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    • RHEL 7 Kickstart - %packages --retries= not working

    Posted on

    I'm working on customizing 

    rhel-server-7.9-x86_64-dvd.iso
    to include a kickstart file which automatically partitions the disk and installs a "minimal" OS (no GUI stuff at all), and I'm trying to figure out which packages actually need to be included in the 
    Packages/
    directory.

    One of the problems I'm running into is that, if the 

    Packages/
    directory is missing an RPM which is needed, the installer loops through ten instances of 
    Error populating transaction, anaconda is retrying (1/10)
    .

    Two problems:

    • The only way to find the name of the missing package is to wait until the ten retries are done, then look at the end of 
      /tmp/packaging.log
      .
    • The first five attempts finish fairly quickly (i.e. about 10 seconds total), but the last five take longer and longer, resulting in the whole process taking about TEN MINUTES before I can see the filename, move the package back, make a new ISO, and test it again.

    The documentation says that the 

    %packages
    directive has a 
    --retries=
    option. I've tried 
    --retries=5
    , but it still makes ten attempts with ever-greater timeouts before giving me the next filename.

    Is this a known issue? If so, are there any known work-arounds? The repo it's trying to install from is part of the image it booted from, and has a 

    file://
    URL, so retries shouldn't be necessary to begin with.

    by

    points

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