Installing Using Anaconda

The Fedora installer uses the tmux terminal multiplexer to display and control several windows you can use in addition to the main interface. Each of these windows serves a different purpose - they display several different logs, which can be used to troubleshoot any issues during the installation, and one of the windows provides an interactive shell prompt with root privileges, unless this prompt was specifically disabled using a boot option or a Kickstart command.

The terminal multiplexer is running in virtual console 1. To switch from the actual installation environment to tmux, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. To go back to the main installation interface which runs in virtual console 6, press Ctrl+Alt+F6.

The console running tmux has 5 available windows; their contents are described in the table below, along with keyboard shortcuts used to access them. Note that the keyboard shortcuts are two-part: first press Ctrl+b, then release both keys, and press the number key for the window you want to use.

You can also use Ctrl+b n and Ctrl+b p to switch to the next or previous tmux window, respectively.

In addition to displaying diagnostic information in tmux windows, Anaconda also generates several log files, which can be transferred from the installation system. These log files are described in Log Files Generated During the Installation, and directions for transferring them from the installation system are available in Transferring Log Files from the Installation System.

You can press Shift+Print Screen at any time during the graphical installation to capture the current screen. These screenshots are saved to /tmp/anaconda-screenshots.

Additionally, you can use the autostep --autoscreenshot command in a Kickstart file to capture and save each step of the installation automatically. See autostep (optional) - Go Through Every Screen for details.

The first screen displayed immediately after the graphical installer starts is the Welcome screen.

First, select your preferred language in the left hand side column, and then select your locale from the right hand side column. You can use the text input field in the bottom left corner to search for your language instead of looking for it in the full list of more than 70 languages.

The language you select on this screen will be used during the installation, and it will also be used on the installed system by default. You can change the language for the installed system later, but once you click Continue on this screen, you will not be able to go back and change the language used inside the installer itself.

One language is pre-selected by default on top of the list. If network access is configured at this point (for example, if you booted from a network server instead of local media), the pre-selected language will be determined based on automatic location detection using the GeoIP module. Alternatively, if you used the inst.lang= option on the boot command line or in your PXE server configuration, this language will be selected by default, but you will still be able to change it.

After you select your language and locale, click Continue to confirm your selection and proceed to Installation Summary.

The Installation Summary screen is the central location for setting up an installation. Most of the options which can be configured during the installation can be accessed from here.

The summary screen consists of several links to other screens, separated into categories. These links can be in several different states, which are graphically indicated:

A warning message is displayed at the bottom of the summary screen, and the Begin Installation button is greyed out, as long as at least one item has not been configured yet.

Each screen also has an explanatory text below its title, showing settings currently configured in that screen. This text may be concatenated; in that case, move your mouse cursor over it and wait until a tooltip with the full text appears.

Once you configure everything required for the installation, you can press the Begin Installation button to start installing Fedora. This will take you to Configuration and Installation Progress. Note that as the text below this button says, nothing will be written to your hard drive before you press this button. You can press Quit at any point; this will discard all changes you made in the installer so far and reboot the system.

The Date & Time screen allows you to configure time and date-related settings for your system. This screen is automatically configured based on the settings you selected in Welcome Screen and Language Selection, but you can change your date, time and location settings before you begin the installation.

First, select your Region using the drop-down menu in the top left corner of the screen. Then, select your City, or the city closest to your location in the same time zone. Selecting a specific location helps Fedora ensure that your time is always set correctly including automatic time changes for daylight savings time if applicable.

You can also select a time zone relative to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) without setting your location to a specific region. To do so, select Etc as your region.

The switch labeled Network Time in the top right corner of the screen can be used to enable or disable network time synchronization using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). Enabling this option will keep your system time correct as long as the system can access the internet. By default, four NTP pools are configured; you can add others and disable or remove the default ones by clicking the gear wheel button next to the switch.

If you disable network time synchronization, the controls at the bottom of the screen will become active, and you will be able to set the current time and date manually.

After configuring your time and date settings, press the Done button in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Keyboard Layout screen allows you to set up one or more keyboard layouts for your system and a way to switch between them. One keyboard layout is configured automatically based on your selection in Welcome Screen and Language Selection, but you can change this layout and add additional ones before you begin the installation.

Keyboard layouts are a separate setting from system languages, and these two settings can be mixed as you see fit.

