Re: Preseeding - keyboard-configuration issue
On Wed 19 Dec 2012 at 14:02:31 +0000, Brian wrote:
> On Tue 18 Dec 2012 at 17:22:34 -0700, Bob Proulx wrote:
>
> > where it is talking about "auto url=..." is definitely incorrect.
>
> Taking this and your other mail into account is persuading me back to
> readopting my original view on the matter. We could sound out what one
> of the maintainers thinks. There is a thread starting at
>
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2012/12/msg00263.html
>
> I will add to it within an hour or so.
Which activity concentrated my mind and caused me to change it for a
third time. :)
auto url= is correct! Almost all of Section B.2.3. is taken up with
talking about it. I have broken another golden rule: always assume
people know what they are talking about.
>From the beginning of Section B.2.3. up to the paragraph starting "The
auto boot label is not yet defined everywhere." the discourse is about
what the auto boot label can do for you. In particular, auto url=
provides a way for creating full preseed urls from either just a
hostname or a fully qualified domain name. Please see the linked page
http://hands.com/d-i/
auto url= label has nothing to do with suppressing seeing the language
and keyboard questions; we both have tested to our satisfaction that
both questions are indeed asked when it is used.
So a test with a netinst ISO: take the first splash screen menu option
(Install) and add
auto url=file://mnt/,/preseed.cfg
to the command line before booting. Proceed until the network is set up.
Look at the output of
cat /var/lib/pressed/log
The contents of my preseed.cfg are there. The auto label gets them
loaded by expanding file://mnt/,/preseed.cfg.
Then the Guide says:
The auto boot label is not yet defined everywhere. The
same effect may be achieved . . . .
"The same effect" should be the creating of full preseed urls.
How is it achieved? Well, the manual says to use auto=true and
priority=critical, whereas my opinion is that it is auto=true and url=
which produce the same effect. I think both our testing regimes show
this to be the case.
auto-true then gives an extra benefit:
. . . setting it to true delays the locale and keyboard
questions until after there has been a chance to preseed
them,
That is, with
auto=true url=file://mnt/,/preseed.cfg
there are two nice things happening. I (we?) concentrated on the delay
in answering two preseeded questions.
In addition, priority=critical is irrelevant to either creating full
preseed urls or not showing the language and keyboard questions at the
start of the install. Also, at
http://hands.com/d-i/
we read
by invoking the auto target, you're just ensuring that
auto=true priority=critical is added to the kernel command
line.
When I did the test outlined above I looked at the priority d-i started
with. It was "high"; just what you would expect with an "Install".
I think I now understand a little better what Section B.2.3. is trying
to say but wonder still whether it needs a rewrite to focus on what it
thinks is important for using auto mode when preseeding. Personally, I
would start by describing auto=true, then emphasise it needs to be given
a url and only at the end of the account deal with the url magic.
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