmotif22 python-devel samba-client sendmail system-config-securitylevel system-config-services vim-enhanced vsftpd wmctrl zlib-devel -ckermit -elilo -elsa -gnopernicus -iprutils -java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-plugin -libungif-devel -linuxwacom -logwatch -longrun -mcelog -mlocate -notify-daemon -open -openldap-clients -pidgin -pirut -ppc64-utils -prctl -pup # optional packages to install elfutils-libelf-devel-static elfutils-libelf-devel elfutils-devel-static elfutils-devel xorg-x11-xbitmaps %post --nochroot chvt 3 exec < /dev/tty3 > /dev/tty3 mkdir -p /mnt/source mount -t iso9660 /tmp/cdrom /mnt/source echo "sleeping 3 minutes" cp /tmp/installnet /mnt/sysimage/tmp/installnet df -h >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/mounted.txt # Copy demo files into place. cp /mnt/source/files/desktop-setup.sh /mnt/sysimage/tmp/ umount /mnt/source exec < /dev/tty1 > /dev/tty1 %post # source /tmp/installnet # Allow X11 Forwarding /usr/bin/perl -pi -e 's/#.*ForwardX11 no/ForwardX11 yes/' /etc/ssh/ssh_config # Create /usr1/home and nfs export it. mkdir /usr1/home echo "/usr1/home *(rw,root_squash,sync)" > /etc/exports for NUM in `seq 1 20` do echo "user${NUM} ${host}:/usr1/home/user${NUM}" >> /etc/auto.home /usr/sbin/useradd -g users -c "User${NUM}" -d /usr1/home/user${NUM} -s /bin/csh user${NUM} /bin/chmod g+rx /usr1/home/user${NUM} /usr/sbin/usermod -d /home/user${NUM} user${NUM} echo "user${NUM}:user${NUM}" >> /tmp/users.txt done cat /tmp/users.txt |/usr/sbin/chpasswd wait echo "end of post-install" exit 0 _______________________________________________ Kickstart-list mailing list Kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list
