Bug#755533: debian-installer: Use GeoIP support in installer
On 22 July 2014 02:35, Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org> wrote:
> Patrick Häcker <pat_h@web.de> (2014-07-21):
>> Package: debian-installer
>> Severity: wishlist
>> Tags: d-i l10n
>>
>> Dear Maintainer,
>>
>> it would be nice, if Debian installer would support GeoIP to use default
>> values where appropriate. See
>> http://henrich-on-debian.blogspot.de/2014/07/geoip-support-for-installer-is-really.html
>> for an example.
>>
>> This would probably change the required order of the installer steps. But as
>> a start, it would probably be enough to check if a DHCP enabled network
>> interface is available and use GeoIP only then. Otherwise the normal steps
>> should be executed.
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Patrick
>
> I don't think we're going to set up networking without asking, let alone
> contacting some service on the internets to figure out what country the
> user might be in. I'm happy to hear what other d-i developers have to
> say about this though.
>
So in Ubuntu, ubiquity & d-i do have geoip support added via tzsetup
package. (https://launchpad.net/bugs/229884). They do so by contacting
geoip service hosted by Canonical http://geoip.ubuntu.com/lookup ,
which is run on anonymous basis with no logs collected. (There is also
connectivity check (to catch captive portals) & geoname predictor
services used by ubiquity on similar anonymous terms -
http://start.ubuntu.com/connectivity-check and
http://geoname-lookup.ubuntu.com/?query=Moskva )
geoip.ubuntu.com/lookup is not open-sourced, but it's just a tiny
python script that uses python-geoip package & data from
geoip-database package. But it looks like there are also further
database updates taken from https://www.maxmind.com/en/home . I'll
work on open-sourcing that trivial python script.
The logic currently is opt-out - e.g. if timezone is not already
preseeded, an attempt will be made to query the server for timezone.
One can also pre-seed empty server address, and thus disable the
lookup.
I don't know which servers and/or data fedora installer uses.
For debian to do something like this, we'd ideally be hosting our own
service somewhere. I don't know if we wish for this to be opt-in or
opt-out, or something in-between e.g. If network is already
configured, and no timezone has been preseeded, do the auto-check. Or
if we should be simply asking the question if one wishes to attempt
auto-detection at that point vs choose manually.
--
Regards,
Dimitri.
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