Re: Problems creating preseed.cfg - syntax?
Bob Proulx wrote:
Richard Owlett wrote:
I'm having several problems getting desired results from preseeding.
My Environment:
No internet/LAN
Install media
Debian GNU/Linux 7.1.0 "Wheezy" - Official i386 DVD Binary-1 20130615-21:54
preseed.cfg on USB stick
You and Brian and I had an good discussion about this last year. Well
I thought Brian and I had a great discussion anyway. :-)
I'll see your :-) and raise you a ROFL ;/
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2012/12/thrd2.html#00516
Having a fairly complete local copy (being high speed
challenged), I just reviewed those ~50 messages (of the 300+
preseed related).
I still think you should consider a LAN (local, with emphasis on
local, network) for your case. I understand you don't want to use a
WAN in any way. That's fine. But a LAN is not a WAN.
There a a number of _personal_ constraints which preclude that
approach.
Second best I think you should create a custom initrd on your usb
installation image. Then put those early preseed questions there.
That seems the most trouble free way.
I don't know what would be involved in that and how much
time/effort would be consumed with background self-education.
I should play with the USB preseed. I don't know enough about it.
But reading through the docs it just didn't seem like the best way to
do things. Which is why I headed straigth for the initrd preseed.
A preseed.cfg on a USB stick should work fine. I suspect it will
have advantages over several alternatives that have been
suggested over the last 18 months - or more.
Besides, I see a potential benefit to the Debian project. Doing
an install from physical DVD, using a preseed.cfg on a USB stick,
and having no networking appears to be what is sometimes referred
to as a "corner test case". [c.f. Murphy's Law ;]
# To get a list of every possible question that could be asked
# during an install, do an installation, and then run these commands:
# debconf-get-selections --installer > file
# debconf-get-selections >> file
Note - I quoted that from the official install docs <grin>
Just a general comment about that strategy. That is a good way to get
a raw dump of everything. I have even seen it recommended to use that
file as the preseed file. But I think that is not maintainable. It
is too much of a raw dump. I did that too originally. But then I
found it better to list the minimum configuration needed and to
comment each one appropriately. So while it is reasonable to start
out that way eventually you outgrow it.
I needed a very raw dump to search out what values had been
assigned to a half dozen parameters when I had done an install in
full manual mode.
Unfortunately when I try bash responds "command not found".
The existing install was a manual install from DVD1 using default
answers except for user/password/etc. Confirmed debconf installed by
checking with synaptic.
Install debconf-utils. /usr/bin/debconf-get-selections is in the
debconf-utils package.
There are two ways to find out what package contains a file.
# apt-get install apt-file
# apt-file update
$ apt-file search /usr/bin/debconf-get-selections
debconf-utils: /usr/bin/debconf-get-selections
And there is an online search form for just such things too.
http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages
Scroll down to "Search the contents of packages". Paste in the file
path /usr/bin/debconf-get-selections. Optionally set the
Distribution. Click "Search".
File Packages
/usr/bin/debconf-get-selections debconf-utils
Bob
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