Good afternoon,

My team has found an odd error with the kickstart process using SL6.1
when working on my physical systems. It seems that the problem revolves
completely around the network configuration. Many of my physical systems
have a kickstart file taylored to the specific needs and the network
section is usually specific to a single machine (DHCP is not always a
possible solution at this time due to other issues that are off topic).
I am hoping maybe someone could take a look at it and suggest an
alternative solution or fix. I looked through several of the kickstart
threads but I didn't spot anything that looked like my problem.

I have posted a kickstart below. This is not the exact kickstart file
nor the exact process we use, but it is simple enough that it shows the
problem (eg: I can recreate this problem using a physical system or a
virtual machine and the sampled kickstart below). Both the SL 6.0 and Sl
6.1 ISO's that I used for testing/install match the sha256sum that is
posted on the website as of a few moments ago.

Steps to recreate this problem.
Copy the kickstart information into a file ks.cfg.
Edit the network information for your network.
Copy this file to a USB thumbdrive.
Boot a SL6.1 DVD with USB thumbdrive plugged in.
At the CD install screen, hit tab to edit the boot parameters. Add "
ks=hd:sdb1/ks.cfg" to the boot parameter and hit enter.
It will format the hard drive and then it will fail out at a screen
asking you to enter in the network information.

If you do some sleuthing in the log files (ctrl+alt+f2) you can see that
the network gets setup, but then gets cleared again. It appears that
NetworkManager may be clearing the parameters just before it fails (not
100% but it certainly looks like the culprit from the log files). If you
use the graphical installer rather than the text installer when you
re-enter the information it seems to fail a few times before allowing
you to enter the information successfully. I have no idea why.

Obviously, this is not what we want. The point of a kickstart file is so
that I _don't_ have to sit and watch the install on all my physical
systems for manual entry of information. I would like it all automated
as before.

Now here is an interesting twist. Do the same steps above with the
_exact_ same kickstart file using a SL6.0 DVD. It will finish perfectly.
No questions, no network problems, it just works.

I am stumped and would appreciate another set of eyes on this problem.

Thank you!
~Stack~


#############ks.cfg#############
firewall --disabled
install
repo --name="Scientifc Linux 6.1 - x86_64 - fastbugs"
--baseurl=http://ftp2.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/x86_64/updates/fastbugs/
--cost=1000
repo --name="Scientific Linux 6.1 - x86_64"
--baseurl=http://ftp2.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/x86_64/os/
--cost=1000
repo --name="Scientific Linux 6.1 - x86_64 - security updates"
--baseurl=http://ftp2.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/x86_64/updates/security/
--cost=1000
rootpw --iscrypted
$6$pnfgdEaQ4qGc0n6f$PUbVoL9zugPXulD1Uvuy1dadTfm6a0/o3YUM3r2nO5D01aDEwMvW7SHZrNgHlLFYk5Yrj2tbClL4Lgjz1Ojnf1
auth  --useshadow  --passalgo=sha512
text
keyboard us
lang en_US
selinux --disabled
skipx
logging --level=debug
timezone  America/Chicago
network  --bootproto=static --device=eth0 --gateway=192.168.0.1
--ip=192.168.1.13 --nameserver=192.168.1.1 --netmask=255.255.0.0 --onboot=on
bootloader --append="crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet" --location=mbr
--driveorder="sda"
zerombr
clearpart --all --initlabel --drives="sda"
part / --fstype="ext4" --size=20480
part swap --fstype="swap" --size=4096
part /home --fstype="ext4" --grow --size=1
reboot
%post
%packages --nobase
%end
#############ks.cfg#############
Pastebin link just in case email screws things up.
http://pastebin.com/6WJDCprZ