Karl Kobata wrote:

Can I take this formatted output and add it into the %packages section of my new kickstart file?

Should be able to yes

I am assuming that using the kickstart GUI, the @development-tools for instance, added to the %packages section will load all packages grouped as "development-tools".

Yes that's how it's supposed to work I believe. in my configuration I list out the individual packages - http://portal.aphroland.org/~aphro/centos_5_2_32.cfg

Since I do not have a floppy, only a cdrom drive, is adding to a network share or http or nfs be for upgrading? If for upgrading, how is the kickstart file launched?

Upgrading? I've never used the installer to upgrade so can't speak to that, but the config file is accessed via the kernel command line paramters when you boot from the CD (or PXE if you do net boot). ks=<protocol/path to file>. Myself I've only used http to store my config, so my installer command line looks like this for example:

ks=http://10.1.10.31/config/centos_5_2_64/centos_5_2_64.cfg initrd=centos_5_2_64.img ramdisk_size=16384 nofb ksdevice=eth0

If I am installing from "bare metal", can I add this kickstart file to the install CD? If so where will I place this file?

I don't think so, but you can try, just specify the path in the command line..

nate