BenInTx

The following is from Red Hat 9 Manual. "7.8.2. Creating a Kickstart Boot CD-ROM To perform a CD-ROM-based kickstart installation, the kickstart file must be named ks.cfg and must be located in the boot CD-ROM's top-level directory. Since a CD-ROM is read-only, the file must be added to the directory used to create the image that is written to the CD-ROM. Refer to the Making an Installation Boot CD-ROM section in the Red Hat Linux Installation Guide for instruction on creating a boot CD-ROM; however, before making the file.iso image file, copy the ks.cfg kickstart file to the isolinux/ directory" Why copy the ks.cfg to the isolinux directory? That isn't the way my vendor boot CD is. Would that have an effect on the ks.cfg operation from the CD? Yea, I'm stretching far and wide for answers/guesses. --------------------------- On another forum, I was just told (new to me, like many things) the /isolinux directory of the boot CD is the root directory. Perhaps, I'll rework the vendor CD ISO to include a copy of the ks.cfg file in the /isolinux directory and burn a new one. [Edited by BenInTx on 2004-07-30 23:41:57]

Regarding #1, Ah... I new to this, hence I don't know how to select a new install from "/tmp/cdrom". Local CDROM seems to be the only good answer, given the options. Regarding #2, Yep, had some ^M characters using a Win text editor. I pulled the ks.cfg file up using pico on the linux box, checked it out and resaved it using ^O, then exit with ^X. However, the original ks.cfg file, which didn't seem to work after %post was from the vendor. That's not to say I didn't mess up somehow. Anyway, I'm running the ks.cfg (resaved with pico) file from floppy, and trying to install again. Regarding #3, The vendor CD is setup to boot, provide the ks.cfg file, and be replaced with RH9 Disc1 when prompted for Installation Package Location (i.e. Local CD-ROM), then RH9 Disc2, then RH9 Disc3, then the ks.cfg %post section looks for /cdrom/ks.cfg on the CD and if not present (which it isn't on the RH9 disc3), it requests the vendor CD (looping until it finds the /cdrom/ks.cfg). BTW, thanks for helping.

I haven't tried that, but it's easy enough to do. BTW, the drive works. i.e. I can install from the RH9 CDs without any problem, IF I don't run the kickstart CD first. FWIW, the HD is a 15k rpm SCSI. There are posts on the web about a problem with RH9 using kickstart. There was something about the "linux ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" where only the first 7 characters were seen, e.g. "ks=cdro". Supposedly, only a factor when the ks.cfg location is the boot CD. However, I don't know enough. I created a linux boot disk, booted from floppy and tried to ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg. I got the same "CD-ROM not found" message after selecting "Local CD-ROM" as the installation source. I've put in 3 different CD & DVD drives to see if that made a difference. It didn't.

An HP DT855AV connected to the primary IDE controller and set to Master via jumper. That is a 8X DVD+RW drive.

