Bug#703747: netcfg: preseed netcfg: confusion or regression about disable_dhcp, disable_autoconfig and use_autoconfig

[Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org>]

Control: tags 703747 + pending
Control: found 703747 1.101
Control: tags 688273 + pending

Hello,

It seems the issue is merely that:

    /* always always always default back to autoconfig, unless you've specified
     * disable_autoconfig on the command line. */
    debconf_get(client, "netcfg/disable_autoconfig");

    if (!strcmp(client->value, "true"))
        debconf_set(client, "netcfg/use_autoconfig", "false");
    else
        debconf_set(client, "netcfg/use_autoconfig", "true");

    /* also support disable_dhcp for compatibility */
    debconf_get(client, "netcfg/disable_dhcp");

    if (!strcmp(client->value, "true"))
        debconf_set(client, "netcfg/use_autoconfig", "false");
    else
        debconf_set(client, "netcfg/use_autoconfig", "true");

netcfg/disable_autoconfig has no effect of course, since
netcfg/disable_dhcp gets over it in all cases.

I have dropped the else part here, so disable_dhcp only has effect if
set to the non-default "true".

bilibop project, le Sat 23 Mar 2013 02:00:14 +0100, a écrit :
> d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true
> -> doesn't work
> d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false
> -> doesn't work
> d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true
> d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false
> -> doesn't work
> on boot cmdline: netcfg/disable_autoconfig=true netcfg/use_autoconfig=false
> -> doesn't work

Yes, all these get overriden by disable_dhcp.

> netcfg/disable_dhcp
> -> leads me directly to the configuration of a static IP

Yes, that one gets the last word, whatever is before.  That should now
be fixed in the git tree, so disable_autoconfig will really be the right
way.  Until that gets uploaded you can use the disable_dhcp compatibility
debconf.

> The version of netcfg shipped in the downloaded mini.iso is 1.106;
> there was a bugreport against the same program, version 1.92, to say that
> d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
> fails [1]. Is 1.106 a regression ?

It's actually 1.101 which brought the regression.

> Now, to build a generic preseed.cfg file that could work with different
> versions of the
> installer, and to be sure DHCP config is skipped, I use:
> d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
> d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true
> d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false
> 
> knowing that at least one of them (and probably two) is useless; but how to
> know
> which, in advance...

use_autoconfig shouldn't have to be set to false. Both disable_dhcp (for
squeeze and earlier) and disable_autoconfig (for wheezy and later)
should be enough alone.

I have uploaded a fixed version on:

http://dept-info.labri.fr/~thibault/tmp/mini.iso

Could you check that just netcfg/disable_autoconfig=true works for you
too?

Samuel