The following options can be placed in a kickstart file. If you prefer to use a graphical interface for creating your kickstart file, use theKickstart Configuratorapplication. Refer toChapter 29,Kickstart Configuratorfor details.
Note
If the option is followed by an equals mark (=), a value must be specified after it. In the example commands, options in brackets ([]) are optional arguments for the command.
autopart(optional)
Automatically create partitions — 1 GB or more root (/) partition, a swap partition, and an appropriate boot partition for the architecture. One or more of the default partition sizes can be redefined with thepartdirective.
ignoredisk(optional)
Causes the installer to ignore the specified disks. This is useful if you use autopartition and want to be sure that some disks are ignored. For example, withoutignoredisk, attempting to deploy on a SAN-cluster the kickstart would fail, as the installer detects passive paths to the SAN that return no partition table.
Theignorediskoption is also useful if you have multiple paths to your disks.
The syntax is:
ignoredisk --drives=drive1,drive2,...
wheredriveNis one ofsda,sdb,...,hda,... etc.
autostep(optional)
Similar tointeractiveexcept it goes to the next screen for you. It is used mostly for debugging.
--autoscreenshot
Take a screenshot at every step during installation and copy the images over to/root/anaconda-screenshotsafter installation is complete. This is most useful for documentation.
authorauthconfig(required)
Sets up the authentication options for the system. It is similar to theauthconfigcommand, which can be run after the install. By default, passwords are normally encrypted and are not shadowed.
--enablemd5
Use md5 encryption for user passwords.
--enablenis
Turns on NIS support. By default,--enablenisuses whatever domain it finds on the network. A domain should almost always be set by hand with the--nisdomain=option.
--nisdomain=
NIS domain name to use for NIS services.
--nisserver=
Server to use for NIS services (broadcasts by default).
--useshadowor--enableshadow
Use shadow passwords.
--enableldap
Turns on LDAP support in/etc/nsswitch.conf, allowing your system to retrieve information about users (UIDs, home directories, shells, etc.) from an LDAP directory. To use this option, you must install thenss_ldappackage. You must also specify a server and a base DN (distinguished name) with--ldapserver=and--ldapbasedn=.
--enableldapauth
Use LDAP as an authentication method. This enables thepam_ldapmodule for authentication and changing passwords, using an LDAP directory. To use this option, you must have thenss_ldappackage installed. You must also specify a server and a base DN with--ldapserver=and--ldapbasedn=.
--ldapserver=
If you specified either--enableldapor--enableldapauth, use this option to specify the name of the LDAP server to use. This option is set in the/etc/ldap.conffile.
--ldapbasedn=
If you specified either--enableldapor--enableldapauth, use this option to specify the DN in your LDAP directory tree under which user information is stored. This option is set in the/etc/ldap.conffile.
--enableldaptls
Use TLS (Transport Layer Security) lookups. This option allows LDAP to send encrypted usernames and passwords to an LDAP server before authentication.
--enablekrb5
Use Kerberos 5 for authenticating users. Kerberos itself does not know about home directories, UIDs, or shells. If you enable Kerberos, you must make users' accounts known to this workstation by enabling LDAP, NIS, or Hesiod or by using the/usr/sbin/useraddcommand to make their accounts known to this workstation. If you use this option, you must have thepam_krb5package installed.
--krb5realm=
The Kerberos 5 realm to which your workstation belongs.
--krb5kdc=
The KDC (or KDCs) that serve requests for the realm. If you have multiple KDCs in your realm, separate their names with commas (,).
--krb5adminserver=
The KDC in your realm that is also running kadmind. This server handles password changing and other administrative requests. This server must be run on the master KDC if you have more than one KDC.
--enablehesiod
Enable Hesiod support for looking up user home directories, UIDs, and shells. More information on setting up and using Hesiod on your network is in/usr/share/doc/glibc-2.x.x/README.hesiod, which is included in theglibcpackage. Hesiod is an extension of DNS that uses DNS records to store information about users, groups, and various other items.
--hesiodlhs
The Hesiod LHS ("left-hand side") option, set in/etc/hesiod.conf. This option is used by the Hesiod library to determine the name to search DNS for when looking up information, similar to LDAP's use of a base DN.
--hesiodrhs
The Hesiod RHS ("right-hand side") option, set in/etc/hesiod.conf. This option is used by the Hesiod library to determine the name to search DNS for when looking up information, similar to LDAP's use of a base DN.
Tip
To look up user information for "jim", the Hesiod library looks upjim.passwd<LHS><RHS>, which should resolve to a TXT record that looks like what his passwd entry would look like (jim:*:501:501:Jungle Jim:/home/jim:/bin/bash). For groups, the situation is identical, exceptjim.group<LHS><RHS>would be used.
Looking up users and groups by number is handled by making "501.uid" a CNAME for "jim.passwd", and "501.gid" a CNAME for "jim.group". Note that the LHS and RHS do not have periods.put in front of them when the library determines the name for which to search, so the LHS and RHS usually begin with periods.
--enablesmbauth
Enables authentication of users against an SMB server (typically a Samba or Windows server). SMB authentication support does not know about home directories, UIDs, or shells. If you enable SMB, you must make users' accounts known to the workstation by enabling LDAP, NIS, or Hesiod or by using the/usr/sbin/useraddcommand to make their accounts known to the workstation. To use this option, you must have thepam_smbpackage installed.
--smbservers=
The name of the server(s) to use for SMB authentication. To specify more than one server, separate the names with commas (,).