This is a composite of posts I've left elsewhere at other Linux sites. I'm still hoping for some answers. I've got an xw8000, dual Xeon system. I'm attempting to load RH9 from a vendor CD that has a ks.cfg file in the top directory. The vendor CD boots and ks.cfg is supposed to startup, load RH9 from "Local CDROM", then when all 3 CDs are done, prompt me to reinstall my vendor CD to finish with some RPM additions, "housekeeping", etc.. The CD-ROM isn't found after I select the Installation Location as Local CDROM (Yes, I saw the "patch" links here about prolant servers, but the links are dead). I assume the CD-ROM issue has something to do with the RH9 driver? bug. The vendor told me he swapped one drive for another and was able to make it work. I have a DT855 that came with the xw8000 (it was a "no go"), and picked up an HP 420i (no go also). Is there a CD or DVD drive I can get that WILL work? And, no, I'm stuck using RH9 in this manner for technical and legal reasons. Is there a driver I can load, when asked, that would get around the suspect driver in RH9? Lastly, I tried running the kickstart program from a floppy using "linux ks=floppy" at "boot:" and RH9 CD1 in the CDROM. It went well until I got to the "%Post" in the ks.cfg file. It didn't do any of the "%Post --nochroot" installation stuff (e.g. I never got asked to put the vendor CD in the drive - one of the first things in %Post). I could REALLY use some help. ------------------------ BTW, the following is the %Post section (that's not working from the floppy) of my ks.cfg file. %post --nochroot #Set up for install #/mnt/sysimage is the hard drive #/tmp/cdrom is the cdrom driver (if present) #/dev/console is terminal 1 cddrv=/tmp/cdrom # Determine cd device if [ ! -e ${cddrv} ] then cddrv=`grep cdrom /proc/ide/*/media | sed -e "s/\/proc\/ide/\/dev/" | sed -e "s/\/media.*//"` fi echo "Post processing started" > /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log cd / mkdir /cdrom #Move to terminal 1 cause that's where read looks for input chvt 1 correctdisk=0 #Loop until they enter the correct cd while [ ${correctdisk} -eq 0 ] do if [ ! -e /cdrom/ks.cfg ] then umount ${cddrv} > /dev/null 2>&1 echo "Message about to be delivered" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log echo "" > /dev/console echo "" > /dev/console echo "" > /dev/console echo "Load the XiO boot disk into the CD drive and hit enter to continue" > /dev/console read ans echo "Message acknowledged" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log mount ${cddrv} /cdrom else correctdisk=1 fi done #Go to where messages will be written which is 3 chvt 3 echo "Loading additional files" echo "Correct CD Mounted" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log #Determine if up[censored] smp or not smp=`rpm -qa -r /mnt/sysimage | grep kernel-smp | wc -l` echo "smp is equal to " >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log echo "${smp}" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log #rpmdb pkg expects /var/lib/rpm. Don't dissappoint them ln -s /mnt/sysimage/var/lib/rpm /var/lib #Load the correct set of rpm files if [ ${smp} -ge 1 ] then rpm -Uvh --root /mnt/sysimage /cdrom/errata/comps.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-2.4.20-8.i686.rpm /cdrom/errata/initscripts-7.14-1.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-source-2.4.20-8.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-smp-2.4.20-8.i686.rpm /cdrom/errata/rhn-applet-2.0.9-0.9.0.1.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-doc-2.4.20-8.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/rpmdb-redhat-9-0.20030313.i386.rpm | tee -a /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log else rpm -Uvh --root /mnt/sysimage /cdrom/errata/comps.rpm /cdrom/errata/initscripts-7.14-1.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-source-2.4.20-8.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-2.4.20-8.i686.rpm /cdrom/errata/rhn-applet-2.0.9-0.9.0.1.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/kernel-doc-2.4.20-8.i386.rpm /cdrom/errata/rpmdb-redhat-9-0.20030313.i386.rpm | tee -a /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log fi # Determine if bcm 5700 or not bcm=`lsmod | grep bcm5700 | wc -l` # Install bcm5700 if needed if [ ${bcm} -ge 1 ] then rpm -ivh --root /mnt/sysimage /cdrom/bcm5700-6.0.2-1.i386.rpm | tee -a /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log fi #Clean up echo "RPMs installed" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log umount ${cddrv} echo "CD unmounted" >> /mnt/sysimage/tmp/rhks.log chvt 7 ----------------------------- I haven't been able to resolve my kickstart CDROM issue, except by putting ks.cfg on a floppy and "linux expert ks=floppy". However, when I do ks.cfg from floppy, it doesn't execute the %post commands. Can I cut and paste the %post commands to a file and run it as a batch? How? Do I still need the "/mnt/sysimage" phrase if run from a batch(e.g. smp='rpm -qa -r /mnt/sysimage | grep kernel-smp | wc -l'), delete it for batch, or replace it with something else? Basic stuff, I'm sure, but I'm very new to it all.