[CentOS-devel] CentOS7 minimal install ISO

[Manuel Wolfshant]

On 06/26/2014 06:31 AM, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 7:16 PM, Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org> wrote:
>>> We always build identical servers in different remote locations and
>>> one location ends up with scp and one doesn't after the initial
>>> install.  I know one of them is from a minimal iso.   The other guy
>>> might be doing a server install from dvd.   Is there some
>>> after-the-fact way to tell what was the initial install media and
>>> package group?
>>>
>> When you finish an install, you will have anaconda-ks.cfg that will tell
>> you what was installed.
>>
> Thanks - one set has @core, the other has @core and @server-policy.
> Now is there something to see what the install media was?   'Yum info"
> shows the 'From Repo' as anaconda-Centos-something on packages that
> haven't updated.   Is there a way to translate that to the disk
> version - or some other way to identify it?
Say you have system A installed from minimal.iso and system B whose 
installer media is unknown but has a larger set of packages
a) extract the list of packages from B which do not exist on A
b) look for those packages in the list of packages available on the 
minimal.iso.
Now
- If they do not exist, there are two explanations:
1)if the source is listed as @anaconda-CentOS-something,  they came from 
the dvd.iso. IF you are certain that the "minimal" option was used at 
install time on B, please file a bug because this means that the 
manifest for the minimal.iso is not complete
2) if the source is listed as @base or @updates ( actually anything but 
@anaconda ) the packages were brought in from the network
- If they do exist on the minimal.iso ..

> In another quirk, a system  I installed myself, I think from a minimal
> iso, where anaconda-ks.cfg just says @core has yum-presto installed.
> Yum info says it is from anaconda-CentOS-201207061011.x86_64, but I
> think it is the only thing where yum-presto is installed.   Was it on
> one minimal iso but not later versions?

To be honest I am no longer sure how did the list of packages included 
in the minimal.iso evolve over time. Between 6.3 and 6.4 my initial 
approach (1)  was changed to "mimic minimal install from the full DVD, 
i.e. install @core" ; support for wireless machines was also included. 
However, if memory serves, nothing was removed over time, au contraire 
more packages were added.


(1) Best described as "an iso as small as possible which can bring a 
machine online",  targeted towards servers with a final purpose to be 
defined after install. The basic kickstart that would emulate the 
approach used at the time is still available as 
https://nazar.karan.org/blob/bluecain/45d8ab15b77e49120de9d79e6848531e644d0f24/ks-minimalC6.cfg. 
Beware that using this kickstart will NOT lead to the same list of 
packages as included in the original minimal.iso because Fabian , KB and 
I did an exhaustive work in order to identify all the packages needed 
for full support of wired hardware, including FCOE, iSCSI and so on.