[CentOS] Customising a CentOS 6.6 installation disk

[Greg Bailey]

On 01/08/2015 11:18 AM, James Bishop wrote:
> I apologise if this is not the appropriate list for the following 
> issue, but...
>
> Is it possible to upgrade the Linux kernel on a kickstart CD?
>
> I've changed the vmlinuz and initrd.img files in the isolinux 
> directory from the distro's ISO image; so kernel 
> 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.i686 now boots from a DVD, and loads the 
> appropriate modules and firmware from the stage 1 initrd.img.
>
> However, anaconda (13.21.229) exits abnormally with a DBusException 
> (org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply); possibly because NetworkManager 
> is unable to launch the wpa_supplicant.
>
> Anaconda appears to be choking during initialisation:
>
>     anaconda.id = instClass.installDataClass(anaconda, extraModules, 
> opts.display_mode, anaconda.backend)
>   File "/usr/lib/anaconda/instdata.py", line 324, in __init__
>     self.reset()
>   File "/usr/lib/anaconda/instdata.py", line 64, in reset
>     self.network = network.Network()
>   File "/usr/lib/anaconda/network.py", line 308, in __init__
>     self.update()
>   File "/usr/lib/anaconda/network.py", line 326, in update
>     devhash = isys.getDeviceProperties(dev=none)
>   File "/usr/lib/anaconda/isys.py", line 375, in getDeviceProperties
>     bus = dbus.SystemBus()
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/_dbus.py", line 202, in 
> __new__
>     private=private()
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/_dbus.py", line 108, in 
> __new__
>     bus = BusConnection.__new__(subclass, bus_type, mainloop=mainloop)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/bus.py", line 125, in 
> __new__
>     bus = cls._new_for_bus(address_or_type, mainloop=mainloop)
> dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did 
> not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application 
> did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the 
> reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
> install exited abnormally [1/1]
> The system will be rebooted when you press Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
>
> The shell prompt is available on tty2; and so I can see the syslog, 
> which has repeated messages at its tail end:
>
> INFO NetworkManager: <info> Trying to start the supplicant
>
> So, something needs to be changed somewhere (kernel recompilation? 
> missing module? wpa_supplicant / NM upgrade? stage 2 install.img?) 
> which is where I'm stuck. Do I need to hack Wifi NIC related lines out 
> of anaconda?
>
> The reason that I'd like the final kernel version to be running during 
> the install, is that it's needed to compile the low-level driver for a 
> FIPS-140 crypto coprocessor. The target system will be an off-line 
> certification authority system, and will certainly not need Wifi (in 
> fact the hardening procedure foresees removal of most network hardware 
> drivers).
>
> I know I could do everything in three stages (initial install - 
> software upgrade - crypto driver install); but being able to do 
> everything in one go would simplify business continuity / bare metal 
> recovery.
>
> In the meantime, I'm very happy to have learned something about 
> anaconda / kickstart and so on, which will be very useful in future.
>
> If there's a quick fix to the above issues, I'd be happy to hear it.
>
> Thanks in advance
> James Bishop

Sounds like the "Rolling media" announced in:

http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2014-December/020807.html

could be useful to you, although judging by the kernel version you 
mentioned, it looks like you're looking for CentOS 6 updates. 
Unfortunately, it appears the rolling media is only available for CentOS 
7 at the moment.

Did you update modules.dep and modules.alias in the stage1 image?

-Greg