The left half of the screen contains a window listing all currently configured layouts. The order in which the layouts are displayed is important - the same order will be used when switching between layouts, and the first listed layout will be the default on your system.

The text field on the right side of the screen can be used to test the currently selected layout.

You can click a layout in the list to highlight it. At the bottom of the list, there is a set of buttons:

You can also optionally configure a keyboard switch which can be used to cycle between available layouts. To do so, click the Options button on the right side of the screen. The Layout Switching Options dialog will open, allowing you to configure one or more keys or key combinations for switching. Select one or more key combinations using the check boxes next to them, and click OK to confirm your selection.

After you finish configuring keyboard layouts and switches, click Done in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Language Support screen allows you to configure language settings for your system. The default language is determined by your selection in Welcome Screen and Language Selection and support for this language can not be removed. You can only add additional languages, which will be available on the installed system - not during the installation.

If you want to change the default language, or the language used during the installation, you must reboot your system, start the installer again, and select a different language in Welcome Screen and Language Selection.

The left panel contains a list of available language groups such as English or Bulgarian. If at least one language from a group is selected, a check mark will be displayed next to the group, and the list entry will be highlighted. This allows you to easily see which languages you have configured support for.

To add support for one or more additional languages, click a group in the left panel, and then select one or more regional variations in the right panel using check boxes next to list entries. Repeat this process for all languages you want to install support for.

Once you have made your selections, click Done in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Installation Source screen allows you to specify a location (local or on the network) from which packages will be downloaded and installed on your system. This screen will be configured automatically in most cases, but you can change your settings or add additional sources.

The following options are available. Note that not all of them may be displayed.

You can also specify additional repositories in the Additional repositories section to gain access to more installation environments and software add-ons. All environments and add-ons will be available for selection in Software Selection once you finish configuring the sources.

To add a repository, click the + button. To delete a repository, select one in the list and click the - button. Click the arrow icon to revert to the previous list of repositories, i.e. to replace current entries with those that were present at the time you entered the Installation Source screen. To activate or deactivate a repository, click the check box in the Enabled column at each entry in the list.

You can name your additional repository and configure it the same way as the primary repository on the network using the input fields on the right side of the section.

Once you have selected your installation source, click Done in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Software Selection screen allows you to choose a Base Environment and Add-ons. These options control which software packages will be installed on your system during the installation process.

This screen is only available if Installation Source is properly configured and only after the installer has downloaded package metadata from the source.

The availability of environments and add-ons depends on your installation source. By default, the selection depends on the installation media you used to start the installation; Fedora Server installation image will have different environments and add-ons available for selection than, for example, the Fedora Cloud image. You can change this by configuring a different installation source containing different environments.

To configure your software selection, first choose an environment on the left side of the screen. Only one environment can be chosen, even if more are available. Then, on the right side of the screen, select one or more add-ons which you want to install by marking the check boxes next to each add-on.

The list of add-ons is divided into two parts by a horizontal line. Add-ons above this line are defined as part of your chosen environment; if you select a different environment, the add-ons available here will change. The add-ons displayed below the separator are not specific to your chosen environment.

Environments and add-ons are defined using a comps.xml file in your installation source (for example, in the repodata/ directory on the full Fedora Server installation DVD). Review this file to see exactly which packages will be installed as part of a certain environment or add-on. For more information about the comps.xml file, see %packages (required) - Package Selection.

After you finish configuring your software selection, click Done in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Installation Destination screen allows you to configure storage options - namely, which disks will be used as the installation target for your Fedora installation. At least one disk must always be selected for the installation to proceed.

For information about the theory and concepts behind disk partitioning in Linux, see Recommended Partitioning Scheme.

In the top part of the screen, all locally available storage devices (SATA, IDE and SCSI hard drives, USB flash drives, etc.) are displayed in the Local Standard Disks section. Local disks are detected when the installer starts - any storage devices connected after the installation has started will not be shown.

If you need to configure additional local storage devices, select I will configure partitioning and press Done to move to Manual Partitioning. Then, connect any new hard drives you want to make available during the installation, and press the button marked by a circular arrow in the set of controls below the list of mount points on the left side of the screen. In the dialog window that opens, press Rescan Disks and wait until the scanning process completes. Then, press OK to return to Installation Destination; all detected disks including any new ones will be displayed in the Local Standard Disks section.

