Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 introduces many bugfixes and enhancements to the system installer (anaconda).
The interactive installer has been enhanced, adding the abilty to specify additional Network File System (NFS) mount options when installing from an NFS source (
BZ#493052). Additionally, install sources (e.g. kickstart files) located on password protected File Transport Protocol (FTP) servers can now be retrieved during installation (
BZ#505424).
Kickstart provides a way for users to automate a Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation. Using kickstart, a system administrator can create a single file containing the answers to all the questions that would normally be asked during a typical installation.
Kickstart debugging and error reporting has been improved. The installer now retains kickstart scriptlets during debugging, logs
standard output (
stdout
) and
standard error (
stderr
) streams, and logs error messages to
anaconda.log
(
BZ#510636).
Package groups can now be excluded in a kickstart installation in the same manner that individual packages are excluded (
BZ#558516). Additionally, the
bootloader
command now supports the
--hvargs
parameter, allowing Xen hypervisor arguments to be specified during a kickstart installation (
BZ#501438).
Previously, the kickstart installation method offered two options to select all packages
@Everything
and
*
(wildcard). As of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5, both of these options have been
deprecated. Attempting to use a select all packages option will fail, unless the kickstart file also includes package negation for conflicting packages. Therefore, to install all packages but conflicting packages, the kickstart file must contain:
%packages
@Everything
-@Conflicts
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 includes the new package sets samba3x, freeradius2, postgres84. These package sets are only available via kickstart during system installation or through yum for existing systems.
Note
For detailed information on installation, the
Installation Guide documents how to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.