How to override anaconda/kickstart package ordering?

Question

I am building a bootable ISO to be used to install a Linux image (Oracle Linux, 5.8). This is using anaconda with a kickstart file to select the packages to be loaded. Some of these packages are failing with dependency problems in their %post section.

Eg, this is seen in /root/install.log after the installation is complete:

Installing thirdparty-tools-1.00-09.noarch
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.97891: line 1: ln: command not found
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.97891: line 2: ln: command not found
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.97891: line 3: ln: command not found
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.97891: line 4: ln: command not found
error: %post(thirdparty-tools-1.00-09.noarch) scriptlet failed, exit status 127

I'm trying to find out if it is possible to control/override the package ordering, without editing any RPMs to add dependencies. I've been looking through the anaconda / kickstart documentation (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart#Chapter_3._Package_Selection), and searching extensively elsewhere, so I think that the answer is actually 'no, you can't do this'. Which would be a shame.

The problem is that I am trying to include various third-party RPMs, which are not under my control and which have been digitally signed. These include some processing in a %post section. This processing requires some standard Linux commands, eg 'ln', 'touch', etc, which are supplied within the coreutils package. The third-party package does not currently include a dependency on the coreutils package, though obviously it should really. Anaconda uses its own partial ordering algorithm to choose what order to install these packages, and the third-party packages are being installed before the coreutils package. Obviously, the proper solution is to get these RPMs fixed by the third-party; however, this is likely to take too long.

I was hoping that their might be some hidden / un-documented option for the kickstart file, which could add in extra dependencies. Ideally, I'd like to be able to add something like this to the %packages section:

%packages
@admin-tools
@base
@core
@system-tools
thirdparty-tools

# We would like to add some magic command to indicate a missing dependency
thirdparty-tools dependson coreutils

So, my question is: Is it possible to control or override the package ordering without editing any RPMs to add dependencies?

Very many thanks for any help.

Note that I asked the same question on the Unix/Linux StackExchange site here, and got a (partial) answer: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/84237/how-to-override-anaconda-kickstart-package-ordering — Conor O'Neill

Derek Pressnall Derek Pressnall · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-11T04:34:19

If you can't get the source RPM, you can use rpmrebuild to re-create the RPM:

rpmrebuild -e -n -d . -p thirdparty-tools-1.00-09.noarch

This will bring up a re-created spec file in your default editor, where you can make changes to the requires lines. Also, you may want to change the package name too, so that your re-built version is differentiated from the upstream vendor's version (I usually append "-local" to the package name).

How to override anaconda/kickstart package ordering?

2 Answers