On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Timothy Murphy <gayleard at eircom.net> wrote: > Phil Schaffner wrote: > >> Because network installs tend to be problematic for all but those with >> local repositories or flawless broadband network connections. Having it >> present was raising unrealistic expectations of netinstall as a viable >> option, and resulting in bad first experiences with CentOS and a large >> support burden. > > That seems completely misguided to me, > since it is perfectly simple to use with the DVD ISO on a local machine. > Why not simply warn people if you think a local ISO is the safest way? > > The alternative dd method described in the CentOS Installation Guide > (but not the RedHat one) does not appear to me to work, > and the only other way I see to install CentOS on a machine > without a CD drive (the method described in the RedHat Installation Guide) > is absurdly long-winded. Forgive me if I've missed it mentioned, but it looks like the option is only being removed from the LiveCD. Using the netinstall.iso is still available and would be a more efficient way of doing network installs anyway (9.5M vs 685M). Unless things have changed since I messed with network installs (which is has been a while), all you really need is some way to boot the kernel and initrd files. It doesn't matter if you start with grub, lilo, syslinux, etc. I remember using the boot loader of an existing system to start the network install (but I don't remember what version it was) on a machine without a working optical drive. The issues you saw with grub being installed on the USB stick instead of the HDD are a bigger concern in my book. I wonder if you you have better luck installing GRUB on the HDD MBR, booting from the HDD and using grub to load the kernel and initrd off the USB stick. -- William Hooper