--smbworkgroup=
The name of the workgroup for the SMB servers.
--enablecache
Enables thenscdservice. Thenscdservice caches information about users, groups, and various other types of information. Caching is especially helpful if you choose to distribute information about users and groups over your network using NIS, LDAP, or hesiod.
bootloader(required)
Specifies how the boot loader should be installed. This option is required for both installations and upgrades.
--append=
Specifies kernel parameters. To specify multiple parameters, separate them with spaces. For example:
Specify which drive is first in the BIOS boot order. For example:
bootloader --driveorder=sda,hda
--location=
Specifies where the boot record is written. Valid values are the following:mbr(the default),partition(installs the boot loader on the first sector of the partition containing the kernel), ornone(do not install the boot loader).
--password=
If using GRUB, sets the GRUB boot loader password to the one specified with this option. This should be used to restrict access to the GRUB shell, where arbitrary kernel options can be passed.
--md5pass=
If using GRUB, similar to--password=except the password should already be encrypted.
--upgrade
Upgrade the existing boot loader configuration, preserving the old entries. This option is only available for upgrades.
clearpart(optional)
Removes partitions from the system, prior to creation of new partitions. By default, no partitions are removed.
Note
If theclearpartcommand is used, then the--onpartcommand cannot be used on a logical partition.
--all
Erases all partitions from the system.
--drives=
Specifies which drives to clear partitions from. For example, the following clears all the partitions on the first two drives on the primary IDE controller:
clearpart --drives=hda,hdb --all
--initlabel
Initializes the disk label to the default for your architecture (for examplemsdosfor x86 andgptfor Itanium). It is useful so that the installation program does not ask if it should initialize the disk label if installing to a brand new hard drive.
--linux
Erases all Linux partitions.
--none(default)
Do not remove any partitions.
cmdline(optional)
Perform the installation in a completely non-interactive command line mode. Any prompts for interaction halts the install. This mode is useful on IBM System z systems with the x3270 console.
device(optional)
On most PCI systems, the installation program autoprobes for Ethernet and SCSI cards properly. On older systems and some PCI systems, however, kickstart needs a hint to find the proper devices. Thedevicecommand, which tells the installation program to install extra modules, is in this format:
device <type><moduleName> --opts=<options>
<type>
Replace with eitherscsioreth
<moduleName>
Replace with the name of the kernel module which should be installed.
--opts=
Options to pass to the kernel module. Note that multiple options may be passed if they are put in quotes. For example:
--opts="aic152x=0x340 io=11"
driverdisk(optional)
Driver diskettes can be used during kickstart installations. You must copy the driver diskettes's contents to the root directory of a partition on the system's hard drive. Then you must use thedriverdiskcommand to tell the installation program where to look for the driver disk.
driverdisk <partition> [--type=<fstype>]
Alternatively, a network location can be specified for the driver diskette:
Reject incoming connections that are not in response to outbound requests, such as DNS replies or DHCP requests. If access to services running on this machine is needed, you can choose to allow specific services through the firewall.
--disabledor--disable
Do not configure any iptables rules.
--trust=
Listing a device here, such as eth0, allows all traffic coming from that device to go through the firewall. To list more than one device, use--trust eth0 --trust eth1. Do NOT use a comma-separated format such as--trust eth0, eth1.
<incoming>
Replace with one or more of the following to allow the specified services through the firewall.
--ssh
--telnet
--smtp
--http
--ftp
--port=
You can specify that ports be allowed through the firewall using the port:protocol format. For example, to allow IMAP access through your firewall, specifyimap:tcp. Numeric ports can also be specified explicitly; for example, to allow UDP packets on port 1234 through, specify1234:udp. To specify multiple ports, separate them by commas.
firstboot(optional)
Determine whether theSetup Agentstarts the first time the system is booted. If enabled, thefirstbootpackage must be installed. If not specified, this option is disabled by default.
--enableor--enabled
TheSetup Agentis started the first time the system boots.
--disableor--disabled
TheSetup Agentis not started the first time the system boots.
--reconfig
Enable theSetup Agentto start at boot time in reconfiguration mode. This mode enables the language, mouse, keyboard, root password, security level, time zone, and networking configuration options in addition to the default ones.
halt(optional)
Halt the system after the installation has successfully completed. This is similar to a manual installation, where anaconda displays a message and waits for the user to press a key before rebooting. During a kickstart installation, if no completion method is specified, therebootoption is used as default.
Thehaltoption is roughly equivalent to theshutdown -hcommand.
For other completion methods, refer to thepoweroff,reboot, andshutdownkickstart options.
graphical(optional)
Perform the kickstart installation in graphical mode. This is the default.
Thehaltoption is roughly equivalent to theshutdown -hcommand.
For other completion methods, refer to thepoweroff,reboot, andshutdownkickstart options.
install(optional)
Tells the system to install a fresh system rather than upgrade an existing system. This is the default mode. For installation, you must specify the type of installation fromcdrom,harddrive,nfs, orurl(for FTP or HTTP installations). Theinstallcommand and the installation method command must be on separate lines.
cdrom
Install from the first CD-ROM drive on the system.
harddrive
Install from a Red Hat installation tree on a local drive, which must be either vfat or ext2.
--biospart=
BIOS partition to install from (such as 82).
--partition=
Partition to install from (such as sdb2).
--dir=
Directory containing thevariantdirectory of the installation tree.