[CentOS] Anaconda allows x86_64 CD/DVD to be used to install i386 system

Wed May 3 11:58:18 UTC 2006
Aleksandar Milivojevic <alex at milivojevic.org>

Karanbir Singh wrote:
> Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:
>> As subject says.  I just noticed that Anaconda allows x86_64 CD/DVD to
>> be used to install i386 system (using network installation, of course).
> 
> errr... you mean its installing i386 packages from the x86_64 media ? I
> find that very hard to believe......
> 
> 
>> This is basically broken.  For example, yum will believe that it is
>> installed on x86_64, not on i386.  So when you do for example yum
>> update, it will try to install x86_64 packages on i386 system.  Which
> 
> errr.. no it wont. take a look at how yum decides arch...
> 
>> isn't going to fly, since installed kernel is 32-bit (so you get broken
>> executables).  It can also play havoc with postinstall scripts that will
>> detect they are being run under 64-bit kernel during installation, but
>> resulting system is really 32-bit.
> 
> Can you provide some details on howto reproduce this ? a copy of the 3
> files in /root from postinstall would be nice. maybe post them somewhere
> online and a url here.

Sorry, I should have been a bit more detailed.

Let say the tree on my install server looks like this:

/centos/os/i386
/centos/os/x86_64


If I use x86_64 media to boot, but by mistake in ks.cfg file I had 
something like:

url http://installsrv/centos/os/i386

Anaconda will happily install from i386 tree.  All the packages on the 
system will be i386.  However, $basearch in yum will expand to x86_64. 
First time you do "yum update" your system will be basically broken (yum 
will install 64-bit binaries on something that is basically 32-bit 
installation).