How to create a Kickstart CD / DVD

Create a Kick Start DVD / CD for Fedora

The guide below will show you step by step how to make a .iso bootable CD / DVD containing your custom kickstart installer + additional post scripts, working for an IT Support company in Bristol this has saved me a lot time deploying new Fedora servers. These instructions assume you are using Linux as your operating system. Insert your Fedora DVD and mount it. Extract the contents of the DVD to a dir on the local file system with sufficient space.

cp -avr /media/Fedora\ 13\ x86_64\ DVD/* /home/fedora-iso/ Copy in your ks.cfg (kickstart file) to the root dir of the .iso you just extracted:

cp /home/username/ks.cfg /home/fedora-iso/ Now we have added the kickstart file to the image, but we still need to point the install to the kickstart file. We do this by Editing the isolinux.cfg (make sure you are in the root of the .iso file you just extracted).

vi isolinux/isolinux.cfg Your file should look similar to this:

default vesamenu.c32 timeout 100
 * 1) prompt 1

display boot.msg

menu background splash.jpg menu title Welcome to Fedora 13! menu color border 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color sel 7 #ffffffff #ff000000 menu color title 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color tabmsg 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color unsel 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color hotsel 0 #ff000000 #ffffffff menu color hotkey 7 #ffffffff #ff000000 menu color scrollbar 0 #ffffffff #00000000

label linux menu label ^Install a new system or upgrade an existing system kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" label vesa menu label Install system with ^basic video driver kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" xdriver=vesa nomodeset label rescue menu label ^Rescue installed system kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" rescue label local menu label Boot from ^local drive localboot 0xffff label memtest86 menu label ^Memory test kernel memtest append - You need to add an additional label entry for your kickstart install, modify your file to look similar to this:


 * Note I have specified the VESA driver on the command line and to install in text mode, I was experiencing problems with F14 on some Dell graphics cards.**

default vesamenu.c32 timeout 100
 * 1) prompt 1

display boot.msg

menu background splash.jpg menu title Welcome to Fedora 13! menu color border 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color sel 7 #ffffffff #ff000000 menu color title 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color tabmsg 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color unsel 0 #ffffffff #00000000 menu color hotsel 0 #ff000000 #ffffffff menu color hotkey 7 #ffffffff #ff000000 menu color scrollbar 0 #ffffffff #00000000

label kickstart install menu label ^kickstart install menu default kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg xdriver=vesa nomodeset label linux menu label ^Install a new system or upgrade an existing system kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" label vesa menu label Install system with ^basic video driver kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" xdriver=vesa nomodeset label rescue menu label ^Rescue installed system kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img stage2=hd:LABEL="Fedora" rescue label local menu label Boot from ^local drive localboot 0xffff label memtest86 menu label ^Memory test kernel memtest append - Build the .iso file cd to your home dir (or the dir you want the .iso to be built).

cd /home/username/ && mkisofs -o /home/fedora-kickstart.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -J -R -V “Fedora”. That's it ! Your .iso should be built and ready to burn to DVD / CD... You might want to test it boots successfully using VMWare player / virtual box or similar virtualization software.

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