On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 11:40 AM Yasha Karant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Perhaps someone can refresh my memory:  under old EL, was the mirror
> list statically built into the install package, dynamically loaded if an
> Internet connection is available, or a mix of these two?  I do not
> recall having to type long strings such as mirror URLs into the "old"
> installs.

Run the installer. A publicly accessible mirrorlist URL is published
in the installation medium, selectable for network based installation
of RHEL, SL, or CentOS 6 or 7.

> For IBM RH, a limited list of IBM RH "owned" servers makes business
> sense, but not for an open system licensed for free.  (The argument of
> cost transference through the use of a no-cost-to-the-business server
> often is outweighed by market control and brand identification enforced
> loyalty arguments.)

It makes sense if you want to protect your bandwidth. Home installers
can either use the DVD installer, or bother to set up their own
internal mirror with a kickstart setup, or manually add options to the
console at installation time, or add boot options, etc. What it does
is make things harder and keeps people from using the network based
installation, since the secret ninja paths to the usable URL's are
lost among the various software yum channels.

A useful URL was
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__mirrors.kernel.org_centos_8_BaseOS_x86-5F64_os_&d=DwIBaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=X4cxg0oRnzReUBzCMFew3kDCN4qn_kJPeB-I4O4Tk_Q&s=7Wr-g8Njn3TOZt9io3wAjbiyBS0kT6qmlgab62c9FzY&e= , for the highly
available mirrors.kernel.org mirror. AlmaLinux has similar URL's,
though I've not sussed out their most effective one.