Console based kickstart file generator

Fri Jul 1 09:11:56 UTC 2005

Hi ,

RHEL 3 and 4 (NOT 2.1, atleast not as delivered - you'd need to modify it)
are able to use the %include tag in their kickstartscripts. By including
external files that contain kickstart directives, you can dynamically
create parts of the kickstart script on-the-fly. Anaconda accomplishes this
by running the kickstart script twice. In your %pre script you can ask
questions which you can then use to generate other parts of the kickstart
script (via %include). You can use this to make a list of packages and
define the disk partitioning dynamically. Since your %pre script can run sh
or python, you can do tests on the system, including looking in /proc,
running fdisk or parted, etc. to determine your system configuration and
take action accordingly.

Cheers,

Christian

_________________
Christian Rohrmeier
Schering AG
Corporate IT - Infrastructure and Services
Computer Systems and Operations
System Administration - Research and Development
Tel +49 30 468 15794
Fax +49 30 468 95794

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                                                                   Subject 
                                       RE: Console based kickstart file    
             01.07.2005 06:34          generator                           

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Hello all,

Thanks to all for you for the replies, what I really want to control is
the partitioning sizes and the package selection part of kickstart, I
wan to give the user the ability to choose the package and partition
sizes all other kickstart features are hidden from them. Now how do I
get the package list for the distribution and the hard disk specs. I
would prefer to do it by shell script/dialog , but I am not restricting
the options only to this if need be .

Thanks in advance for all help

Regards
-CDC

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Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 8:09 PM
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Subject: Re: Console based kickstart file generator

Hi,

I did something similar. I put tags in a template ks.cfg that I then
replace dynamically with the apropriate text via a perl script. The
original starting point was a standard kickstart script. The
documentation for KS is actually quite good, other than a few omissions.
Most important for me was to see others' KS files to get ideas, and then
ofcourse to spend quality time writing and testing my own to learn what
can and can't be done with KS.

Cheers,

Christian

_________________
Christian Rohrmeier
Schering AG
Corporate IT - Infrastructure and Services Computer Systems and
Operations System Administration - Research and Development Tel +49 30
468 15794 Fax +49 30 468 95794

             Klaus Steden

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Subject
             30.06.2005 16:09          Re: Console based kickstart file

                                       generator

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> Hello Klaus,
>
> Can you share the same with me ? Where can I find thepackage.
>
> Thanks in advance for all the help
>
Sorry, no such luck, I put this together by hand. The approach I've
taken was to inject code in between the /sbin/loader starting (the
kickstart init
program) and anaconda being launched - something I wouldn't advise
unless you're brave and possibly foolish.

Realistically, though, the kickstart.cfg is just plain text - I grabbed
the docs, and a copy of a ks file I had used on another machine, and I
used that as my reference point for generating things. Make one using
the GUI, and start experimenting with it, would be my best advice.

hth,
Klaus

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