Installing minimal number of packages

[Michael DeHaan]

Joe_Wulf wrote:
> Michael, thank you very much for the feedback.
> Those PDF's I'll surely take a look at.
>
> The /root/anaconda-ks.cfg does seem to pick up some of the unique qualities of
> the HW
> installed on.  But, seems to loose specifics, such as anything in %post.  Also,
> the
> adding of a user doesn't seem to have an equivalent during the install or post
> sections.
>   
Ok, I wasn't aware of that.

Maybe some one has an answer for that, though you might want to file an 
RFE in bugzilla about keeping the %post and user stuff.

> I've looked at that describes how to build a system, and manipulate firstboot to
> meet
> my needs.  Maybe that isn't a kickstart 'thing' either.  Don't know yet.
>   

Typically I disable firstboot in kickstart. (firstboot --disable). One 
thing you can do if you want is to create a service script
in /etc/rc.d that runs what you want on boot, and then the last line of 
that script you can disable the script by either moving/deleting
it or running chkconfig to disable it. Effectively you've done the same 
as firstboot, without using firstboot. That being said, I'm sure
there are others that get good mileage out of it.

The other way to go would be to pick up a configuration management 
system (puppet, cfengine, bcfg2, etc) and let the configuration
management system do the post-install setup you require. That is really 
the ideal approach.