Installation guide

Chapter 1. Kickstart Installations 37

@ GNOME

@ KDE

@ Server

@ Everything

1.4.30. %pre — Pre-Installation Conﬁguration Section

You can add commands to run on the system immediately after the ks.cfg has been parsed.

This section must be at the end of the kickstart ﬁle (after the commands) and must start

with the %pre command. Note that you can access the network in the %pre section; however,

name service has not been conﬁgured at this point, so only IP addresses will work. Here is an

example %pre section:

%pre

# add comment to /etc/motd

echo "Kickstart-installed Red Hat Linux ‘/bin/date‘"

/etc/motd

# add another nameserver

echo "nameserver 10.10.0.2" /etc/resolv.conf

This section creates a message-of-the-day ﬁle containing the date the kickstart installation

took place. It also gets around the network command’s limitation of only one name server

by adding another nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf.

Note

Note that the pre-install script is not run in the change root environment.

1.4.31. %post — Post-Installation Conﬁguration Section

You have the option of adding commands to run on the system once the installation is com-

plete. This section must be at the end of the kickstart ﬁle and must start with the %post

command. This section is useful for functions such as installing additional software and

conﬁguring an additional nameserver.

Note

If you conﬁgured the network with static IP information, including a nameserver, you can access the

network and resolve IP addresses in the %post section. If you conﬁgured the network for DHCP, the

/etc/resolv.conf ﬁle has not been completed when the installation executes the %post section.

You can access the network, but you can not resolve IP addresses. Thus, if you are using DHCP, you

must specify IP addresses in the %post section.

Here is an example %post section that creates a message of the day ﬁle containing the date

that the kickstart installation took place, and gets around the network command’s limitation

of one nameserver only by adding another nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf.

%post