I've been trying to get unattended linux installs (fedora 28 in this case) working under KVM for some time. I've got it mostly worked out but it still asks me if I want to use text mode or fire up VNC. Here's a snippet to illustrate:
(snip) [ OK ] Listening on Open-iSCSI iscsid Socket. [ OK ] Reached target Sockets. [ OK ] Reached target Basic System. [ OK ] Started Hardware RNG Entropy Gatherer Daemon. Starting pre-anaconda logging service... Starting OpenSSH ed25519 Server Key Generation... Starting OpenSSH ecdsa Server Key Generation... Starting Login Service... Starting Hold until boot process finishes up... Starting OpenSSH rsa Server Key Generation... [ OK ] Started Hold until boot process finishes up. [ OK ] Started Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen. Starting installer, one moment... anaconda 28.22.10-1.fc28 for Fedora 28 started. * installation log files are stored in /tmp during the installation * shell is available on TTY2 * when reporting a bug add logs from /tmp as separate text/plain attachments 15:12:21 X startup failed, falling back to text mode 15:12:21 X startup failed, falling back to text mode ================================================================================ ================================================================================ 1) Start VNC 2) Use text mode Please make a selection from the above ['c' to continue, 'q' to quit, 'r' to refresh]: 2 Starting automated install... Generating updated storage configuration Checking storage configuration... ================================================================================ ================================================================================ Installation 1) [x] Language settings 2) [x] Time settings (English (United States)) (America/Denver timezone) 3) [x] Installation source 4) [x] Software selection (https://mirror.chpc.utah.edu/pu (Custom software selected) b/fedora/linux/releases/28/Serve r/x86_64/os/) 5) [x] Installation Destination 6) [x] Network configuration (Automatic partitioning (Wired (ens3) connected) selected) ================================================================================ ================================================================================ Progress . Setting up the installation environment . Configuring storage .. Creating disklabel on /dev/sda Creating ext4 on /dev/sda1 Creating lvmpv on /dev/sda2 (snip) I'm using this as my virt-install line:
virt-install \ --name fedoratest2 \ --ram 2048 \ --disk path=/vm-images/fedoratest2.qcow2,size=15 \ --vcpus 2 \ --network bridge=br0 \ --mac=<insert unicast mac here> \ --graphics none \ --location https://mirror.chpc.utah.edu/pub/fedora/linux/releases/28/Server/x86_64/os/ \ --os-type linux \ --extra-args "console=ttyS0 inst.ks=http://http.mydomain.com/kickstart_fedora_testing.cfg hostname=fedoratest2.mydomain.com" (mydomain.com of course isn't my real domain)
And a kickstart of:
#ptform=x86, AMD64, or Intel EM64T #version=DEVEL # Keyboard layouts keyboard 'us' # Root password rootpw --plaintext thisisnotmyrootpassword # user is needed for fedora? --disabled isn't an option user --name="joe" --password="thisisnotmyuserpassword" # System language lang en_US # System timezone timezone America/Denver # Use graphical install graphical # System authorization information auth --useshadow --passalgo=sha512 # Firewall configuration firewall --disabled # SELinux configuration selinux --enforcing # Do not configure the X Window System skipx # System bootloader configuration bootloader --location=mbr # Partition clearing information clearpart --all # Disk partitioning information autopart --type lvm # these are what were produced in anaconda_ks.cfg after I selected what I wanted during a non-kickstart install %packages @^server-product-environment @headless-management %end # this was in default anaconda_ks.cfg file after non-kickstart install, figure I'll keep it just in case %addon com_redhat_kdump --disable --reserve-mb='128' %end The thing that has me bugged are the lines that appear during bootup/setup:
15:12:21 X startup failed, falling back to text mode 15:12:21 X startup failed, falling back to text mode and I wonder - why is it even trying to start X in the first place? I recognize that my boot params in --extra-args above aren't specifying that a text mode should be used or not, and as I understand it, fedora/anaconda wants to default to graphical installation mode. That's fine. I used the following two arguments in --extra-args as well to try and force it to text mode and not ask me anything:
inst.text inst.cmdline But neither of those seem to have any effect. It still complains that X startup failed and then asks me if I want to use VNC or text mode...
I'm trying these settings based on the official f28 install guide: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f28/install-guide/advanced/Boot_Options/
Furthermore, the docs here for anaconda: https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot-options.html
state that console= implies inst.txt... I'm baffled.
Summary:
No matter what I've tried to specify that I want a text or cmdline only install (no graphical), the installer still tries to run graphical, fails miserably, and prompts me to specify either VNC or text mode. I'm trying to find out what I'm doing wrong or if it's even possible to get it to not prompt me for ANYTHING during install and just ride off of the kickstart file.
graphicalin the kickstart file, instead of replacing it bytext. Perhaps you can also tryinst.noninteractive