Re: "kickstart" for debian needed

["I. Forbes" <iforbes@zsd.co.za>]

Hello Duane 

On 27 Mar 2001, at 21:58, Duane Powers wrote:

> I don't know if anyone has the details on redhat's kickstart
> program, and whether that is something that could be ported to
> debian... Any suggestions? 

At the moment we do the following:

-   base install (3 floppies + base.tgz from nfs drive). 

-   break the installation when "dselect" starts 

-   download a "configs.tgz" from the network.  This contains
    customized versions of debian "config" files in /etc as well as
    other utilities in /usr/local/ and /var/www/.  This configures
    /etc/apt/sources etc.  It also contains a file "/etc/deblist"
    which was generated using "atp-get --set-selections".  

-   run apt --get-selections < /etc/deblist 

-   run apt-get --deselect-update 

-   manually edit /etc/... to suite the particular install. 

This is flexible, when we change something on the network, we 
change in the master "configs.tgz" and all subsequent installs get it. 
The process is not broken when there is an upstream update - 
because of debian policy for "configuration" files.

We have a script which backs up each machine and creates a 
personalized "config.tgz" file.  If we have to reload a machine, we 
just use that one instead. (It will get upgraded to the latest "stable" 
stuff during the re-install process.)

The problems:

"apt-get --deslect-upgrade" is painfully slow - particularly on slow 
hardware.  And you have to sit and watch and answer "y/n" stuff 'till 
it is finished.  (Can't wait for debconf to be working on a useful 
level).

The personalisation of the config files is slow.  I think we could do 
with a script which runs after the config.tgz has been extracted and 
asks things like domain names and user names.

I tried using a customized "base.tgz" that installed everything in one 
go.  But it was too inflexible and introduced too many bugs, so we 
went back to the old procedure as outlined above.

Regards

Ian

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Ian Forbes ZSD
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