Automating Linux installations with Kickstart

In order to speed up the process of installing Linux a kickstart file has been created. When the initial Fedora boot screen appears (Debian systems use preseeding). Type in the following:

linux text ks=http://sam.crecom.com.au/ks.cfg

This will load the predetermined defaults specified within the ks.cfg file.

Duplicating an existing install

Upon successful installation, Fedora produces an automatically generated kickstart file. All variables of the installation are listed, but by default paritioning information is left commented out.

/root/anaconda-ks.cfg

Including partitioning details can be useful in the event of installing multiple systems with the same specifications. Specifically disk sizes.

Kickstart Configurator

• Kickstart Configurator provides a graphical interface for creating kickstart files.
  These files are used by anaconda to allow for automated installations.

This is available on Fedora, and not often by default on a typical Creative Computing install. It can be simply downloaded via yum:

yum install system-config-kickstart

Then the interface previewed on the above site is available by running system-config-kickstart as root.