Chapter 36. Customizing boot parameters
Before the installation can begin, you must configure some mandatory boot parameters. When installing through z/VM, these parameters must be configured before you boot into the generic.prm
file. When installing on an LPAR, the rd.cmdline
parameter is set to ask
by default, meaning that you will be given a prompt on which you can enter these boot parameters. In both cases, the required parameters are the same.
All network configuration must now be specified by either by using a parameter file, or at the prompt.
- Installation source
-
An installation source must always be configured. Use the
inst.repo
option to specify the package source for the installation.
- Network devices
Network configuration must be provided if network access will be required during the installation. If you plan to perform an unattended (Kickstart-based) installation by using only local media such as a disk, network configuration can be omitted.
Use the
ip=
option for basic network configuration, and other options as required.Also use the
rd.znet=
kernel option, which takes a network protocol type, a comma delimited list of sub-channels, and, optionally, comma delimitedsysfs
parameter and value pairs. This parameter can be specified multiple times to activate multiple network devices.For example:
rd.znet=qeth,0.0.0600,0.0.0601,0.0.0602,layer2=1,portname=foo
NoteWhen specifying multiple
rd.znet
boot options, only the last one is passed on to the kernel command line of the installed system. This does not affect the networking of the system since all network devices configured during installation are properly activated and configured at boot.The qeth device driver assigns the same interface name for Ethernet and Hipersockets devices:
enc<device number>
. The bus ID is composed of the channel subsystem ID, subchannel set ID, and device number, separated by dots; the device number is the last part of the bus ID, without leading zeroes and dots. For example, the interface name will beenca00
for a device with the bus ID0.0.0a00
.- Storage devices
At least one storage device must always be configured for text mode installations.
The
rd.dasd=
option takes a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) adapter device bus identifier. For multiple DASDs, specify the parameter multiple times, or use a comma separated list of bus IDs. To specify a range of DASDs, specify the first and the last bus ID.For example:
rd.dasd=0.0.0200 rd.dasd=0.0.0202(ro),0.0.0203(ro:failfast),0.0.0205-0.0.0207
The
rd.zfcp=
option takes a SCSI over FCP (zFCP) adapter device bus identifier, a world wide port name (WWPN), and a FCP LUN, then activates the device. This parameter can be specified multiple times to activate multiple zFCP devices.For example: Since 8, a target world wide port name (WWPN) and an FCP LUN have to be provided only if the
zFCP
device is not configured in NPIV mode or whenauto LUN
scanning is disabled by thezfcp.allow_lun_scan=0
kernel module parameter. It provides access to all SCSI devices found in the storage area network attached to the FCP device with the specified bus ID. This parameter needs to be specified at least twice to activate multiple paths to the same disks.rd.zfcp=0.0.4000,0x5005076300C213e9,0x5022000000000000 rd.zfcp=0.0.4000
- Kickstart options
-
If you are using a Kickstart file to perform an automatic installation, you must always specify the location of the Kickstart file using the
inst.ks=
option. For an unattended, fully automatic Kickstart installation, theinst.cmdline
option is also useful.
An example customized generic.prm
file containing all mandatory parameters look similar to the following example:
Example 36.1. Customized generic.prm file
ro ramdisk_size=40000 cio_ignore=all,!condev inst.repo=http://example.com/path/to/repository rd.znet=qeth,0.0.0600,0.0.0601,0.0.0602,layer2=1,portno=0,portname=foo ip=192.168.17.115::192.168.17.254:24:foobar.systemz.example.com:enc600:none nameserver=192.168.17.1 rd.dasd=0.0.0200 rd.dasd=0.0.0202 rd.zfcp=0.0.4000,0x5005076300c213e9,0x5022000000000000 rd.zfcp=0.0.5000,0x5005076300dab3e9,0x5022000000000000 inst.ks=http://example.com/path/to/kickstart
Some installation methods also require a file with a mapping of the location of installation data in the file system of the DVD or FTP server and the memory locations where the data is to be copied.
The file is typically named generic.ins
, and contains file names for the initial RAM disk, kernel image, and parameter file (generic.prm
) and a memory location for each file. An example generic.ins
will look similar to the following example:
Example 36.2. Sample generic.ins file
images/kernel.img 0x00000000 images/initrd.img 0x02000000 images/genericdvd.prm 0x00010480 images/initrd.addrsize 0x00010408
A valid generic.ins
file is provided by Red Hat along with all other files required to boot the installer. Modify this file only if you want to, for example, load a different kernel version than default.
Additional resources