Folks
I have several remotely-located servers, donated by folks not all of whom are computer geeks, let-alone Linux aware. In earlier versions of Centos, I directed them to perform a minimal NetInstall (not too difficult to direct over the phone), and then issue two commands after the first boot. One was a 'curl' to download a script of mine, and the second was a dot-command to run it. A few reboots followed in close succession, and I directed them to logon as root, and issue a simple dot-command. The personal intervention ended usually within an hour, since I had ssh access to the system and root, and could complete the installation and tailoring completely remotely. I would only need their intervention in the case of problems. In many cases, I've not needed to invoke that help for a year or more.
This scheme worked well until I decided to add support of graphical desktops on the systems in Centos 7, as I had in Centos 6. Once those packages were installed, further non-intuitive on-site intervention was required at next reboot to approve licenses. Remote ssh logins didn't work until that was done.
These licenses needed to be approved on the local console. This is quite annoying and places more demands upon my remote friend. In some cases, the console and keyboard had been removed and the box had been placed in the closet.
I am seeking a way to reduce or eliminate this annoyance. The best would be to find some way to 'pre-approve' the license agreement in my customizing scripts. Failing that, it would be nice to be able to approve these scripts from a remote ssh logon. I am reluctant to deploy Centos 7 without GUI support (I use x2go sometimes), and am thus reluctant to deploy centos 7 at this point.
Advice and comments welcome
David San Francisco
Op 9-okt.-2015 17:17 schreef david david@daku.org:
Folks
I have several remotely-located servers, donated by folks not all of whom are computer geeks, let-alone Linux aware. In earlier versions of Centos, I directed them to perform a minimal NetInstall (not too difficult to direct over the phone), and then issue two commands after the first boot. One was a 'curl' to download a script of mine, and the second was a dot-command to run it. A few reboots followed in close succession, and I directed them to logon as root, and issue a simple dot-command. The personal intervention ended usually within an hour, since I had ssh access to the system and root, and could complete the installation and tailoring completely remotely. I would only need their intervention in the case of problems. In many cases, I've not needed to invoke that help for a year or more.
This scheme worked well until I decided to add support of graphical desktops on the systems in Centos 7, as I had in Centos 6. Once those packages were installed, further non-intuitive on-site intervention was required at next reboot to approve licenses. Remote ssh logins didn't work until that was done.
These licenses needed to be approved on the local console. This is quite annoying and places more demands upon my remote friend. In some cases, the console and keyboard had been removed and the box had been placed in the closet.
I am seeking a way to reduce or eliminate this annoyance. The best would be to find some way to 'pre-approve' the license agreement in my customizing scripts. Failing that, it would be nice to be able to approve these scripts from a remote ssh logon. I am reluctant to deploy Centos 7 without GUI support (I use x2go sometimes), and am thus reluctant to deploy centos 7 at this point.
Advice and comments welcome
David San Francisco
Hello,
is switching to Mate an option for you?
Greetings, j. _______________________________________________
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Fri, 9 Oct 2015, Johan Vermeulen wrote:
is switching to Mate an option for you?
I'm also not entirely sure which bit is causing you the bother, so I'm not sure what to advise.
I install with kickstart with:
eula --agreed firstboot --disable
I create /etc/gdm/custom.conf in %post:
[daemon] InitialSetupEnable=False
I think that's my lot.
jh
On 10/09/2015 08:46 AM, John Hodrien wrote:
I install with kickstart with:
eula --agreed firstboot --disable
Since David has people download and run a script, I'm inclined to believe he's not using kickstart. But he should. :)
Using kickstart, all of those scripts can be run in the "%post" post-install section, and the system will be fully configured when it boots for the first time. As John pointed out, the eula and other "firstboot" tasks can be disabled in the kickstart configuration.
In the meantime, David should be able to disable the license prompt after installing the graphical desktop packages:
# systemctl disable initial-setup-text # systemctl disable initial-setup-graphical
kickstart reference: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/htm...
At 08:37 AM 10/9/2015, you wrote:
Op 9-okt.-2015 17:17 schreef david david@daku.org:
Folks
I have several remotely-located servers, donated by folks not all of whom are computer geeks, let-alone Linux aware. In earlier versions of Centos, I directed them to perform a minimal NetInstall (not too difficult to direct over the phone), and then issue two commands after the first boot. One was a 'curl' to download a script of mine, and the second was a dot-command to run it. A few reboots followed in close succession, and I directed them to logon as root, and issue a simple dot-command. The personal intervention ended usually within an hour, since I had ssh access to the system and root, and could complete the installation and tailoring completely remotely. I would only need their intervention in the case of problems. In many cases, I've not needed to invoke that help for a year or more.
This scheme worked well until I decided to add support of graphical desktops on the systems in Centos 7, as I had in Centos 6. Once those packages were installed, further non-intuitive on-site intervention was required at next reboot to approve licenses. Remote ssh logins didn't work until that was done.
These licenses needed to be approved on the local console. This is quite annoying and places more demands upon my remote friend. In some cases, the console and keyboard had been removed and the box had been placed in the closet.
I am seeking a way to reduce or eliminate this annoyance. The best would be to find some way to 'pre-approve' the license agreement in my customizing scripts. Failing that, it would be nice to be able to approve these scripts from a remote ssh logon. I am reluctant to deploy Centos 7 without GUI support (I use x2go sometimes), and am thus reluctant to deploy centos 7 at this point.
Advice and comments welcome
David San Francisco
Hello,
is switching to Mate an option for you?
Greetings, j.
Interesting thought. I'm trying it and will report results on the list.
David
On Fri, October 9, 2015 10:17 am, david wrote:
Folks
I have several remotely-located servers, donated by folks not all of whom are computer geeks, let-alone Linux aware. In earlier versions of Centos, I directed them to perform a minimal NetInstall (not too difficult to direct over the phone), and then issue two commands after the first boot. One was a 'curl' to download a script of mine, and the second was a dot-command to run it. A few reboots followed in close succession, and I directed them to logon as root, and issue a simple dot-command. The personal intervention ended usually within an hour, since I had ssh access to the system and root, and could complete the installation and tailoring completely remotely. I would only need their intervention in the case of problems. In many cases, I've not needed to invoke that help for a year or more.
I probably have missed the whole discussion, sorry if it is repetition or irrelevant.
I usually do kickstart install pointing to my kickstart file that has everything necessary in it, including (as post install scripts) adding variety of things that are not directly available in CentOS distribution (such as custom TeX stiles for Journals our folks publish in, printers configuration...). All works well, including for CentOS 7; first boot after kickstart install gets you into ready to use box (lass particular user accounts). To avoid "firstboot" stuff, - and license I believe is part of it - I have the following in my kickstart file:
# Run the Setup Agent on first boot #firstboot --enable firstboot --disable
This scheme worked well until I decided to add support of graphical desktops on the systems in Centos 7, as I had in Centos 6. Once those packages were installed, further non-intuitive on-site intervention was required at next reboot to approve licenses. Remote ssh logins didn't work until that was done.
If you mean X11 stuff, this is what I always did (and keep doing in CentOS 7). Or are these licenses other than GNU license (to use system composed almost solely of GNU licensed parts)?
Valeri
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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david -
Gordon Messmer -
Johan Vermeulen -
John Hodrien -
Valeri Galtsev