[CentOS] Install CentOS as KVM guest

[Paul Heinlein]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2011, Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:

> I'm having problems trying to install CentOS as a KVM guest despite 
> following the wikis and howtos.
>
> The problem is that most of the instructions skip the part that 
> happens after virt-install... It seems that something blindingly 
> obvious happens if nothing goes wrong and most instructions 
> continues from the OS installation screen.
>
> However, when I try this, I get a blank console that says "Escape 
> Char is ^]" and doesn't do anything useful.

I've only done text-based installations of CentOS under KVM, so I 
can't comment on VNC options. Here's an edited form of a standard 
virt-install script:

virt-install \
   --name="VMName" --ram="1024" --vcpus="1" \
   --nographics --accelerate \
   --os-type="linux" --os-variant="rhel5.4" \
   --network="bridge:br0" --mac="54:52:00:12:34:56" \
   --disk="path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/VMName.dsk,size=20" \
   --location="http://some-mirror/centos/5/os/x86_64" \
   --extra-args="console=ttyS0"

As always, double-check to make sure that, e.g., the network option is 
configured appropriately for your environment.

If you're doing a kickstart installation, the "ks=..." stuff goes 
within the extra-args option.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/