Question regarding preseeding during the installation

ghorvath · 2018-05-02 20:23:04

Hi All,

First of all, thanks for the great work, I am very happy that finally I can download the images and install Bunsenlabs Helium!

I would like to use a preseed file, according to Appendix B of the Debian installer. However, I was wondering that maybe some preseeding is already done by Bunsenlabs, e.g. load firmwares automatically? If yes, then would me putting a preseed.cfg file to the root of the usb media (or some other usb disk, I will have to try) may interfere with any preseeding done by Bunsenlabs?

I basically want to make sure that the first user I create has a specific user ID on all my machines, so then later I would not have problems when I am using nfs to connect to my other machines.

Thanks for all the work!

johnraff · 2018-05-03 02:20:09

Yes, we already ship a preseed.cfg file - it's packed in the iso's install/initrd.gz
If you add another file to override that one you'll have to add the settings we use in order for the installer to run normally. Alternatively, you could unpack initrd.gz, edit preseed.cfg and repack it. Then you'd need to edit md5sum.txt I guess.
Editing existing iso archives is not something I've yet successfully done, so I'd be curious to learn how it went!

ghorvath · 2018-05-03 06:16:11

Hm, I opened install/initrd.gz, but the only file I found in there was initrd itself. Am I doing something wrong? Or is it bundled together with initrd? (I checked the amd64 iso.)

In any case, would it be possible to share here or somewhere the contents of Bunsenlab preseed file, so I could make the (one-line) adjustment to that file, and then load it during install from some USB disk?

Thanks!

johnraff · 2018-05-03 07:19:03

initrd itself is an archive, which you can go on to extract with eg archive-manager. It contains a whole small file system which the installer uses to boot from, but preseed.cfg is at the root (I think it was).
Anyway, here it is:

d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/protocol string https
d-i mirror/https/hostname string deb.debian.org
d-i mirror/https/directory string /debian
d-i mirror/https/proxy string
d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean true
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect updates
d-i apt-setup/local0/repository \
    string https://deb.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free
d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string Debian security updates
d-i apt-setup/enable-source-repositories boolean false
d-i apt-setup/disable-cdrom-entries boolean true
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i preseed/late_command string \
    in-target /usr/local/bin/bunsen_preseed ;\
    in-target rm -f /usr/local/bin/bunsen_preseed

ghorvath · 2018-05-14 22:21:49

Ok, so I managed to replace your preseed.cfg with my own file based on the following:

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed/EditIso

I basically only added the following lines:

#_preseed_V1
d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean true
d-i passwd/user-uid string 1001
# Bunsenlabs preseed

Now, Text based install freezes after 2 seconds on my Toshiba laptop. Graphical install is probably fine (it loads, can choose language, country, etc., but I did not finish the install, and the touchpad is weird, the pointer always go back to the center when I remove my fingers from the touchpad....). Also, Live mode seems to work fine.

I am not sure if this is a problem with my preseed file or it was a problem with the original version, as well. I will do some more testing, and get back to you.

Edit: Ok, it must be my preseed file, your iso started the text based install with no hiccup. Maybe it was the hw-detect line? I am not sure. BTW, this was with the amd64 version.

Last edited by ghorvath (2018-05-14 22:33:53)

johnraff · 2018-05-15 00:25:13

BTW you can monitor what's happening during the install by switching to TTY4 (probably Ctrl+Alt+F4) to see messages, and TY2 or TTY3 to open a cli shell, with busybox (not full bash of course). TTY1 to go back to the main interface.

ghorvath · 2018-05-15 05:50:55

Hm, with the text installer it throws a kernel panic for whatever reason. I am not entirely sure why.... And of course I can only see the trace not what is before that, because I cannot even use SHIFT+PgUp to check what happened before. And the trace does not tell me much.

Only added the extra line about the 1001 uid (the one that is relevant to me), removed the firmware nonfree line and the two commented lines, but still, kernel panic.
The graphic install seems to load the preseed file properly, though, and could continue with that one.
I really do not understand what can cause the problem.

Maybe I will just use your official iso, and after the install, replace the uid and file permissions from the recovery mode....

#1 2018-05-02 20:23:04

Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#2 2018-05-03 02:20:09

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#3 2018-05-03 06:16:11

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#4 2018-05-03 07:19:03

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#5 2018-05-14 22:21:49

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#6 2018-05-15 00:25:13

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

#7 2018-05-15 05:50:55

Re: Question regarding preseeding during the installation

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