Re: Debian-installer export custom variable
On Thu 20 Dec 2012 at 21:13:49 +0000, Philip Hands wrote:
> Brian Potkin <claremont102@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Now "auto=true url=" is surely “auto” mode? Except using something like
> >
> > auto url=file:///mnt/./preseed.cfg
> >
> > does not delay the locale and keymap questions. This is either a bug in
> > the documentation or in the preseeding component of d-i.
>
> It looks more like either a mistake in the auto target in syslinux
> config, or a misinterpretation of the meaning of the auto examples.
>
> Are you specifying this auto bit as kernel options, or as the name of
> the kernel target?
>
> If the former, so if you're just adding auto on the end of the kernel
> command line, then you're misunderstanding what is supposed to be
> happening.
At the beginning of B.2.3. there is
To illustrate this, here are some examples that can be used
at the boot prompt: . . . .
All three examples which follow begin with "auto". So I typed
auto url=file:///mnt/./preseed.cfg
Ok, I wondered why "auto" hadn't been given a value but at that time had
not read the templates file in the network-preseed udeb. It appears I
have misunderstood the intended meaning.
> There is supposed to be a kernel target named "auto" which is defined
> such that it includes the options:
>
> auto=true priority=critical
>
> on the kernel command line. That's what you should be running if you
> select the Auto-install target from the menu, which you should then
> either edit the kernel command line on, or (assuming it still works) it
> should prompt you for the extra bits you'd want to add.
It indeed does work as you describe.
> This is actually mentioned, although perhaps not very clearly, in B.2.3
> in the manual:
>
> http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apbs02.html#preseed-auto
>
> The auto boot label is not yet defined everywhere. The same effect may
> be achieved by simply adding the two parameters auto=true
> priority=critical to the kernel command line.
The functions of the two parameters I did understand. What "The same
effect" refers to still puzzles me.
> Does that clear up your issue? If so, feel free to suggest how that
> could have been better described in the manual (as it currently suffers
> From having been written by the same people that wrote the software).
Bearing in mind the incomplete state of my understanding I'm a little
reluctant to offer suggestions; but here goes, anyway.
The section could begin with a description of what auto-install/enable
does as part of a fully automatic install, Not asking the locale and
keymap questions until the network is set up etc. Then an account of
preseed/url using the existing material but with the examples starting
with url=.
Move on to associating auto=true and url=. (Incidentally, can only url=
be used with auto? What about file= ?) Finally, advance the case for
priority=critical.
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