Fedora 10, kickstart install (booted netinst image CD) - cannot eject CD during install

[Peter Schwenk]

On Apr 7, 2009, at 11:21 AM, Paul W. Frields wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:00:50AM -0400, Peter Schwenk wrote:
>> Hello:
>>
>> Let me start with some background to the problem.  I'm performing
>> kickstart installations by booting the system with a CD made from  
>> the F10
>> netinst ISO.  My installation RPMs are stored on an NFS server.   
>> I've got
>> the updates repository being served up by an HTTP server.
>>
>> Now for the problem...  With previous versions of Fedora (and other  
>> Red
>> Hat-related distros, like CentOS), I was able to push the eject  
>> button on
>> the CD drive DURING THE INSTALLATION and get my boot CD out of the
>> machine.  This was handy because I could start the installation,  
>> get my CD
>> back and walk away from the machine.  Now, with Fedora 10, I am  
>> unable to
>> get my CD out of the drive during the installation.  It is a minor  
>> hassle
>> to have to come back later to retrieve my CD.  Plus, if I want to
>> kickstart install multiple machines at once, I have to have many  
>> copies of
>> the boot CD.
>>
>> Setting up a PXE boot scenario is not a good solution because I do  
>> not
>> have control over the campus' DHCP service.
>>
>> Does anyone know how to eject a boot CD during a kickstart install?
>> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> You can still eject the disc right after both the kernel and the
> initrd image load, while the kernel messages are starting to spill
> out.  After that, I believe the second-stage image is loaded from the
> disc once it's detected.

Thanks!  That's the information I was looking for.  I've always  
wondered how early in the boot process I was allowed to remove the CD.

--
Peter Schwenk
Campus IT Associate 3
Mathematical Sciences
University of Delaware
Newark, DE  19716-2553
schwenk _at_ math _dot_ udel _dot_ edu
http://www.math.udel.edu/~schwenk
(302) 831-0437 (v)