Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 993503
RFE: log packages required by installer
Last modified: 2014-04-14 12:36:34 EDT
Description of problem: The installer requires some packages to be installed in order to complete the install. The problem is that these required packages are not listed in one place in the code, and they are not logged. The list of required packages also depends on the install target -- additional packages are required if the install target has NTFS file systems. This lack of transparency caused the reporter of Bug 988233 severe bafflement when he attempted to exclude the firewalld package in his kickstart file. This RFE would log the list of installer-required packages in anaconda.log or packaging.log. A separate documentation RFE would explain why some packages cannot be excluded in a kickstart file: Bug 988328 - RFE: some packages cannot be excluded using a kickstart file Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): anaconda 19.30.13-1.fc19 How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Actual results: Expected results: Additional info: Bug 988233 - Anaconda does not exclude certain packages specified in the kickstart configuration
Richard: What annotation in the log do you suggest for the list of packages required by the installer? For my test patch (Bug 988233, Comment 11), I used "pre-configured packages: ", but that doesn't explain enough, IMO. The resulting log record looked like this: 23:10:40,579 INFO anaconda: pre-configured packages: ['grub2', 'e2fsprogs', 'lvm2', 'authconfig', 'firewalld']
(In reply to Steve Tyler from comment #1) > Richard: What annotation in the log do you suggest for the list of packages > required by the installer? What about 'installer immutable default package selection'? 23:10:40,579 INFO anaconda: installer immutable default package selection: 'grub2','e2fsprogs', 'lvm2', 'authconfig', 'firewalld'] Since this selection is not the same as the core package group which is described as being installed in any case. I suggest mentioning the possibility of additionally installed packages on the Kickstart Wiki page Chapter 3: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart. i.e.: 'Depending on the installation target there may be additional packages installed by default beside the core group which can not be removed within the %packages section. For a list of default packages take a look at /var/log/anaconda/anaconda.packaging.log and search for 'installer immutable default package selection'. Uninstalling those packages may break your system. If you still want to uninstall one of those packages you may do so in the %post section.' I would update the wiki myself but I'm not sure if updating a wiki once in a while justifies a Fedora account.
What about also including some information why were the given packages added ? For example the realmd integration adds some packages based on the domain type it is joining. If it discovers AD, it installs different packages than when it joins a FreeIPA domain. So it might be good if the immutable package listing was delimited by a reason why the given packages have been selected for installation (where possible). Example: Packages needed by realmd for joining a FreeIPA domain: ['libfoo','barutil', 'bazd']
Moving to Rawhide as this feature request is not F19 specific.