I have to say that I was more that a bit surprised, if not to say dismayed
when I booted a system with CentOS 5 installed to test a kickstart CD in
interactive mode, took it to the custom partitioning screen, then rebooted
without saving anything only to come up with a grub prompt, and the disk's
partition table wiped. The ks.cfg file did say to wipe the disk when
installing, but I would expect that it wouldn't do this in interactive mode
until one told it to start the installation.
I have been installing Linux systems for well over a decade, starting with
Caldera Network Desktop 1.0, all versions of Caldera through 2001, and SuSE
from 8.1 through SLES10, and never have I seen an installation procedure
that would write to anything on the hard drive without asking first.
This certainly violates the Principle of Least Surprise.
Bill
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David Ritz <dritz at primenet.com>
On 9/12/07, Bill Campbell <centos at celestial.com> wrote:> I have to say that I was more that a bit surprised, if not to say dismayed > when I booted a system with CentOS 5 installed to test a kickstart CD in > interactive mode, took it to the custom partitioning screen, then rebooted > without saving anything only to come up with a grub prompt, and the disk's > partition table wiped. The ks.cfg file did say to wipe the disk when > installing, but I would expect that it wouldn't do this in interactive mode > until one told it to start the installation.Anything that's in the kickstart file gets done without interaction. You can leave parts of the kickstart file out, and it'll prompt you for these things once it gets to this stage. If you told the ks.cfg to wipe the disk, it will happily do this without asking questions. -- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
I suppose it would help if I finished the reply before sending..... On 9/12/07, Bill Campbell <centos at celestial.com> wrote:> I have been installing Linux systems for well over a decade, starting with > Caldera Network Desktop 1.0, all versions of Caldera through 2001, and SuSE > from 8.1 through SLES10, and never have I seen an installation procedure > that would write to anything on the hard drive without asking first.The whole idea behind kickstart is that it does not ask questions. It's for automated installs. Think pxe setup, or a computer lab, or hundreds of identical workstations. Why answer questions on all of them, when you can automate the process and go get a coffee?> This certainly violates the Principle of Least Surprise.Not really. The tool works as expected. You're just unfamiliar with it. Not trying to sound snippy with this, so please don't take it this way. -- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell