Installing CentOS unattendedly (without the use of SpaceWalk)
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Installing CentOS unattendedly (without the use of SpaceWalk)

Jurjen Bokma

July 2008

  1. Create a kickstart file.

    1. Install CentOS manually on a machine.

    2. Install the X window system[55].

      sudo yum groupinstall "X Window System"

    3. Install system-config-kickstart. Also install xauth if you're about to run system-config-kickstart remotely, 'cause without it X11 forwarding won't work.

      sudo yum install system-config-kickstart xauth

    4. Run system-config-kickstart and specify what your unattendedly installed machine should look like.

      system-config-kickstart

  2. Use the kickstart file in combination with DHCP and PXE

    1. Create a PXELinux config file like this one: 

      MENU TITLE centoslinux/5.1/i386
default desktop-001

prompt 1
timeout 600

label desktop-001
kernel images/distr/centoslinux/5.1/os/i386/isolinux/vmlinuz
ipappend 2
append initrd=images/distr/centoslinux/5.1/os/i386/isolinux/initrd.img ks=http://osis.service.rug.nl/pub/unattended/os/linux/distr/centoslinux/5.1/CentOS-desktop-001.ks ksdevice=bootif

    2. Tell the DHCP server to point the client to pxelinux.0 with the above file as config. (I won't explain here how to do that)

    3. Boot the client


[55] You could probably make do with a much smaller subset, but this does ensure that remote X applications can be displayed.

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