25.2. Performing a VNC Installation

Procedure 25.1. Starting VNC in Direct Mode

1. Run the VNC viewer of your choice on the workstation you are using to connect to the system being installed. For example, if you use TigerVNC:
   

   Figure 25.1. TigerVNC Connection Details

2. Boot the installation system and wait for the boot menu to appear. In the menu, press the Tab key to edit boot options. Append the inst.vnc option to the end of the command line.
   Optionally, if you want to restrict VNC access to the installation system, add the inst.vncpassword=PASSWORD boot option as well. Replace PASSWORD with the password you want to use for the installation. The VNC password must be between 6 and 8 characters long.

   Important

   Use a temporary password for the inst.vncpassword= option. It should not be a real or root password you use on any system.
   

   Figure 25.2. Adding VNC Boot Options on AMD, Intel, and ARM Systems

3. Press Enter to start the installation. The system initializes the installation program and starts the necessary services. When the system is ready, you get a message on the screen similar to the following:

   13:14:47 Please manually connect your VNC viewer to 192.168.100.131:1 to begin the install.

   Note the IP address and port number (in the above example, 192.168.100.131:1).
4. On the system running the VNC Viewer, enter the IP address and port number obtained in the previous step into the Connection Details dialog in the same format as it was displayed on the screen by Anaconda. Then, click Connect. The VNC viewer connects to the installation system. If you set up a VNC password, enter it when prompted and click OK.
   For further details about using a VNC client, see the corresponding section in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide.

Procedure 25.2. Starting VNC in Connect Mode

1. Start the VNC viewer on the client system in listening mode. For example, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux using TigerVNC, execute the following command:

   $ vncviewer -listen PORT

   Replace PORT with the port number you want to use for the connection.
   The terminal displays a message similar to the following example:

   Example 25.1. TigerVNC Viewer Listening

   TigerVNC Viewer 64-bit v1.3.0 (20130924)
   Built on Sep 24 2013 at 16:32:56
   Copyright (C) 1999-2011 TigerVNC Team and many others (see README.txt)
   See http://www.tigervnc.org for information on TigerVNC.
   
   Thu Feb 20 15:23:54 2014
   main:        Listening on port 5901
   

   The VNC viewer is now ready and waiting for an incoming connection from the installation system.
2. Boot the system being installed and wait for the boot menu to appear. In the menu, press the Tab key to edit boot options. Append the following options to the command line:

   inst.vnc inst.vncconnect=HOST:PORT

   Replace HOST with the IP address of the system running the listening VNC viewer, and PORT with the port number that the VNC viewer is listening on.
3. Press Enter to start the installation. The system initializes the installation program and starts the necessary services. Once the initialization is finished, Anaconda attempts to connect to the IP address and port you provided in the previous step.
   When the connection is successfully established, a new window opens on the system running the VNC viewer, displaying the installation menu. In this window, you can use the Anaconda graphical interface the same way you would use it when installing directly on the system.