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A standard install with a kickstart file on fedora or centos just installs the packages from the install repository, which are usually outdated after some days after the release of a new fedora/centos version. So installing a fedora/centos always requires a %post section in the kickstart file where you would call a dnf/yum update -y in order to upgrade the old and outdated packages. This is a waste of time and bandwidth and the dnf/yum installer can use multiple repositories at the same time and pick the latest version.

How can I tell anaconda during a fresh install to include the "updates" repository for installation, so that a yum/dnf update -y afterwards is not required, as the updates woud already be installed?

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  • Did you try the repo option of kickstart? – Thomas Sep 17 '17 at 9:59
  • oh my, not sure why i did overlook this option - will try this. Thanks – Mandragor Sep 17 '17 at 11:00
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In any recent version of Fedora, Anaconda comes with built-in configuration for the updates repo. So you should be able to enable updates in a Fedora install just by adding the line:

repo --name=updates

to your kickstart. From the kickstart documentation of the repo command:

By default, anaconda has a configured set of repos taken from /etc/anaconda.repos.d plus a special Installation Repo in the case of a media install. The exact set of repos in this directory changes from release to release and cannot be listed here. There will likely always be a repo named “updates”.

Note: If you want to enable one of the repos in /etc/anaconda.repos.d that is disabled by default (like “updates”), you should use –name= but none of the other options. anaconda will look for a repo by this name automatically. Providing a baseurl or mirrorlist URL will result in anaconda attempting to add another repo by the same name, which will cause a conflicting repo error.

That shortcut should work fine in CentOS 7 (thanks to @maxschlepzig in the comments for checking!). If you have to deal with something older you should still be able to add the updates repo manually with a more complete repo command:

repo --name=centos-updates --mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=updates

That would enable the CentOS updates repo (with full mirror support!) during the install.

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  • 1
    would be wonderful for completion sake to know which one actually worked.. – Alex R Nov 30 '18 at 14:30
  • @AlexR, I've just tested repo --name=updates with CentOS-7-x86_64-NetInstall-1810.iso and it does work. That means the ks.cfg is accepted and a yum update after first reboot doesn't want to update anything. – maxschlepzig Jan 18 at 16:06

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