Kickstart-list Digest, Vol 80, Issue 4

[Matthew Sellers]

Hi Lance,

I think the easiest route to your solution is to use %ksappend or
%include.  You can create a script that runs in %pre to generate the
customized portions of the kickstart, then %include that customization
via the include statement.  A step up from this concept is using a
tool like cobbler... check out its website if you have never heard of
it before.

Basic Concept
--

%pre

# script to detect hardware and spit out custom kickstart lines:
bash /root/ks_setup_drives.sh > /tmp/ks_drive_config.ks

.... then inside kickstart:

# include generated script:
%include /tmp/ks_drive_config.ks

I hope I am right that this behavior is consistent across older
releases of Anaconda?

--
Matt











On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Lance Gropper
<streamscalelance at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Joe:
> This is a followup to a previous posting - I need to alter constants in the
> kickstart file, which can't be altered in the %pre or %post sections. In
> particular, I'm creating an automated install, however the source
> installation device varies from machine to machine (on some machines, it's
> sda, on some it is sdb, and on some it is the last available sd device). The
> thinking here is that I can put statements in the %pre section which will
> modify the kickstart file only if the system is different from how the
> kickstart is currently set, then I want to rerun Anaconda at that point.
> When the Anaconda restarts (or starts), if it sees that the file matches the
> system, it continues with the kickstart process without modifying the file
> and without restarting Anaconda. I have no problem with the logic or
> modifying the file - I just need a way to restart anaconda without rebooting
> the machine or rerunning GRUB. Maybe even run a second instance of Anaconda
> from within Anaconda (but then clean exiting will become an issue).
> Lance
> On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 9:00 AM, <kickstart-list-request at redhat.com> wrote:
>>
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>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   1. Can anaconda rerun itself? (Lance Gropper)
>>   2. Re: Can anaconda rerun itself? (Joe Wulf)
>>   3. Re: Can anaconda rerun itself? (Chris Lumens)
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Lance Gropper <streamscalelance at gmail.com>
>> To: kickstart-list at redhat.com
>> Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 13:44:53 -0700
>> Subject: Can anaconda rerun itself?
>> Hello Ya'all:
>> Is it possible to put something in the %pre such that Anaconda re-runs
>> itself without rebooting the system or running grub?
>> Lance
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Joe Wulf <joe_wulf at yahoo.com>
>> To: Discussion list about Kickstart <kickstart-list at redhat.com>
>> Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 14:29:31 -0700 (PDT)
>> Subject: Re: Can anaconda rerun itself?
>> Hello Lance---what is the use case?  What will you leverage this for?
>>
>> R,
>> -Joe Wulf
>>
>> From: Lance Gropper <streamscalelance at gmail.com>
>> To: kickstart-list at redhat.com
>> Sent: Tue, October 5, 2010 4:44:53 PM
>> Subject: Can anaconda rerun itself?
>>
>> Hello Ya'all:
>> Is it possible to put something in the %pre such that Anaconda re-runs
>> itself without rebooting the system or running grub?
>> Lance
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Chris Lumens <clumens at redhat.com>
>> To: kickstart-list at redhat.com
>> Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 09:07:51 -0400
>> Subject: Re: Can anaconda rerun itself?
>> > Is it possible to put something in the %pre such that Anaconda re-runs
>> > itself without rebooting the system or running grub?
>>
>> anaconda does not do a good job cleaning up after itself since it knows
>> it runs with /tmp on a ramdisk and nothing will persist anyway.
>> Therefore while it's likely you can do this, there's going to be a bunch
>> of stuff in /tmp and mounted on the system that you will have to clean
>> up yourself.
>>
>> I think this is a bad idea, though.
>>
>> - Chris
>>
>>
>>
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