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The Ubuntu installer supports automating installs using Kickstart files, as designed by Red Hat for use in their Anaconda installer. This method is not as flexible as the preconfiguration file method above, but it requires less knowledge of how the installer works.
This section documents only the basics, and differences between Anaconda and the Ubuntu installer. Refer to the Red Hat documentation (http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en- US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/ch-kickstart2.html) for detailed instructions.
To generate a Kickstart file, install the system-config-kickstart package and run system-config-kickstart. This offers you a graphical user interface to the various options available.
Once you have a Kickstart file, you can edit it if necessary, and place it on a web, FTP, or NFS server, or copy it onto the installer’s boot media. Wherever you place the file, you need to pass a parameter to the installer at boot time to tell it to use the file.
To make the installer use a Kickstart file downloaded from a web or FTP server, add ks=http://url/to/ks.cfg or ks=ftp://url/to/ks.cfg respectively to the kernel boot parameters. This requires the installer to be able to set up the network via DHCP on the first connected interface without asking any questions; you may also need to add ksdevice=eth1 or similar if the installer fails to determine the correct interface automatically.
Similarly, to make the installer use a Kickstart file on an NFS server, add ks=nfs:server:/path/to/ks.cfg to the kernel boot parameters. The method supported by Anaconda of adding a plain "ks" boot param- eter to work out the location of the Kickstart file from a DHCP response is not yet supported by the Ubuntu installer.
To place a Kickstart file on a CD, you would need to remaster the ISO image to include your Kickstart file, and add ks=cdrom:/path/to/ks.cfg to the kernel boot parameters. See the manual page for mkisofs for details.
4.4.2.1. Additions