Re: using initrd preseed.cfg during netboot

[Steve Feehan <sfeehan@sbb.uvm.edu>]

On Mon, Mar 27, 2006 at 03:29:54PM -0500, Steve Feehan wrote:
> Forgot (at least) one critical bit of information: I'm working
> with the Sarge installer and the netboot image retrieved from:
> 
>   ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Steve
> 
> On Mon, Mar 27, 2006 at 03:27:30PM -0500, Steve Feehan wrote:
> > I have been working on preseeding during network booting. I got a
> > network preseed file to work, but I'm having trouble putting the
> > preseed.cfg file in the initrd.
> > 
> > First, I know this is probably not the correct way to modify the initrd, 
> > but here is what I did:
> > 
> > Uncompress the initrd:
> > 
> >   gunzip initrd.gz
> > 
> > Mount on a loopback device:
> > 
> >   mount -o loop=/dev/loop0 initrd /mnt
> > 
> > Copy the preseed file into the initrd file system:
> > 
> >   cp preseed.cfg /mnt/preseed.cfg
> > 
> > Unmount:
> > 
> >   umount /mnt
> > 
> > Compress the initrd:
> > 
> >   gzip initrd
> > 
> > When I boot with this initrd I can drop to a shell and see that
> > /preseed.cfg is there. But the installer won't use the values in
> > the preseed file. I've tried with and without passing the kernel 
> > parameter:
> > 
> >    preseed/file=/preseed.cfg
> > 
> > But in either case, the preseed values are not used.
> > 
> > Am I missing something obvious? Does the netboot initrd not support
> > preseed files inside the initrd? Do I need to build my own customized
> > netboot images? If there is documentation on this, please point me in
> > the right direction. And if I didn't explain the problem clearly enough,
> > please let me know and I'll try and clarify.
> > 
> > Thanks for your time!
> > 
> > -- 
> > Steve Feehan
> 
> -- 
> Steve Feehan

Yesterday afternoon I decided to proceed down the path of building
a custom debian installer netboot image with the file-preseed and/or
initrd-preseed udebs.

The first problem I encountered is that the initrd-preseed udeb seems
to not exist for the version of preseed used in stable. The other 
preseed udebs for stable are version "1.01" but initrd-preseed only 
exists as version "1.14.1".

So my questions...

  1. Am I proceeding in the right direction? Ie. is creating a custom
     debian-installer netboot image the correct solution to storing a
     preseed.cfg inside the initrd?

  2. Do I need to use/build the debian-installer version from sid since
     there does not appear to be an initrd-preseed for stable?

  3. Is it possible to use the sid installer to install a stable system?

Thanks.

-- 
Steve Feehan