Owner's Manual

lininst

The lininst.sh sample script is used to perform an unattended installation of the supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Server operating system in both BIOS and UEFI mode. The variables and paths must be specified before the operating

system can be installed.

Utilities Used By lininst

grub — Used with the kernel image and initial ramdisk files, along with the unattended answer file to install the

operating system in BIOS mode.

grub2 — Used with the kernel image and initial ramdisk files, along with the unattended answer file to install the

operating system in UEFI mode.

The following are the variables used in grub and grub2:

• DT_OS_DISK — Sets the disk to deploy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server operating system.

• DT_OS_SRC — Sets the location from where to copy the kernel image and initial ramdisk files.

External Dependencies Of lininst.sh

The DT_PLATFORM variable is set during deployment by tkenvset.sh using platform discovery.

The lininst.sh script uses the unattended answer file with the grub utility and kernel image and initial ramdisk files to

install the operating system files. For more information about preparing the unattended answer file, see Answer Files.

Answer Files (ks.cfg, ks-rhel5.cfg, ks-rhel6.cfg, and ks_rhel6_uefi.cfg)

Depending on the version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server operating system, the ks.cfg, ks-rhel5.cfg, ks-rhel6.cfg

or ks_rhel6_uefi.cfg (only in UEFI mode) files are the default names of the answer files to automate an unattended Red

Hat Enterprise Linux Server installation. A sample copy of the ks.cfg/ks-rhel5.cfg/ks-rhel6.cfg file is provided as part of

the DTK download in the /opt/dell/toolkit/template/configs directory. The ks.cfg/ks-rhel5.cfg/ks-rhel6.cfg files contain the

headings and parameters that instruct the installation utility to perform various configuration tasks. Before a full

deployment can be run, edit all appropriate headings and parameters, as necessary.

NOTE: The sample file provided to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (version 5) in BIOS mode is named ks-

rhel5.cfg. To use the sample ks-rhel5.cfg file to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (version 5) using lininst.sh,

ensure that you rename the file to ks.cfg.

NOTE: The sample files provided to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (version 6) are ks-rhel6.cfg (in BIOS

mode), and ks_rhel6_uefi.cfg (in UEFI mode). To use the sample ks-rhel6.cfg file to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Server (version 6) using lininst.sh, ensure that you rename the file to ks.cfg. To use the sample ks_rhel6_uefi.cfg

file to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (version 6) using lininst.sh, ensure that you rename the file to

ks_uefi.cfg.

NOTE: See your operating system documentation for instructions on modifying the options in the kick start file to

customize the scripted installation of your operating system.

When you have completed all necessary modifications of the kick start file, save the completed file in the /opt/dell/

toolkit/systems/<target system> directory.

Installing Linux Using lininst.sh

CAUTION: Do not change the bootmode before executing installation scripts using syscfg. If you do, reboot the

system and start executing installation scripts.

NOTE: See your operating system documentation for instructions on modifying the options in the ks.cfg/ks-

rhel5.cfg/ks-rhel6.cfg/ks_rhel6_uefi.cfg file to customize the scripted installation of your operating system.