CentOS - Nov 2015 - Kickstarting CentOS 7 VM on CentOS 6 not possible?

Hi,

On CentOS 6.7 (all updates) kickstarting a CentOS 7 VM (in the way it
always has worked for other versions, incl. Fedora 22 VM's), does not
work for me.  I use virt-install with a local copy of the
"images/pxeboot" tree.  It all stops with:

    ...
    [  OK  ] Reached target Paths.
    [  OK  ] Reached target Basic System.
    dracut-initqueue[551]: Warning: Could not boot.
    dracut-initqueue[551]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist
             Starting Dracut Emergency Shell...
    Warning: /dev/root does not exist
    ...

I found zillion references to similar problems, including PXE-related
(I do not use PXE, but "-l" with virt-install) and cobbler-related
(no Cobbler involved), and I tried some of the suggestions, but none
of them worked.

Installing CentOS 7 "manually" using virt-install and the netboot ISO
works fine, but I want to use kickstart files.

Thanks for any suggestion.

-- 
--    Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl>
--    X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV   |   Phone: +31 20 6938364
--    Amsterdam, The Netherlands        |     Fax: +31 20 6948204

On 11/23/2015 12:59 AM, Jos Vos wrote:
> I use virt-install with a local copy of the
> "images/pxeboot" tree.
Does your tree also include the LiveOS structure (the stage2 installer)?
> Installing CentOS 7 "manually" using virt-install and the netboot
ISO
> works fine, but I want to use kickstart files.
Using a local install tree isn't required for kickstart.  You can 
specify the location of the KS file as a boot arg and also use the ISO 
installer.

On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:16:50AM -0800, Gordon Messmer wrote:
> Does your tree also include the LiveOS structure (the stage2 installer)?
Yep.  In fact, I tried it with and without that LiveOS/squashfs.img
(I was not sure if that was required or just a speed-up).
> Using a local install tree isn't required for kickstart.  You can 
> specify the location of the KS file as a boot arg and also use the ISO 
> installer.
But how can the VM then access the kickstart file on the host disk?
Now it is injected in the initrd with that special flag, or can that
be done in combination with the ISO too?

-- 
--    Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl>
--    X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV   |   Phone: +31 20 6938364
--    Amsterdam, The Netherlands        |     Fax: +31 20 6948204

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On 23/11/15 09:59, Jos Vos wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On CentOS 6.7 (all updates) kickstarting a CentOS 7 VM (in the way
> it always has worked for other versions, incl. Fedora 22 VM's),
> does not work for me.  I use virt-install with a local copy of the 
> "images/pxeboot" tree.  It all stops with:
> 
> ... [  OK  ] Reached target Paths. [  OK  ] Reached target Basic
> System. dracut-initqueue[551]: Warning: Could not boot. 
> dracut-initqueue[551]: Warning: /dev/root does not exist Starting
> Dracut Emergency Shell... Warning: /dev/root does not exist ...
> 
> I found zillion references to similar problems, including
> PXE-related (I do not use PXE, but "-l" with virt-install) and
> cobbler-related (no Cobbler involved), and I tried some of the
> suggestions, but none of them worked.
> 
> Installing CentOS 7 "manually" using virt-install and the netboot
> ISO works fine, but I want to use kickstart files.
> 
> Thanks for any suggestion.
> 
I can say that it works for sure, so can you share your virt-install
command / kickstart / extra-args ?

I'm injecting the kickstart directly into the initrd.img
(transparently through --initrd-inject= )

- -- 
Fabian Arrotin
The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org
gpg key: 56BEC54E | twitter: @arrfab
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On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 10:40:54PM +0100, Fabian Arrotin wrote:
> I can say that it works for sure, so can you share your virt-install
> command / kickstart / extra-args ?
It seems that after updating the host to 6.7 some things have changed
that I didn't test.  Now the install continues, but just after switching
to graphical mode, it eats CPU time and doesn't proceed.  It once
reacted to CTRL-ALT keys (via the VNC menu) and I saw something like
"EQ overflow", but the next time it doesnt.

Anyway, I'll do some more testing, also with text mode, as I'm not
having a clear overview myself anymore on what's happening ;-).
> I'm injecting the kickstart directly into the initrd.img
> (transparently through --initrd-inject= )
Me too.

-- 
--    Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl>
--    X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV   |   Phone: +31 20 6938364
--    Amsterdam, The Netherlands        |     Fax: +31 20 6948204