Bug#986716: installation-guide: Preseeding passwd/root-password-crypted with "!" doesn't work as described

[Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org>]

Control: reassigne -1 user-setup

Hello,

David Mandelberg, le ven. 09 avril 2021 23:06:06 -0400, a ecrit:
> https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/apbs04.en.html section
> B.4.5 talks about using "!" in passwd/root-password-crypted:
> > The passwd/root-password-crypted and passwd/user-password-crypted
> > variables can also be preseeded with "!" as their value. In that case,
> > the corresponding account is disabled. This may be convenient for the
> > root account, provided of course that an alternative method is set up
> > to allow administrative activities or root login (for instance by
> > using SSH key authentication or sudo).
> 
> When I tried that, it didn't seem to have any effect. From looking at
> what I think is the relevant code[0], it looks like a value of "!" in
> passwd/root-password-crypted is explicitly ignored.

It seems to me that it is actually a regression in the user-setup
package. "!" was really meant to mean empty password (thus disabled) and
it seems that the fix for #400766 broke it.

Samuel