Anaconda is a free and open-source system installer for Linux distributions. Anaconda is used by

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop ...

Oracle Linux Oracle Linux (abbreviated OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red ...

Scientific Linux Scientific Linux (SL) was a Linux distribution produced by Fermilab, CERN, DESY and by ETH Zurich. It is a free and open-source operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This product is derived from the free and open-source software ma ...

AlmaLinux AlmaLinux is a free and open source Linux distribution, created originally by CloudLinux to provide a community-supported, production-grade enterprise operating system that is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The first s ...

, CentOS,

MIRACLE LINUX MIRACLE LINUX is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-6 ...

, Qubes OS, Fedora,

Sabayon Linux Sabayon Linux or Sabayon (formerly ''RR4 Linux'' and ''RR64 Linux''), was an Italian Gentoo-based Linux distribution created by Fabio Erculiani and the Sabayon development team. Sabayon followed the " out of the box" philosophy, aiming to give ...

and BLAG Linux and GNU, also in some less known and discontinued distros like

Progeny Componentized Linux Progeny Linux Systems was a company which provided Linux platform technology. Their Platform Services technology supported both Debian and RPM-based distributions for Linux platforms. Progeny Linux Systems was based in Indianapolis. Ian Murdock, ...

, Asianux,

Foresight Linux Foresight Linux was a Linux distribution comprising free and proprietary software with the goal of showcasing the latest in Linux desktop technologies. Foresight is developed by the Foresight community and is based on rPath, it also follows a rol ...

, Rpath Linux and

VidaLinux This is a list of Gentoo Linux derivatives. Calculate Linux ChromiumOS and ChromeOS Container Linux (formerly CoreOS) FireballISO FireballISO (or "Fireball") is a VMware virtual appliance that builds a security-hardened Live CD con ...

Functionality

Anaconda offers a

text-mode Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of ''character cells'', each ...

and GUI mode, so users can install on a wide range of systems. It is designed to be easily portable and supports a wide range of hardware platforms (

IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called i386) is the 32-bit version of the x86 instruction set architecture, designed by Intel and first implemented in the 80386 microprocessor in 1985. IA-32 is the first incarnation o ...

Itanium Itanium ( ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). Launched in June 2001, Intel marketed the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance comput ...

DEC Alpha Alpha (original name Alpha AXP) is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alpha was designed to replace 32-bit VAX complex instruction set compute ...

IBM ESA/390 The IBM System/390 is a discontinued mainframe product family implementing the ESA/390, the fifth generation of the System/360 instruction set architecture. The first computers to use the ESA/390 were the Enterprise System/9000 (ES/9000) ...

, PowerPC,

ARMv8 ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

). It supports installing from local storage devices like CD-ROM drives and harddisks as well as from network resources via

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide We ...

, or NFS. Installations can be automated with the use of a kickstart file, that automatically configures the installation, allowing users to run it with minimal supervision. Before starting the OS installation process, the installer checks the system hardware and resource requirements. Only if the requirements are satisfied does it start the installation process.

Technology

It is mainly written in

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

with some modules written in C. It has a graphical frontend that is based on GTK+ 3/

PyGObject PyGTK is a set of Python wrappers for the GTK graphical user interface library. PyGTK is free software and licensed under the LGPL. It is analogous to PyQt/ PySide and wxPython, the Python wrappers for Qt and wxWidgets, respectively. Its ori ...

and designed with the

Glade Interface Designer Glade Interface Designer is a graphical user interface builder for GTK, with additional components for GNOME. In its third version, Glade is programming language–independent, and does not produce code for events, but rather an XML fil ...

. Anaconda also has a custom text frontend with support for computers with

line printer A line printer prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were impact printers. Line printers are mostly associated with unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the ...

like terminals, such as the

mainframes A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

Under the hood

The Anaconda installer provides various useful tools and commands for both users with specific installation needs as well as for debugging issues with the installer itself or OS installation in general. Anaconda supports a rich set of options "Anaconda Boot Options"
/ref> that can be passed to the boot command line to influence installation behaviour. There is also a root shell running on TTY2 available for the user to inspect the installation environment during the installation run. There are also various useful files in the installation environment: * /tmp/anaconda.log - contains Anaconda related log messages (Anaconda also logs to journal) * /root/lorax-packages.log - contains a list of names and versions of all packages that have been used to create the installation image * /mnt/install/ks.cfg contains the kickstart used for the installation run (if any) After a successful installation, Anaconda stores various important files from the installation run on the system itself. This makes it possible to check how the system was installed even at a later time. * installation logs are stored in /var/log/anaconda * a kickstart file describing option selected during the installation run is stored in /root/anaconda-ks.cfg The anaconda-ks.cfg file found on a system can be used (possibly with small changes) to install a very similar system again.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Linux, Free and open-source software Fedora Project Free software programmed in C Free software programmed in Python Linux installation software Red Hat software Software that uses GTK Software that uses PyGObject

Functionality

Technology

Under the hood

See also

References

External links