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Error code is 256; my machine is amd phenom ii asus m5a78l-m based. I am using bootable flash drive. Description of error is packages/xfs...noarch.rmp couldn't be taken from anaconda. I tried two different images and my flash drive is sandisk 8gb; bootable created by following redhat installation guide dd command.

Abhineet Sharma
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I recently had a similar problem trying to install Debian and also Ubuntu from a (Lexar 128GB) flash drive. I checked the image integrity and it was fine but every time I'd try to install it would tell me that the image was faulty and quit. I eventually loaded (the same) image onto a DVD and used an optical drive and it worked fine. Not sure if this is a possible workaround for you but it worked for me.

Ingytron
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I will say something ovious, but the installer seems to be lacking a file. Error code 256 is no more mirrors to try. So anaconda is trying to get the file on all it's options.

Maybe the kickstart file mentioned a file that is not or should not be there, maybe the package is missing.

You can take a look on if the supposed to be missing file is there on the installation shell prompt (Alt-F2)

Eventually, you can add the missing file to the installation disk (that is a dirty solution but help me out when I had a similar problem in the past) or you can remove the file in the installation list (this is far more complicated)

I can't access to a RHEL repo, but it should be more or less equal to CentOS repo. Then, as I don't know the full rpm file you are lacking, you may take a look on if it is available here:

http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/os/x86_64/Packages/

None of the solutions I'm commenting here are "clean" solutions but workarounds. If you think any of these may be helpful, please detail the whole missing package name. Any of the potential workaround I mentioned here are complex enough to be a whole question itself with it's full thread of answers. Anyway maybe the best option is asking RedHat support for the missing package if it is really missing and put it on place (maybe is there, but corrupted)

You can have a better clue checking the logs. According to fedora documentation, logs are in the following location during installation:

/tmp/anaconda.log /tmp/syslog /tmp/X.log /tmp/program.log /tmp/storage.log /tmp/yum.log /tmp/ifcfg.log

ignivs
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  • The packages/xfs and packages/xds-utils happens unpredictably. And the bigger problem than having to download 4 GB image again and again is that it worked well in my virtualbox instance. Only then I went ahead to perform installation on my machine. A sad part of this is that all the bug reports submitted to redhat about this(or alike) error are being closed by citing media error WITHOUT telling the questioner from where to obtain a functional media if not their customer portal. Thanks anyway, I will try the dirty trick as well. I am also downloading scientific Linux, maybe am just desperate. – Abhineet Sharma Jul 28 '15 at 22:53
  • I checked /tmp/anaconda.log and it kept stuck on created xfs on /dev/mapper/rhel. Ctrl-alt-f3 also was blank. This time the package transaction which didn't populate is xfsprogs-3.2.1-6.el7.x86_64.rpm from anaconda. Program.log, storage.log both are just not logging any recent errors. However, packaging.log has a story to tell: error happened populating transaction set and this particular package xfsprogs-3 has incomplete header. Image was freshly downloaded today and then an 8 GB flash drive was made bootable with dd command. Any further clues required? – Abhineet Sharma Jul 29 '15 at 00:23
  • Okay, it worked with a DVD. This means image is fine. Rhel got some issue with USB flash media drivers and packages. Dd command did not report any issues and I had used 512k as block size, if that matters here. – Abhineet Sharma Jul 29 '15 at 08:59
  • @AbhineetSharma You probably got a bad flash drive. Throw it in the nearest rubbish bin. – Michael Hampton Jul 31 '15 at 19:42
  • Well precisely this is the reason why that bug lives on and RedHat keeps closing it by blaming either the media or specific .iso. It is not a bad flash drive for I have installed other Linux based OSes with it. If it were a bad flash drive, dd would have failed too. Nevertheless, thank you for your suggestion. – Abhineet Sharma Aug 03 '15 at 01:09