Unable to download the kickstart file

[Piotr Kirklewski]

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 ?

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

check this forum thread :

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

mikap

[Piotr Kirklewski]

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

[Piotr Kirklewski]

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

[Matti_Kurkela]

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

[Jimmy Vance]

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?

[Piotr Kirklewski]

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

[Jimmy Vance]

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.

[Piotr Kirklewski]

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.

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

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