T o n g wrote: > If I want to do automated install on Debian (http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ > notebook/autoinstall.php) Those directions are doing a network install and are loading the preseed file from the network. > using preseeding configuration file from USB > key, how should I tell the Debian boot loader to look there? It isn't completely obvious but as stated here: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apbs02.html.en If you are using initrd preseeding, you only have to make sure a file named preseed.cfg is included in the root directory of the initrd. The installer will automatically check if this file is present and load it. So for you booting off of USB the simplest thing would be to put the preseed file in the initrd of your usb boot media. Then you don't need to specify anything anywhere and it happens automatically. But if you decide not to do that then the docs go on to say: For the other preseeding methods you need to tell the installer what file to use when you boot it. This is normally done by passing the kernel a boot parameter, either manually at boot time or by editing the bootloader configuration file (e.g. syslinux.cfg) and adding the parameter to the end of the append line(s) for the kernel. In which case it would be the path to the preseed file at the time that the install is happening. > If normally booted, my USB key would be sdc, should I use > > preseed/file=/sdc/path/preseed.cfg > > or /mnt/sdc or /media/its_label, or...? You would need to determine what the path to the install media would be at boot time. I would manually boot the installer and then do Alt-F2 and then return to get a text console. Then I would inspect the disks there to see where the installer is mounted. Then use that path. Or if you specify a network path at install boot time then just as shown in the doc you were referencing you can specify an http URL path to it and load it that way. The only downside is that some variables such as locale and keyboard are used before networking is activated and so those questions are not automated by this method. And so you might find it easier to place the preseed file into the initrd that is on the usb boot media and then have it happen automatically. Or at the least have the keyboard and locale variables set there to avoid those questions and then load the rest of the preseed file from the network. Being on the network it would be more easily edited and changed. So your next question I expect would be: How do I get the preseed file into the initrd on the usb boot media? A useful trick to know is that the initrd maybe a list of concatenated gzip'd files. So you don't have to read-modify-write the existing initrd.gz file. You only need to *append* an additional file to it. I haven't tried this with wheezy but with squeeze: cp $PATH_TO_INSTALL_MEDIA/initrd.gz . mkdir initrd-preseed cd initrd-preseed cat >preseed.cfg <<EOF d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8 d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select us d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth0 EOF find . -print | cpio -R 0:0 -o -H newc | gzip >> ../initrd.gz Then replace the usb install media copy of initrd.gz with your new copy that has the extra preseed file appended to the end of it. Then when you boot from that usb media the initrd.gz file will be loaded and it will have the preseed.cfg file in place in the initrd and it will be automatically loaded. You will need to understand the paths and make adjustments in the above but I think that should give you the right idea. I only load those three variables in my initrd preseed.cfg file. All other configuration I make in a network available preseed file and I specify it on the boot line. I can edit that file easily and the changes are available without needing to rebuild the initrd each and every time. But once you have the initrd preseed it is certainly possible to specify everything there. Make sure you keep a pristine copy of your original initrd.gz file. That way you can rebuild by appending to the end of the pristine copy again. I use a read-only iso image for my master copy. Then I make a copy of it and append to the end of it for my active boot media. Bob
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