The Specialized & Network Disks section below shows advanced network storage (such as iSCSI and FCoE disks) currently configured. When you first open this screen, no such devices will be displayed because they can not be automatically detected; to search for network storage devices, press Add a disk button and proceed with Installation Destination - Specialized & Network Disks. Any network storage you configure will then show up in the Specialized & Network Disks the same way local disks are shown above.

All storage devices which will be used to install Fedora have a black circle icon with a white check mark on them. Disks not marked by this icon will not be used during the installation - they will be ignored if you choose automatic partitioning, and they will not be available in manual partitioning.

After you select all disks you want to install Fedora, select one of the two options in the Other Storage Options section:

Additionally, you can select Encrypt my data; this will encrypt all partitions except the ones needed to boot the system (such as /boot) using Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS). Encrypting your hard drive is recommended. For detailed information about LUKS encryption, see the Fedora Security Guide, available at http://docs.fedoraproject.org/.

To control which one of your selected storage devices will contain the boot loader, click the Full disk summary and bootloader link in the bottom left corner of the screen, and follow the instructions in Boot Loader Installation. Note that while in most cases it is sufficient to leave the boot loader in the default location, some configurations (for example, systems which require chain loading from another boot loader) will require the boot drive to be specified manually.

After you select storage devices, choose between automatic and manual partitioning, configure encryption and boot loader location, press Done in the top left corner of the screen. Then, depending on your settings, the following will happen:

This part of the Installation Destination screen allows you to configure non-local storage devices, namely iSCSI and FCoE storage. This section will mostly be useful to advanced users who have a need for networked disks. For instructions on setting up local hard drives, see Installation Destination.

The screen contains a list of all currently available (discovered) network storage devices. When the screen is opened for the first time, the list will be empty in most cases because no network storage has been discovered - the installer makes no attempt at discovering this unless you configure network disks using a Kickstart file.

To add one or more storage devices to the screen so you can search them and use them in the installation, click Add iSCSI Target or Add FCoE SAN in the bottom right corner of the screen, and follow the instructions in Add iSCSI Target or Add FCoE SAN, depending on which type of network storage you want to add.

Network storage devices successfully discovered and configured by the installer will then be displayed in the main list, along with identifying information such as Name, WWID, Model and Target. To sort the list by a specific column (for example WWID), click the column’s heading.

There are three tabs on the top of the list, which display different information:

Depending on the tab you are currently in, you can filter the discovered devices by using the Filter By field. Some of the filtering options are automatically populated based on discovered devices (for example, if you select Filter By: Vendor, another drop-down menu will appear showing all vendors of all discovered devices). Other filters require your input (for example when filtering by WWID), and present you with a text input field instead of a drop-down menu.

In the list (regardless of how it is filtered), each device is presented on a separate row, with a check box to its left. Mark the check box to make the device available during the installation process; this will cause this device (node) to be shown in the Specialized & Network Disks section in Installation Destination. There, you can select the disk as an installation target and proceed with either manual or automatic partitioning.

When you have selected the storage devices to make available during installation, click Done to return to Installation Destination.

The Manual Partitioning screen allows you to create a storage configuration for your Fedora system manually, giving you a greater control over your system’s storage.

In most other installers for both Linux and other operating systems, disk partitioning usually takes a "bottom-up" approach. In these installers, you first create underlying devices such as LVM physical volumes, then you create a layout such as LVM on top of them, then you create file systems on top of logical volumes, and the last step is usually assigning a mount point to each volume as needed.

Anaconda uses an opposite approach. First, you create all separate mount points you need, and everything needed to create them (creating a volume group, logical volumes inside it, and physical volumes where the volume group will reside) is performed automatically. You can then adjust the automatic settings as you require.

When you first open the Manual Partitioning screen, the column on the left side will display all previously existing partitions on all drives which you selected as installation targers in Installation Destination. If none of the selected drives contain any existing partitions, then a message informing you that no mount points currently exist will appear.

Here, you can choose a partitioning scheme such as LVM or BTRFS and click the Click here to create them automatically to prompt the installer to create a basic partitioning layout; this layout follows the guidelines described in Recommended Partitioning Scheme. The created layout is a basic layout where partition/volume sizes are determined automatically based on the total amount of available space.

