Preseeding the Debian Installer

 and Ubun-too!
 Brian Pitts
 http://polibyte.com
 Introduction

 Preseeding is a way to
 Answer questions asked during installation
 Run scripts during installation
 Customize software installed
 Debconf

 Software configuration utility

 Integrated with the package manager
 debconf-get-selections
 Use --installer to read from
/var/log/installer/cdebconf instead of running
system
 debconf-show
 dpkg-reconfigure
 Format

 <owner> <question name> <question type>

<value>
 Only use one whitespace character between
type and value!
 Check format with debconf-set-selections -c
preseed.cfg
 d-i is the owner of questions related to
installation
 Answers to questions with other owners are
placed in debconf database of target system
 Access Methods

 Each run at different times

 Initrd
 Local File (CD, USB)
 Network (HTTP/FTP)
 Local File

 The media is mounted at /cdrom

 Add file=/cdrom/preseed.cfg to kernel
command line in isolinux.cfg
 USB is easy to modify since it's r/w
 ISO is harder. Copy the contents iso, modify it,
then regenerate with
 mkisofs -o new-cd.iso -l -r -D -J -cache-inodes
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table
-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat
extracted-cd/
 Boot Parameters

 Any can be specified in format

owner:path/to/variable=value
 auto=true (delay keyboard and locale
questions)
 priority=critical (skip most questions)
 interface=eth1 (choose network interface)
 file=/cdrom/preseed.cfg (load local preseed file)
 url=http://10.0.0.1/preseed.cfg (download
preseed file)
 DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 (syslog and vt4)
Let's see what we can do...
 Language and Keyboard

 d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US

 at is almost always a safe keyboard to pick
 d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select at
 Network

 Choose any active link

 d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
 Static

 Use a static IP address

 d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
 d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 10.0.0.1
 d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 10.0.0.2
 d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.0.0.0
 d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 10.0.0.1
 d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true
 d-i netcfg/get_hostname string newbox
 d-i netcfg/get_domain string example.com
 Mirror

 d-i mirror/country string US

 d-i mirror/http/hostname string
us.archive.ubuntu.com
 d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu
 d-i mirror/http/proxy string http://10.0.0.1:9999
 Time

 d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

 d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
 d-i time/zone string US/Eastern
 Partitioning

 Don't have to specify disk if there's only one

 d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
 Methods are: "regular", "lvm" and "crypto"
 d-i partman-auto/method string regular
 Recipes are "atomic", (/) "home", (/, /home)
"multi" (/, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp)
 d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
 Can define your own recipe
 Partitioning

 Make it all automatic

 d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean
true
 d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
 d-i partman/confirm boolean true
 Accounts

 Skip creating root

 d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
 Skip creating regular use
 d-i passwd/make-user boolean false
 Set root password
 d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password
[MD5 hash]
 Create password with echo "example" |
mkpasswd -s -m md5
 Accounts

 Create normal user

 d-i passwd/user-fullname string Example User
 d-i passwd/username string example
 d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password
[MD5 hash]
 Change default id and groups
 d-i passwd/user-uid string 1010
 d-i passwd/user-default-groups string audio
video
 OEM Mode

 In OEM mode when install completes, there is

user named oem
 When you run oem-config-prepare, a script is
set to run which deletes the oem user and
walsk the end user through account setup
 OEM Mode

 d-i oem-config/enable boolean true

 d-i passwd/allow-password-empty boolean true
 d-i passwd/user-fullname string OEM
Configuration (temporary user)
 d-i passwd/username string oem
 d-i passwd/user-password string
 d-i passwd/user-password-again string
 Adding Repositories

 d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \

http://example.com/ubuntu jaunty main
 d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string local server
 d-i apt-setup/local0/key string
http://example.com/key
 Installing Software

 Tasks are groups of packages

 List them with tasksel --list-tasks
 35 on my ubuntu system
 tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ubuntu-desktop,
lamp-server
 Install individual packages
 d-i pkgsel/include string ubuntu-restricted-
extras openssh-server
 Running Commands

 Runs immediately after preseed file is read

 d-i preseed/early_command string
 Run before the new system is unmounted from
/target
 d-i preseed/late_command string
 in-target lets you easily run a command in the
new system
 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target rm /
 Run a script during preseed
 d-i preseed/run string example.sh
 Chaining Preseeds

 Include another preseed file

 d-i preseed/include string preseed2.cfg
 Run a command that should return the path to
a preseed file, then include that preseed file
 d-i preseed/include_command string if
[ "`hostname`" = newbox ]; then echo
newbox.cfg; fi
 Ubiquity

 Ububtu uses debian-installer on their ”alternate

install” CD, but the ”Desktop” CD uses Ubiquity
 Rather than installing individual packages, it
decompresses a squashfs filesystem
 More like applying a system image than a
traditional install. Very fast.
 Ubiquity can be preseed within limits
 netcfg, LVM and RAID partitioning, base-
installer, pkgsel/tasksel, finish-install aren't
available
 Ubiquity Boot Options

 automatic-ubiquity – skip screens when all

qeustions are preseeded
 debug-ubiquity – output debconf messages to
/var/log/installer/debug. Great for figuring out
values to preseed.
 noninteractive – don't start X
 noprompt – shutdown without asking to eject
CD
 Ubiquity Seed Options

 Preseed empty to avoid the summary page

 ubiquity ubiquity/summary note
 Automatically reboot when the installer
completes
 ubiquity ubiquity/reboot boolean
 commands to be run on install failure/success
 ubiquity ubiquity/failure_command string
 ubiquity ubiquity/failure_command string
 Sample Ubiquity Preseed I

# Enable oem mode and set blank password for user with name "oem"
d-i oem-config/enable boolean true
d-i passwd/allow-password-empty boolean true
d-i passwd/user-fullname string OEM Configuration (temporary user)
d-i passwd/username string oem
d-i passwd/user-password string
d-i passwd/user-password-again string

# set hostname
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string ubuntu

# Locale sets language and country.

d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8

# Keyboard selection
d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false
d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us
 Sample Ubiquity Preseed II

# Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.

d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

# Set timezone
d-i time/zone string America/New_York

# Controls whether to use NTP to set the clock during the install
# Say no so we don't wait if there's no network connection
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean false

# partition the disk

# wipe everything and put everything in /
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
 Sample Ubiquity Preseed III

# run this command after the install

# /target is the newly-installed system
# oem-config-prepare sets the first run wizard for next login
ubiquity ubiquity/success_command string chroot /target oem-config-prepare

# preseed this empty to avoid the summary before installation

ubiquity ubiquity/summary note

# reboot after installation

# you will still be prompted "Close the tray and press ENTER to continue?"
# unless you add noprompt to the kernel command line
ubiquity ubiquity/reboot boolean true
 Further Reading

 http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apb.html
 https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/installation-guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html

 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopCDOptions
 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbiquityAutomation