CentOS - Oct 2013 - no group package selection via PXE network installation

I'm trying to install centos 6.4 on my server A (which has 512 MB ram and no
cdrom) by PXE.
I exported installation tree 'CentOS-6.4-i386-bin-DVD1.iso' via http on
server 'Z', all according to Centos howto (copied vmlinuz, pxelinux.cfg,
initrd.img , started tftpd+dhcpd services)
Boot process is OK (in text mode! I think it's a memory problem); it's
required keyboard type, time zone, network parameters, disk partitions, ...
but no installation type is required (basic, minimal, server, ...) and no
packages selection ! Installation goes on installing the packages but
without choosing them! 
I'd like to choose type of installation and the details of packages, any
options as I used directly installation dvdrom1. 
I don't want to use kickstart file !

My 'pxelinux.cfg/default' file:

timeout 9000
default menu.c32
menu title ########## PXE Boot Menu ##########
label 1
   menu label ^1) Install CentOS 6
   kernel centos64/vmlinuz
   append initrd=centos64/initrd.img repo=http://a.b.x.y/centos6
devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=152000
label 2
  menu label ^2) Boot from local drive
  localboot


What do you think ?

On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 02:26:35PM +0200, Riccardo Castellani
wrote:
> I'm trying to install centos 6.4 on my server A (which has 512 MB ram
and no
> cdrom) by PXE.
You need more than 512 MB of RAM to do a graphic installation, I've
forgotten the exact requirement.  

As for text install, RedHat has crippled it--you cannot choose packages or
disk layout.   Apparently Anaconda developers decided to focus upon the
graphic install, and so, the only way to customize a text based install is
to use a kickstart file.  

So, your options are to increase the RAM so you can get a GUI installation,
use a kickstart file, or use an operating system where the developers still
think like system administrators rather than smart phone users. (Yeah, I
know that's unfair and FUD, but it is aggravating for something that is
supposed to be a server O/S.)


-- 
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6

Now I upgraded ram to 1 GB.

Now I see that client try to get ... /centos6/images/product.img +
/centos6/images/updates.img
but these files are missing in /images/ of
''CentOS-6.4-i386-bin-DVD1.iso''

[divx] Could not init font path element catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d,
removing from list!
...
...
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
Xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default

I tried to append ''vga=771'' to this line:

append initrd=centos64/initrd.img repo=http://a.y.z.a.5/centos6
devfs=nomount ramdisk_size=352000 vga=771

but nothing!

With vga=773 nothing!



-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces-IFYaIzF+flcdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
[mailto:centos-bounces-IFYaIzF+flcdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org] On Behalf
Of Scott Robbins
Sent: martedì 15 ottobre 2013 14:44
To: CentOS mailing list
Subject: Re: [CentOS] no group package selection via PXE network
installation

On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 02:26:35PM +0200, Riccardo Castellani
wrote:
> I''m trying to install centos 6.4 on my server A (which has 512 MB
ram
> and no
> cdrom) by PXE.
You need more than 512 MB of RAM to do a graphic installation, I''ve
forgotten the exact requirement.  

As for text install, RedHat has crippled it--you cannot choose packages or
disk layout.   Apparently Anaconda developers decided to focus upon the
graphic install, and so, the only way to customize a text based install is
to use a kickstart file.  

So, your options are to increase the RAM so you can get a GUI installation,
use a kickstart file, or use an operating system where the developers still
think like system administrators rather than smart phone users. (Yeah, I
know that''s unfair and FUD, but it is aggravating for something that is
supposed to be a server O/S.)


--
Scott Robbins
PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 ) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu
--recv-keys EB3467D6

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