Giving the “ks” option to the installer loader (i.e., “linux ks=…” at the install prompt) tells it to use a kickstart file to automate the installation. The ks option can specify a number of different ways for the installer to find the kickstart file:

ks

Giving the ks option but not setting a value for it (i.e., “linux ks”) is equivalent to “ks=nfs:next-server:filename“, where next-server and filename are the server name and boot file names provided by DHCP. If no boot file name is provided, it will default to “/kickstart/”.

ks=nfs:host:path

ks=http://host/path

ks=ftp://host/path

These options tell the loader to look for the kickstart file at path on the server host using NFS, HTTP, or FTP, respectively. If path is a directory name (i.e., if it ends in a ‘/’), it will look for a file called ip-address-kickstart. (ip-address is the IP of the computer being installed.) This allows you to use the same command line to install multiple machines with different configurations.

ks=cdrom[:path]

ks=floppy[:path]

The loader will look for the kickstart configuration on the first CDROM or floppy drive that it finds. If no path is specified, it will default to “/ks.cfg”.

ks=hd:device:path

ks=bd:device:path

This will tell the loader to look for the kickstart configuration on the specified block device (e.g., a hard drive). If you are using the “hd” syntax, device is the name of the device file from which you wish to install (e.g., “hda1”). If you are using the “bd” syntax, device is of the form driveppartition, where drive is the device number used by the BIOS for the drive (starts at 0 for floppy drives and 128 for hard drives) and partition is the partition number on the drive.

ks=file:path

The loader will look for the kickstart file at path in the initial filesystem.