RedHat Linux Kickstart Documentation
see:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/ch-kickstart2.htmlRedHat 8:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/custom-guide/ch-kickstart2.htmlNote that the Kickstart appears unchanged since RedHat 7.3.
Kickstarting from the hard disk through grub:
title Reinstall
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz.reinstall ks=hd:hda1:/ks.cfg
initrd /initrd.reinstall
Grab the vmlinuz and initrd from the install CD and put them in /boot.
Then when you want to reinstall, just edit grub.conf, change the
default= line and remove the "lock". The system will kickstart
itself, no bood media is required (besides the hard disk, of course).
(Aparrently this will work on ext3 filesystems as well.)
Another trick: leave the ks.cfg on a web server somewhere:
title Reinstall
lock
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz.reinstall ks=http://kickstart.server/ks.cfg
initrd /initrd.reinstall
From the syslinux prompt, you can tell the system to demand a driver disk right away:
...but you have to be careful to put the boot disk back in immediately after reading the driver or the installer won't find the ks.cfg on the floppy. (If you have the ks.cfg on a boot CDROM, or on a http server somewhere, you don't have to worry about this.)
If you have your ks.cfg available on a http server somewhere, you can even use the distribution media to initiate the kickstart. At the boot: prompt, enter:
boot: linux ks=http://10.0.10.2/ks/9/ks.cfg
...adjusting the URL to reflect where your ks.cfg really is, of course.
If you have more than one interface, the installer will stop and ask you which one you want to use. You can tell it in advance:
boot: linux ks=http://10.0.10.2/ks/9/ks.cfg ksdevice=eth0
If you don't need a shell prompt (
Alt-F2 at the installer) and think that leaving access to a shell prompt might be dangerous, you can disable it as so:
boot: linux ks=http://10.0.10.2/ks/9/ks.cfg noshell