Re: Can the install method be contained within a kickstart file that is referenced via a %include option

[Matthew Richards <Matthew Richards contentkeeper com>]

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 shaw ca>
To: Discussion of Development and Customization of the Red Hat Linux Installer 
<anaconda-devel-list redhat com>
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

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