<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9"> <TITLE>RedHat Linux KickStart HOWTO: FAQs/Wish list</TITLE> <LINK HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-11.html" REL=next> <LINK HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-9.html" REL=previous> <LINK HREF="KickStart-HOWTO.html#toc10" REL=contents> </HEAD> <BODY> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-11.html">Next</A> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-9.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A> <HR> <H2><A NAME="s10">10. FAQs/Wish list</A></H2> <P> <P><B>Q:</B> After KickStart installation, my machine won't boot up. The BIOS complains with a message like <CODE>Missing operating system</CODE>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> Sounds like the partition with the root filesystem on isn't bootable. Use <CODE>fdisk</CODE> to toggle its bootable status. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> After the floppy boots, I get the message: <CODE>Error opening files for kickstart copy: File exists</CODE>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> Use a more recent version of <EM>boot.img</EM> and <EM>supp.img</EM> - look in the <EM>updates</EM> directory of your local RedHat mirror site. There was a bug in some older versions of these for RedHat 5.1. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Can you have all outstanding patches (update RPMs) applied automatically too ? How ? <P> <P><B>A1:</B> Copy the RPMs you want installing to the RPMS directory from which the installation is going to take place, get rid of the older RPMs, and update the file <EM>RedHat/base/hdlist</EM> with the new RPM details. See Appendix C for a script from Eric Doutreleau to do this for you. If you do this yourself, remember to run <EM>genhdlist</EM> afterwards! <P> <P><B>A2:</B> Try this Perl script: <A HREF="http://wwwcache.ja.net/dev/patchup/">patchup</A>. This compares the RPMs your system has installed with those in a nominated directory and reports on the ones it thinks need updating. It can even install them for you if you trust it to. <P> <P><B>A3:</B> <A HREF="http://rufus.w3.org/linux/rpm2html/">rpm2hml</A> has a much more powerful (12MB of C code vs. a page of Perl!) version of A2. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> A single config file on the install server for all of the clients, perhaps as a fallback after trying <EM>IPADDR-kickstart</EM> ? <P> <P><B>A1:</B> Use the BOOTP/DHCP 'boot file' parameter <EM>bf</EM> to set the filename. <P> <P><B>A2:</B> Add a a record <CODE>bf=/kickstart/ks.cfg</CODE> to the relevant entry in <EM>/etc/bootptab</EM>. <P><B>Q:</B> More flexibility when things go wrong - e.g. prompt for alternate locations if distribution not found on CD-ROM. <P> <P><B>A:</B> ? <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Explicit exclusion of packages - e.g. everything apart from <EM>sendmail</EM>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> Rebuild the <B>BASE</B> package without sendmail. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Choose which services are started automatically on boot-up by the run-level scripts under <EM>/etc/rc.d/</EM>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> The <EM>chkconfig</EM> utility lets you configure which services are run automatically on boot-up. You can run this in your post-installation script section, e.g. to run <EM>ypbind</EM> in run levels 3, 4 and 5: <P> <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> <PRE> chkconfig --level 345 ypbind on </PRE> </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <P>and it will start the ypbind level on the 345 level. <P><B>Q:</B> When executing the shell commands in the <CODE>%post</CODE> section, bring any output up in another virtual console rather than overwriting the main screen. <EM>Could be done in the shell commands section using <CODE>open</CODE>?</EM>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> No problem - do something like this: <P> <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> <PRE> exec >/dev/tty5 </PRE> </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Does the filesystem creation code check for bad blocks ? <P> <P><B>A:</B> If you switch to the virtual console where the filesystem creation output is being displayed, you won't see any mention of the 'read-only' test being performed. Looks like the answer is no. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Can I arrange things so some of my machines are configured differently from others ? <P> <P><B>A:</B> You could move the host dependent stuff into the scripted section of the KickStart config - e.g. only install a given RPM if on a given machine. It would be useful to have a conditional installation feature in the packages section of the config file, e.g. switching on architecture, or hostname/domain name/IP address. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Are there any changes between RedHat 5.1 and 5.2 ? <P> <P><B>A1:</B> Lots of changes in the installer, but mostly bug fixes or cosmetic improvements. No impact on KickStart as far as I can tell - from a <EM>diff -rcs</EM> of the two <EM>misc/src/install</EM> directories. <P> <P><B>A2:</B> RH5.2 now apparently includes the automatic IP allocation/DHCP patches to <CODE>bootpd</CODE>, but they have left out the documentation which tells you how to use it. <P><B>Q:</B> (How) can you clear a specific partition or partitions ? e.g. to leave <EM>/home</EM> but zap <EM>/</EM>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> You can't - yet! <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Can you arrange to have your partitions created across multiple drives ? e.g. <EM>/</EM> on <CODE>sda</CODE> and <EM>/home</EM> on <CODE>sdb</CODE>. <P> <P><B>A:</B> Don't think so - looks like you only get access to the first drive from the partitioning tool. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Is it possible to specify existing partitions to be included in the mount table, or is it only possible to specify the creation of new partitions that will then be included? <P> <P><B>A:</B> ? <P> <P><B>Q:</B> After running <CODE>mkkickstart</CODE>, where is the file it creates? <P> <P><B>A:</B> It doesn't create a file - it dumps the KickStart config to <CODE>stdout</CODE>. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> In virtual console 4 (Alt-F4) I get <CODE>Unable to load NLS charset cp437(nls_cp437)</CODE>. What does this mean ? Should I be worried ? <P> <P><B>A:</B> Sounds like you're trying to mount a CD-ROM burned with the Joliet (Unicode extensions to ISO 9660. In theory the filenames on the CD-ROM might get munched and not make it through to Linux correctly. In practice it doesn't seem to cause any problems - could be a spurious dependency ? <P> <P><B>Q:</B> Why am i getting the X Window System installed ? I didn't put it in my list of packages. <P> <P><B>A:</B> The <CODE>XFree86-VGA16</CODE> RPM is a 'base' component, and as such always gets installed - unless you change the definition of the base class. <P> <P><B>Q:</B> In my post-installation script, can I use the packages which have been installed by now to do funky things not possible with the limited tools on the floppies ? <P> <P><B>A:</B> Yep - e.g. if you chose to install Perl when you put your KickStart config together, almost anything is possible in about five lines :-) <P> <P> <P> <HR> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-11.html">Next</A> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO-9.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="KickStart-HOWTO.html#toc10">Contents</A> </BODY> </HTML>
