Chapter 14. Consoles and logging during installation


The RHEL installer uses the tmux terminal multiplexer to display and control several windows in addition to the main interface. Each of these windows serve a different purpose; they display several different logs, which can be used to troubleshoot issues during the installation process. One of the windows provides an interactive shell with root privileges, unless this was specifically disabled by 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. During the text mode, installation starts in virtual console 1 (tmux), and switching to console 6 will open a shell prompt instead of a graphical interface.

The console running tmux has five available windows; their contents are described in the following table, along with keyboard shortcuts. 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, Alt+ Tab, and Ctrl+b p to switch to the next or previous tmux window, respectively.

Expand
Table 14.1. Available tmux windows
ShortcutContents

Ctrl+b 1

Main installation program window. Contains text-based prompts (used for text mode and also for interactive entry of RDP credentials), and also some debugging information.

Ctrl+b 2

Interactive shell with root privileges.

Ctrl+b 3

Installation log; displays messages stored in /tmp/anaconda.log.

Ctrl+b 4

Storage log; displays messages related to storage devices and configuration, stored in /tmp/storage.log.

Ctrl+b 5

Program log; displays messages from utilities executed during the installation process, stored in /tmp/program.log.

Ctrl+b 6

Packaging log; displays messages related to packages, stored in /tmp/packaging.log.

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