Re: Configuring a new system that shipped w/ Debian?

[Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com>]

On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 01:38:02PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:

> > > > I am planning on shipping Linux boxen with Debian preinstalled.
> > > >
> > > > When the customer unpacks the box and fires it up, what is the
> > > > best way to allow him to reconfigure the sorts of things that
> > > > one normally configures as part of an install:
> > > >
> > > >  * Hostname
> 
> This is set by the initial install, and is not reconfigurable
> with dpkg-reconfigure. You can easily tell this is the case by
> making a note of when the installation process asks you for
> this information. If it is before the first reboot you cannot
> reconfigure it with dpkg-reconfigure.

Ah ha!  Now we're getting somewhere.

> Run base-config. Anything it asks you after the first reboot and before
> you select packages to install is asked by base-config.

Thanks!  That's one piece of the puzzle I hadn't yet found.

> > > >  * SSH key generation
> 
> Remove old ssh hosts keys and dpkg-reconfigure ssh. Anything that asks
> you a question after you select packages to install can be reconfigured
> by reconfiguring the package that it says is asking you the question at
> that point. Some packages like ssh may not normally allow a reconfigure
> to blow away generally crucial information like ssh host keys.

That one I had figured out.  I was thinking of modifying the
init.d script for ssh so that it generates host keys if they
don't exist (my non-Debian systems all work that way).  That
way I can just ship machines w/o keys, and they get generated
if needed.

> In general: Run an install, take notes of every thing you want
> the customer to be able to reconfigure later, divide into the
> three basic categories listed above, write or find programs to
> handle the first set since debian has nothing good that will
> serve yet, use base-config for the secod set, and
> dpkg-reconfigure for the third set.

Thanks.  That clears things up.  I might do something using
newt to handle the first set. 

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com


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