Fedora follies

[David A. Bandel]

Folks,

Perhaps some of the Fedora aficionados could help me out here.  This
install has me humbled.  I thought Debian or OpenBSD were amongst the
hardest to install, but I've been proven wrong.

Decided I'd put up a Fedora test box.  So, I d/l the latest Fedora
netinst.iso (looked for a PXE/netboot.tar.gz, but found none).

Mounted the iso under my /tftpboot directory, modified my
pxelinux.cfg/default file to point to the Fedora vice debian-install
directory for vmlinuz and initrd.img.

System booted up and gave me a nice "Welcome to Fedora" screen.  Told
me I'd have to install in text mode as I didn't have enough memory (no
biggie, I prefer the text install).

Asked me about my ethernet card and if I wanted IPv4 and IPv6 (yes to both).

(Other questions about hostname, timezone, etc., came in here somewhere).

Then it asked me to tell it where to find the install files.  Another
disappointment, no tftpboot choice.  I opted for URL (may have to see
if NFS works better, but that's for later).  Hmm.  OK, so I pointed my
web server to serve the images directory on the loopback mounted ISO
on my server.

Now it tells me it can't access http://tole.pananix.com/images --
well, turns out it can't handle IPv6 ???? Why in tarnation did it
request an IPv6 RR then?  My DNS returns tole.pananix.com first as
IPv6 with fallback to IPv4 if only an A vice both A and AAAA record is
requested.  The install is clearly requesting AAAA first and failing
to be able to access it because when I give it http://10.10.1.10/ it
can find the file.  This is completely borked.  It requests AAAA, then
can't support a http call to IPv6.  (aaaaaagh!)

The system came back telling me it couldn't find images/minstg2.img.
I only have images/stage2.img.  Ok, copied stage2.img into the web
server as minstg2.img under images.

So now I'm in the install (finally).  Partition the disk (had to let
it work automagically because apparently I'm not smart enough to
figure out this disaster of a partitioner.  I wanted to use LVM but
couldn't figure that out, but the automagic partitioner used it
anyway.  I really wanted to install an encrypted filesystem in /, but
I guess that can't be done in Fedora.  I had complained that the
Debian partitioner was difficult for newbies to maneuver through, but
this POS is impossible.  If anyone can tell me how to set up
encryption during the install, I'd be much obliged. (I also notice I
can't specify cylinders either, only Mb -- I like cylinders, I always
refer to cylinders when partitioning -- is there a switch or magic
incantation to get cylinders vice Mb?)

Was asked if I wanted GRUB or nothing (??? no LILO?).  Guess I'll have
to rip out grub by the shorthairs later, once I can find a LILO RPM.

Then the install failed.  Something about it couldn't find the repo
file, pls check the install tree. WTFO?

OK, well, if anyone can offer some pointers on how to unsnarl this
Anaconda mess so I can finish the text install, I'd be much obliged.

TIA,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
        - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto.