kickstart installation with UEFI generates errors if the kickstart url includes an ampersand

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Issue

  • Our kickstart file is generated via a CGI script and a template.
  • The url to the CGI script is given in the inst.ks= boot parameter.
  • The string used in the inst.ks parameter is http://example.redhat.com/cgi-bin/ks-cfg.cgi?OSTYPE=RHEL&TREE=7.1&ARCH=x86_64
  • Further research is pointing me at a potential bug on probably the grubx64.efi, not accepting URLs with ampersands (&) in them.

Resolution

Escape the ampersand with a backslash ().

In this case:

inst.ks=http://example.redhat.com/cgi-bin/ks-cfg.cgi?OSTYPE=RHEL&TREE=7.1&ARCH=x86_64

It should be:

inst.ks=http://example.redhat.com/cgi-bin/ks-cfg.cgi?OSTYPE=RHEL\&TREE=7.1\&ARCH=x86_64

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