Description of problem: I believe there is a bug or documentation problem for FTP installation method. The documentation says: 1) Download ISOs 2) Mount them via loopback to disk1, disk2, disk3, disk4 3) Share them via ftp account ftp://redhat:redhat@someserver/ 4) Start installation with "linux askmethod" 5) Follow to FTP installation 6) As FTP server, type someserver 7) As directory, type / (diskX is mounted in chrooted user root, right?) 8) Installation fails to find any data until you type /disk1 as a path
For the directory to the install media, you have to type the path to the first loopback-mounted image. Anaconda will then recognize your directory layout as a series of loopback mounted images and it will progress through them. Where is the documentation you are referring to?
https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-begininstall-ftp-x86.html For example, if the FTP site contains the directory /mirrors/redhat/arch/variant;/, enter /mirrors/redhat/arch/ (where arch is replaced with the architecture type of your system, such as i386, ia64, ppc, or s390x, and variant is the variant that you are installing, such as Client, Server, Workstation, etc.). If everything was specified properly, a message box appears indicating that files are being retrieved from the server.
You are correct, the tips given for the FTP and HTTP installation method are a bit ambiguous when referring to the discX shortcut method. They don't then tell you what path to give to the installer. Reassigning to the Documentation component for RHEL. Thanks for the report.
Removing automation notification
clarified in source for RHEL5.2: https://engineering.redhat.com/docbot/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.2/html/Installation_Guide/s1-begininstall-ftp-x86.html setting as MODIFIED.
verified: https://engineering.redhat.com/docbot/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.2/html/Installation_Guide/s1-begininstall-ftp-x86.html