Kickstart for Fedora and RedHat

Text with a grey background will vary between users and systems.

Text in a Courier/Serif-type font is to be typed at a terminal/command prompt.

Text inside [square brackets] is optional to the command and can be ignored or changed.

"example.net" is a fictitious domain.

Introduction

The aim of this document is to enable you to build RedHat and Fedora client PCs with the minimum of time and effort.

The example in this document uses Fedora Core 4 for the client and Apache running on Linux for the server.

Distributions prepared so far are:

• Fedora Core 5
• Fedora Core 4
• Fedora Core 3
• RedHat Workstation 4
• RedHat Workstation 3
• RedHat Workstation 2.1
• RedHat Enterprise Server 4
• RedHat Enterprise Server 3

Installation typically takes less than 30 minutes depending on the distribution, the speed of the client and network conditions.

Quick start guide

• Go to http://kickstart.example.net/kickstart and download the iso image that relates to the distribution you're installing
• Boot from the CD and when prompted type kickstart
• It may be necessary to confirm the mouse type if a two-button mouse is detected
• It may be necessary to confirm that you want to use DHCP
• Wait for the build to finish and the computer to restart
• Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and /etc/hosts to rename the computer

Kickstart server

Set up an http server, e.g. Apache, with name kickstart.example.net. If this name is changed then the boot CDs will have to be recompiled (see below).
Make a directory at the document root level for each distribution, e.g. http://kickstart/kickstart/fc4
Copy the RedHat or Fedora directory from each CD to the distribution directory, e.g. http://kickstart/kickstart/fc4/Fedora/...
cp -r /media/cdrom/Fedora /public/kickstart/fc4/

Set up a kickstart file. You can copy this from /root/anaconda-ks.cfg on an existing installation or use this example (Fedora Core 4).
The kickstart file should be copied to the distribution directory, e.g. http://kickstart/kickstart/fc4/ks.cfg.
The kickstart file can also run a script at the end. Write your own or use this example (all versions).
Copy this to a common directory, e.g. http://kickstart/kickstart/common/.

Boot CD

Copy the isolinux directory from the distribution's boot CD to a Linux computer:

mkdir /tmp/cdroot
cp -rv /mnt/cdrom/isolinux /tmp/cdroot/

Make the files writeable:

chmod -R u+w /tmp/cdroot/isolinux

Edit the isolinux.cfg file:

vi /tmp/cdroot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg

Edit the boot.msg file:

vi /tmp/cdroot/isolinux/boot.msg

Make a new bootable iso image from the isolinux directory:

mkisofs -o /tmp/boot-ks.iso -r -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T /tmp/cdroot/isolinux/

Kickstart client

Use your favourite CD writing software to write the CD, or if using VMWare point the CD-ROM at the iso image.

Set the PC to boot from CD.

When you reach the boot: prompt type kickstart

The computer will boot from the hard disk after 30 seconds if there is no input.

Notes

To encrypt a password

VMWare configuration

Certain RedHat and Fedora distributions need the following configuration added to the end of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:

References

• http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/08/19/kickstart.html
• http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/11/04/advanced_kickstart.html
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.3-Manual/custom-guide/ch-kickstart2.html
• http://members.chello.at/bobby100/ILpart1.htm
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/s1-kickstart2-startinginstall.html
• http://www.stanford.edu/~alfw/PXE-Kickstart/PXE-Kickstart.html

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