Hi James,
And thanks for the report/forward from elsewhere, much appreciated
James Addison <jay@jp-hosting.net> (2023-05-01):
> This bugreport is a subset/related-to bug #1031643, also in preseed.
>
> When the 'hostname' preseed alias for 'netcfg/get_hostname' is provided to
> Bookworm's RC 2 installer as a kernel command-line argument, the value that
> it contains unexpectedly takes higher precedence over a hostname received from
> DHCP, contrary to the Installation Guide documentation[1] in combination with
> the corresponding netcfg documentation[2].
>
>
> Conditions:
>
> * Preseed alias 'hostname' configured on the kernel command-line
> * There is a DHCP server on the installation-target's network that will provide a hostname
>
> Expected behaviour:
>
> * Installer does not ask for installation-target hostname
> * Installation-target hostname is received and configured using DHCP
>
> Actual behaviour:
>
> * [good] Installer does not ask for hostname
> * [bad] Hostname is configured from the command-line, ignoring the DHCP-negotiated hostname.
> * This is similar to 'netcfg/hostname' -- a different setting from 'netcfg/get_hostname'.
Given the proximity of the tentative Bookworm release, my gut feeling
would be to special-case the hostname=unassigned-hostname setting that's
been documented since at least 2004, and limit “unsetting hostname” to
this particular case.
This should:
1. be good enough for anyone having followed the example preseed from
any point in the past;
2. and equally importantly: limit possible side-effects.
If that's not the case for (1), we should get bug reports with details
about what people have actually been doing, and whether it makes sense
to unset it unconditionally. If that's the case, we can let this thing
mature in unstable/testing post-Bookworm, and once we're absolutely
certain this isn't going to regress in some other weird way, we can
consider backporting this to Bookworm, via a point release.
Cheers,
--
Cyril Brulebois (kibi@debian.org) <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant
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