Click the + button to add a mount point. In the dialog window that opens, choose a mount point such as / or /home, and the desired capacity for the mount point (such as 10GB or 500MB). Note that specifying the mount point is mandatory, but you do not have to specify the capacity at this point; this is useful when adding a mount point which you want to make larger than the current available space permits. Then, click Add mount point to add it to the list using the default settings, which means it will be created as a logical volume, and a new volume group will be created for it unless one already exists.

Then, select the newly created mount point in the list on the left side. A set of controls will display on the right side of the screen, allowing you to change its mount point, the device on which it will physically reside, its capacity, file system, etc. When you change any settings, press Update Settings on the bottom right. This will save the adjusted configuration; you can now create another mount point, or select a different existing one and adjust its settings as well.

To remove a mount point, select it in the list and press the - button below.

The exact steps for configuring your storage depend on your specific needs and your system configuration. Procedures for creating specific layouts are described further in this chapter. Before you start, you should also review Recommended Partitioning Scheme and Advice on Partitions for a list of requirements and tips for partitioning your disks for Fedora.

Below the list of existing mount points are two fields, showing you how much free space is left on your storage devices and how much total space they have.

Click the X storage devices selected to view a summary of currently selected storage devices; this may help you with orientation in more complicated storage schemas. Devices displayed here are the ones you have selected in Installation Destination. If you want to add or remove any storage devices from your configuration, return to that screen and change your selection.

You can press the Reset All button in the bottom right corner at any time to reset the storage configuration to the state it was in when you last opened the Manual Partitioning screen. This means that if you modify the storage configuration, leave the screen, and then come back, the Reset button will reset the configuration back to the already modified state, discarding only the changes you have made recently, not all changes to the storage configuration since you booted the installer.

To discard all changes, and to also detect any new drives which have not been detected when the installer started (usually when you attached a new drive after you started), press the button marked by a circular arrow in the set of controls below the list of mount points on the left side of the screen. In the dialog window that opens, press Rescan Disks and wait until the scanning process completes. Then, press OK to return to Installation Destination; all detected disks including any new ones will be displayed in the Local Standard Disks section.

After you finish configuring your system storage, press Done in the top left corner to save the configuration and return to the Installation Summary screen. At this point, the installer will check if your storage configuration is valid. If an error was detected, a message will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Click the message to open a dialog window explaining what kind of error has been detected (for example, you put /boot on a Btrfs subvolume, or you did not create a BIOS Boot partition when your system requires one).

If such a message is displayed, go back and fix any issues found by the installer; otherwise you will not be able to proceed with the installation. You can also press Done again to return to the Installation Summary anyway, but a storage configuration error will prevent you from starting the actual installation process.

If no error message is displayed and if you made any changes since the last time you have visited this screen, a summary dialog will appear, displaying a detailed list of the changes you made. Review the list and click Accept Changes to proceed with Installation Summary, or click Cancel & Return to Custom Partitioning if you want to make any more changes.

Use this screen to select whether or not Kdump will be activated on the installed system, and how much memory will be reserved for it if enabled.

Kdump is a kernel crash dumping mechanism which, in the event of a system crash, captures the contents of the system memory at the moment of failure. This captured memory can then be analyzed to find the cause of the crash. If Kdump is enabled, it must have a small portion of the system’s memory (RAM) reserved to itself. This reserved memory will not be accessible to the main kernel.

To enable Kdump on the installed system, check Enabled. Then, select either Automatic or Manual memory reservation settings, and if you selected Manual, enter the amount of memory to be reserved in megabytes into the Memory to be reserved field.

The amount of memory which you should reserve is determined based on your system’s architecture (AMD64 and Intel 64 will have different requirements than IBM Power, for example) as well as the total amount of system memory. In most cases, automatic reservation will be satisfactory. If you insist on manual settings, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Kernel Crash Dump Guide for guidelines. This document also contains more in-depth information about how Kdump works, how to configure additional settings, and how to analyze a saved crash dump.

The Usable System Memory readout below the reservation input field shows how much memory will be accessible to your main system once your selected amount of RAM is reserved.

After configuring Kdump settings, click Done in the top left corner to return to Installation Summary.

