I'm seeing a weird case where rootpw --iscrypt CRYPTEDPWD fails but rootpw *without* the iscrypt works fine. I've tried several encrypted passwords, including a full rootpw line that worked successfully on a previous FC6 kickstart config. The install scenario is a netboot install using the workaround for the DCHP problem that I described in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=253624. I would be happy to try to collect debugging info on this, but I'm not sure how to go about that. If you have time to advise, I will be happy to do it.
Sorry. That isn't the correct cross-reference. The scenario is described in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=258881 I guess I've been doing too much stuff with anaconda this week. :-)
How is it failing?
When --iscrypt is used, it stops at the root password screen to request a root password and wait for input. The password fields presented are blank. This happens whether or not autostep is enabled. When --iscrypt is not used, the password request page stays up long enough that I can see it getting populated. Hmm. Just to eliminate user stupidity as cause, how long is the timeout for autostep on that page? I should re-check, because I was pretty tired, but my memory was that hands free install really was coming to a dead halt on that screen. If it's useful, I'm also now in a position to compare behavior against FC6 anaconda, because I set up an autoinstall config for that as well. None of this takes very long, so let me know if that would be helpful.
It's not all that obvious, but this isn't fixable for the same reason as the bug I'm duping this to. The problem is that with crypted passwords, when we stop on the root password screen, we don't know what to display in the boxes. So we can only throw away the encrypted password and display an empty box to get input. We're stopping on the password screen because you're in autostep mode, just like if you were doing an interactive kickstart install. Suggestions for what to do here are welcome. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 181740 ***
So far as I know, there are only two modes: interactive and autostep. I had thought that autostep was the proper mode to use for completely "hands free" install. Apparently I am mistaken. Either I'm about to be very red-faced or something is missing in the documentation. What mode should be used in a kickstart file to get a completely automated, hands-free install that will *not* stop at the root password page?
Since you asked for suggestions, here is a fairly obvious one: allow autostep to proceed past the password dialog, but set the input box in that case to non-encrypting and populate it with "<From KickStart>". There is probably some obvious reason why this will not work; I don't know much about the anaconda internals.