Custom desktop + groups vs. Workstation

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1

Are there differences between the results of the 3 installation method?

  1. Custom (minimal) desktop environment + some package groups in the Workstation environment (Everything installer, then dnf post install)
  2. Workstation Environment (Everything installer)
  3. Workstation installer

I do this because there are some groups in the Workstation environment that I don’t need and they bring in quite a lot of packages during the install.

I know there was one difference between Workstation installer and installing the Workstation env group[1]. I’m wondering if there are more that would affect the experience / functionality.

I.E. Are there some special things that would otherwise not be applied, if I install using groups?

  1. Fedora Workstation install difference between Workstation Live vs. Everything netinstall - Fedora Discussion ↩︎

2

Another one: nomodeset in kernel parameter

Where are these all coming from…

3

The menu_auto_hide comes from Anaconda profile, nothing else relevant in there[1].

However Anaconda documentation also mentions kernel arguments and cmdline options[2], which is likely the cause of nomodeset, how did those get put in?

Anaconda base config specifies what kernel arguments are preserved, nomodeset is one of them[3].

I had a look at the kickstart files used to generate the ISO images, but it’s not in them[4].

  1. /anaconda/data/profile.d/fedora-workstation.conf at a8df3c3c050dd612e333afd910dc99ba65720079 · rhinstaller/anaconda · GitHub ↩︎

  2. https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration-files.html ↩︎

  3. /anaconda/data/anaconda.conf at a8df3c3c050dd612e333afd910dc99ba65720079 · rhinstaller/anaconda · GitHub ↩︎

  4. https://pagure.io/fedora-kickstarts/tree/main ↩︎

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$ git diff --ignore-all-space --unified=0 Anaconda-Everything.conf Anaconda-Live.conf
diff --git a/Anaconda-Everything.conf b/Anaconda-Live.conf
index bef095c..fe8ec72 100644
--- a/Anaconda-Everything.conf
+++ b/Anaconda-Live.conf
@@ -12 +12 @@ optional_modules =
-type = BOOT_ISO
+type = LIVE_OS
@@ -28 +28 @@ default_on_boot = FIRST_WIRED_WITH_LINK
-default_environment =
+default_environment = workstation-product-environment
@@ -53 +53 @@ efi_dir = fedora
-menu_auto_hide = False
+menu_auto_hide = True
@@ -66 +66 @@ gpt_discoverable_partitions = True
-allow_imperfect_devices = True
+allow_imperfect_devices = False
@@ -96 +96 @@ reformat_blocklist = /home /usr/local /opt /var/www
-custom_stylesheet = /usr/share/anaconda/pixmaps/fedora.css
+custom_stylesheet = /usr/share/anaconda/pixmaps/workstation/fedora-workstation.css
@@ -97,0 +98,3 @@ hidden_spokes =
+       NetworkSpoke
+       PasswordSpoke
+       UserSpoke
@@ -113 +116 @@ geolocation_provider = https://geoip.fedoraproject.org/city
-use_geolocation = True
+use_geolocation = False
@@ -116 +119,2 @@ use_geolocation = True
-profile_id = fedora
+profile_id = fedora-workstation
+base_profile = fedora
@@ -119,0 +124 @@ os_id = fedora
+variant_id = workstation

Those are the final runtime Anaconda configurations.
So no relevant difference except the menu_auto_hide.

Everything conf was obtained by launching anaconda in troubleshoot shell.
Location is /run/anaconda/anaconda.conf.

The kernel argument differ by only rhgb which isn’t preserved. The previous user who got nomodeset likely installed from the basic graphic mode which has the argument in grub entry.

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5

Added anaconda, everything-netinstall, installation, workstation