I have found anaconda command line options on URL

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda_Boot_Options?rd=Anaconda/Options

and anaconda is available as a package that SL6 will install.  I have 
not found how to manually invoke anaconda from a running system to use 
the files on the install/upgrade DVD as a source but with specific 
command line options to force anaconda to ignore specific drives. For 
example, supposedly the command line option to anaconda:

repo=cdrom:<device> will force anaconda to get the DVD if, presumably, 
device is say /dev/sg1 that is the DVD drive, but will anaconda then 
proceed in the standard GUI format?  Can anaconda from a running hard 
drive system convert to a RAM based "disk file" system as used during 
the standard upgrade booted from a bootable DVD (e.g., the current SL 
6.4 ISO bootable install/upgrade DVD) so that the running hard drives 
can have images upgraded (e.g., write a file and then sync the actual 
hard drive)?

kickstart has the syntax

ignoredisk –drives=sda,sdb,sdc

that allows one to bypass any work on the specifid /dev disks (e.g., 
/dev/sda, etc., from the above list).  Does anaconda have a similar feature?

Again, thanks for any insight or syntactically correct command(s) to 
accomplish what I am attempting to do (upgrade a system as though it had 
only one hard drive, ignoring others, without physically opening an 
enclosure and disconnecting hard drives).

Yasha Karant

On 04/08/2013 01:41 PM, Yasha Karant wrote:
> My workstation has the following disk partition setup:
>
> /dev/sda10         swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
> /dev/sda5                /                       ext2    defaults
> 1 1
> /dev/sda1               /boot                   ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda3               /oldhome                   ext2    defaults    1 2
> /dev/sda8             /opt                    ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda2             /usr                    ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda7        /usr/local              ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda11            /usr1                   ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda9              /var                    ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda6           /vmware                 ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sda12              /usr2                   ext2    defaults        1 2
> /dev/sdc5               /oldroot                ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc1               /oldboot  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc2               /oldusr  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc3               /home  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc6               /oldvmware  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc7               /oldusr/local  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc8               /oldopt  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc9               /oldvar  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdc11              /oldusr1  ext2 defaults     1 2
> /dev/sdb1               /mnt-ntfs1              ntfs-3g    defaults    1 2
> /dev/sdb2               /mnt-ntfs2              ntfs-3g    defaults    1 2
>
> When I attempt to use the current SL 6.4 X86-64 standalone installation
> DVD to upgrade, anaconda fails with a diagnostic message that I cannot
> seem to be able to save (the log file is not created on a physical hard
> drive).  Basically, anaconda does not like the ntfs format disk nor the
> second linux disk.  Is there a way to tell anaconda to use a particular
> drive (say /dev/sda) and fully ignore others (say /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc)
> when running anaconda?  Can anaconda be run from the DVD from a running
> linux system that mounts the DVD containing the upgrade image(s)?  If
> not, is there another methodology (say an appropriate invocation of yum
> but using the DVD as the files from which the upgrade is generated)?
>
> If there is URL or other documentation that (easily) explains the above
> steps, that will be sufficient.
>
> Current environment is a previous SL 6 X86-64.
>
> Yasha Karant