unable to start kickstart installation

[parkarnoor]

Hi all,

i have setup linux 6 httpd server for network installation:
distribution: 2.6.32-19.el6.i686

here are my httpd.conf

<VirtualHost 192.168.10.1:80>
ServerAdmin rootatlocalhost
DocumentRoot /data/
</VirtualHost>

<Directory /data/network-install>
Options +Indexes
AllowOverride AuthConfig
order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>


i have setup /data/network-install/ directory for network installation.
i have created ks.cfg in /data/network-install/kickstart/ks.cfg

in ks.cfg the first line is

install
url --url=...://192.168.10.1/network-install/

which seems correct.

i have modified boot.iso to include ks path in isolinux.cfg as
append initrd=initrd.img ks=...://192.168.10.1/network-install/kickstart/ks.cfg

note: i have ... to denote http
since this post did not allow me to post http url.
now when i am opening client machine ..it is booting in kickstart mode but i am getting errors:

Error in <h1>Forbidden</h1> on line 6 of kickstart file /tmp/ks.cfg

click ok and another error is:

Error in <hr> on line 9 of kickstart file /tmp/ks.cfg
(loader:54): Glib-CRITICAL **: unquote_string_inplace: assertion 'err == NULL || *err == NULL' failed



is it wrong configuration?
shall i place ks.cfg in /data/ which is root of web server?

also if you have goog step by step guide to do kickstart installation please?

Regards,

[atreyu]

Hey,

Instead of putting your URL in your kickstart file, try passing it on the command line, when you execute the kernel. You can do it in isolinux, syslinux, grub, whatever. Here's an example of how I might specify a RHEL 6 installation over PXE. The notable portions are the ks= and the repo= lines. You can figure out what to put there.

# RHEL 6.0
label rhel6
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img ks=http://192.168.1.1/RHEL-minimal.ks repo=http://192.168.1.1/redhat/enterprise/6/en/os/x86_64/ ramdisk_size=8192

The quick way to test whether your ks and repo lines are working is by simply trying to load their respective URLS in a browser from another machine on the same network: if you can't load them in that page, then they won't work in the install.

BTW, you can keep your kickstart file dead simple, at first. Here's an example of a simple one:

#System language
lang en_US

#System keyboard
keyboard us

#Installation Type
install

#System timezone
timezone --utc Europe/London

#System authorization information
auth --useshadow --enablemd5

#SELinux
selinux --disabled

#Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled

#Do not configure the X Window System
#skipx

#Bootloader
bootloader --location=mbr --append="selinux=0 vga=0x318"

#Root password
rootpw --iscrypted $1$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwzyz

# Prevent the Setup Agent from launching, the first time the system is booted
firstboot --disabled

# services to disable
--disabled=kudzu,NetworkManager,NetworkManagerDispatcher,avahi-daemon,cups,netconsole,netfs,ntpd,rdisc,wpa_supplicant --enabled=network

#Package install information, for 'install' only
%packages --nobase
@Core
openssh-clients
openssh-server

Here's a good list of Anaconda options that you can put in your kickstart file:
Anaconda/Kickstart - FedoraProject

And here's Anacona boot options that you can pass to the kernel (installer) at boot time:
Anaconda Boot Options - FedoraProject

They are Fedora-specific, but in reality should mostly apply to RHEL.

[parkarnoor]

Hi thanks for reply,

i have found the solution for above problem. i found that that permission for file was incorrect. it was set to rw-------
i modified to 755. and it worked.
but there is another problem now. when i boot to kickstart. after selecting eth0 and on next wizard it showed to choose partition to for network image for installation . it gave me two options to choose that from /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. when i pressed back and typed the http url manually it worked. rest of the installation of even partitions were created automatically as set in ks file.

i think i need to modify something. to skip this /dev/sda1 and dev/sda2 prompt

Regards,
parkar
UAE

[atreyu]

that sounds like a typo in the URL in your kickstart file, or in your kernel boot parameters, whichever you chose. How and where are you specifying it? Check the apache error log for helpful hints, too.