Red Hat Knowledgebase

Release Found: Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3

Symptom:
If you have two NIC cards and you are attempting to do a kickstart installation using Pre-Execution Environment (PXE) with Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3 for an x86 machine, you may run into the problem of being unable to get an IP address even though you may be able to start normally. The reason for this is most likely because your computer starts the installation on one NIC, but then uses DHCP on the second card. This makes the system unable to proceed with the installation because the wrong NIC gets the IP address. This particular issue was found on an HP Proliant DL145, but could be relevant for similar hardware.

Solution:
One work around is to do the following:

• Edit your PXELINUX configuration file (/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default) to include a command such as this:
  
  ksdevice=eth1
  
  
• And edit your kickstart file (ks.cfg) to have a line like the following
  
  network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp

After making this modification the installation should work fine. This is only a workaround, it is recommended that you remove one of the NIC cards or go into the BIOS and disable one before starting your installation. For more information regarding PXE installations please read the Red Hat manual chapter on PXE.