Changes/Anaconda dir and image installations in automated text mode

Run Anaconda dir/image installations only in non-interactive text mode

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

Anaconda will require a fully defined kickstart file for installations into an image or a directory and these installations will run only in a non-interactive text-based user interface.

Owner

• Name: Vendula Poncova
• Email: <vponcova@redhat.com>
• Package: anaconda

• Name: Brian C. Lane
• Email: <bcl@redhat.com>
• Package: lorax (livemedia-creator)

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 40
• Last updated: 2024-01-02
• [<will be assigned by the Wrangler> devel thread]
• FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

The Anaconda installer supports installations into a local image (via the --image cmdline option) or a local directory (via the --dirinstall cmdline option, the directory is usually a mount point of a custom image). These types of installations are supported by two user interfaces (text-based and GTK-based) in fully interactive, partially interactive and non-interactive modes. We believe that there is no strong reason for all these options, so we would like to minimize the scope of this functionality and support only the text-based non-interactive mode (specifically the command-line mode). It means that Anaconda will require a fully defined kickstart file and run only in the text-based user interface (during dir and image installations).

Benefit to Fedora

This is a preliminary step for an eventual deprecation and removal of the Anaconda support for dir and image installations. This functionality is being slowly taken over by Image Builder that is explicitly designed for building images and provides a much broader and better support for all kinds of images. Limiting the scope of dir and image installations in Anaconda will allow its developers to focus their resources on more prospective areas.

Scope

• Proposal owners: Will submit a pull request for anaconda to run dir and image installations only in the non-interactive text mode and update livemedia-creator to reflect these changes if necessary.

• Other developers: No impact.

• Release engineering: No impact. There should be zero impact on building official Fedora images since these processes are fully automated and use fully defined kickstart files. #Releng issue number

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Community Initiatives:

User Experience

It will be still possible to use anaconda and livemedia-creator for installations into a local image or a directory with a fully defined kickstart file. Users can notice the following changes:

• If a user requests a dir or image installation, the installer runs in the text mode.
• If the user doesn't specify a kickstart file, the installer will report an error and abort.
• If the specified kickstart file is incomplete, the installer will report an error and abort.
• All options for specifying the user interface will be ignored (for example, --graphical).

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)