topic Re: Unable to download the kickstart file in Operating System - Linux

Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:26:33 GMT

Hi there
There is a kickstart file on http://10.10.0.3/ks.cfg it opens in the browser fine and I can read the content.
Also wget http://10.10.0.3/ks.cf works flawlessly yet the installation fails with the following error : "Unable to download the kickstart file, please modify the kickstart parameter..."
I'm using apache as a web server.
Any idea what's causing the problem ?
Do I need some special configuration of Apache ?

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Michal Kapalka (mikap) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 07:54:19 GMT

hi,

check this forum thread :

http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/YcynVy2jK7BBdYo5BvqY

mikap

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:50:01 GMT

Well - I'm not using NFS here.
So it seems to me that post is irrelevant unless I don't get it.

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:08:42 GMT

Also I have only one NIC in my VM and I'm not specifying the ksdevice in my ks.cfg .
Should I do that ?

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Matti_Kurkela — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:52:16 GMT

You did not mention the name of your Linux distribution, but Kickstart suggests RedHat or one of its derivatives.

RedHat's installer sets up a shell prompt on one of the virtual consoles, and a log or two on other virtual consoles.

You might take a look at the logged messages, and/or use the shell prompt to verify the system has a working network connection.

See paragraph 4.1.1 of this document for a description of the virtual console functionality of the installer (this part of the installer has not changed significantly since RHEL 3):

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/3/html/Installation_Guide_x8664/ch-guimode.html

Another possibility is that the web server offers the kickstart file using a MIME content type the installer does not like. I guess "text/plain" would be acceptable, but this might not be Apache's default content type for .cfg files.

If this is the case, you might have to add the file type to your Apache configuration:

AddType text/plain .cfg

MK

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Jimmy Vance — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:06:05 GMT

You don't mention the server model or distribution version your working with. Even though other systems can access the ks file OK, maybe the system your trying to install on does not have proper NIC drivers during boot to access the ks file?

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:47:50 GMT

I'm trying to install Centos5.5 64-bit
The PXE server is Debian.

vim /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default

### CENTOS 5.5 - CUSTOM ###
LABEL Centos 5.5 x86_64 Custom
kernel CentOS/vmlinuz noapic
append initrd=CentOS/initrd.img ks=http://10.10.0.3/ks.cfg text nofb
TEXT HELP
Customized, unatended installation version of Centos 5.5
ENDTEXT
\n

Did you mean to add this to apache config ? :

DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm index.cfg ks.cfg

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Jimmy Vance — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:15:57 GMT

OK, so now we know your working with CentOS

Does the CentOS 5.5 initrd image your booting from contain the correct NIC drivers for the server your trying to install on? You didn't mention the server model.

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:30:21 GMT

It's a VM on ESXi 4.1.
I'm already using the same intrd here:
Label CentOS 5 64-bit installer & rescue
kernel centos5x64/vmlinuz
append initrd=centos5x64/initrd.img text vga=791
\n

I have just copied it to a different dir and started working on the kickstart installation.
The manual installation goes without any problems so I can't see why would it be different for the kickstart.

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Jimmy Vance — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:56:43 GMT

A manual installation from media doesn't matter if it is bare iron, or a VM, the network does not come into play. For bare iron, or a VM, network installation the boot installer needs to be able to access the network to pull the KS file. While your in the installer switch over to one of the other console screens F2, F4, etc and see if the network is functional

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Piotr Kirklewski — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:52:54 GMT

Alt + F3 shows the following message:
ERROR: No network device in choose network device!
ERROR: No network drivers for dooing kickstart
ERROR: Unable to bring up network

Where do I go from there ?

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

Jimmy Vance — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:12:04 GMT

Hopefully someone with more VMware experience than I have will chime in. I'm not sure what driver you need to load for the virtual NIC VMware presents to the guest OS

Re: Unable to download the kickstart file

DeafFrog — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:05:20 GMT

Hi ,

pls check this :

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_41_new_feat.html

section "network" > ESXi configuration guide > page 96 .

hope this helps..

Reg.