The Network & Hostname screen is used to configure network interfaces. Options selected here will be available both during the installation (if needed for tasks such as downloading packages from a remote location) and on the installed system.

Locally accessible interfaces are automatically detected by the installation program and cannot be manually added or deleted. All detected interfaces are listed on the left side of the screen. Click an interface in the list to display its current configuration (such as IP and DNS address); the details are displayed on the right side of the screen.

Below the list of interfaces are two buttons. Use the + button to add a virtual network interface (Team, Bond or VLAN) as described in Adding a Virtual Network Interface. To remove a previously created virtual interface, select it in the list and click the - button.

To change settings such as IP addresses, DNS servers, or routing configuration for an existing interface (both virtual and physical), select the interface in the left pane and click Configure in the bottom right corner of the screen. Available settings are described in Editing Network Interface Configuration.

Use the ON/OFF switch in the top right corner to enable or disable the currently selected interface.

Below the list of connections, enter a host name for this computer in the Hostname input field. The host name can be either a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) in the format hostname.domainname, or a short host name with no domain name. Many networks have a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service that automatically supplies connected systems with a domain name; to allow the DHCP service to assign the domain name to this machine, only specify the short host name.

The Configuration screen is displayed after you finish configuring all required items in Installation Summary and press the Begin installation button. After this point, the installation process actually starts and changes are being made to your selected disks. It is not possible to go back to the Installation Summary and change any settings configured there; if you need to do so, you must wait for the installation process to finish, reboot your system, log in and change your settings on the installed system.

In the top part of the screen, two additional options are available, allowing you to configure authentication settings - the root password and an additional user account. Configuring the root password is required to finish the installation; creating a user account can be skipped. If you do so, you will be prompted to create a non-root user account after the installation finishes and your system reboots.

The bottom of the screen shows a progress bar and a message informing you of the current progress of the installation. When the installation finishes and the root password has been set, you can press the Finish configuration button to reboot your computer and log in to your newly installed Fedora system.

The Root Password screen is used to configure the root password for your system. This password will be used to log into the administrator (also known as superuser) account, which is used for system administration tasks such as installing and updating software packages and changing system-wide configuration such as network and firewall settings, storage options and adding or modifying users, groups and file permissions.

The root account will always be created during the installation. However, you should always also create a normal user accont in Create User and use that account to log in to the system. Only switch to the administrator account only when you need to perform a task which requires administrator access.

Once you choose a strong password, enter it in the Root Password field. The characters you write will be displayed as dots for security. Then, type the same password into the Confirm field to ensure you entered it properly. Both entered passwords must be the same.

As you enter the password, it will be evaluated and the installer will determine the password’s strength. If the installer considers your password weak, a message will appear at the bottom of the screen, explaining which aspect of your chosen password is considered insuficient. For example:

If a message similar to the above appears, it is highly recommended to choose a different, stronger password.

Once you configure the superuser password, click Done in the top left corner to return to Configuration and Installation Progress. If you selected a weak password, you must press the button twice.

The Create User screen can be used to create and configure one normal (non-root) user account during the installation. Only one user account can be configured here; if you require more accounts, wait until the installation completes, reboot your system and then create other accounts using either the useradd command in a terminal, or a graphical utility for managing user accounts (for example, the Users screen in the Settings menu in GNOME).

To configure a user account, fill out the Full name (for example, John Smith) and Username (for example, jsmith). The username will used to log in from a command line; if you install a graphical environment, then your graphical login manager will use Full name.

Make sure that the Require a password to use this account check box is enabled, enter a password you want to use for this account into the Password field. The characters you write will be displayed as dots for security. Then, repeat the same password in the Confirm password field below to ensure you entered it properly. Both entered passwords must be the same.

As you enter the password, it will be evaluated and the installer will determine the password’s strength. If the installer considers your password weak, a message will appear at the bottom of the screen, explaining which aspect of your chosen password is considered insuficient. For example:

If a message similar to the above appears, it is highly recommended to choose a different, stronger password.

The Make this user administrator check box gives the user you are creatng administrative rights (by adding this user into the wheel group), allowing this user to use the sudo command to perform tasks normally only available to root using only the user password, instead of the root password. This may be more convenient, but can also pose a security risk.

To additional settings, click the Advanced button below the password input fields. A new dialog window titled Advanced User Configuration will open. This dialog is described in the following section.