Re: [Qemu-devel] Kickstart with CentOS4

[Henrik Nordstrom]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005, Matt Lawrence wrote:

> I've given up on trying to build a disk image manually, so now I'm trying
> to automate the kickstart installation for CentOS4.  By using an iso of the
> first CD and a floppy file with a ks.cfg and doing a "linux ks=floppy" at
> the boot screen, I can get the install to fire off.  Now I would like to
> figure out how to get the install to start automatically without having to
> type anything in at the boot: prompt.  Suggestions?

Extract the kernel and initrd from the ISO, then use the qemu direct Linux 
kernel boot mechanism to get it all running.

  qemu -kernel /path/to/vlimuz -initrd /path/to/initrd.img -append "ks=floppy" 
...

more options may be needed in the append clause, see the bootloader 
config on the iso.

Alternatively, provided the bootloader on the ISO is configured to support 
serial port installation you could boot qemu in -nographic mode and expect 
the install procedure, most easily accomplished with autoexpect

  autoexpect -p -f centos.expect qemu -nographic ....

Regards
Henrik