User1: User3 do you have something to take care of anna-installing dmraid-udeb when needed?
User1: User3 dmraid promoted to main
User2: User1 Unless something changes, that happens in disk-detect
User2: s/changes/changed/
User3: User1 disk-detect does that.
User3: User1 and thanks.
User3: User2 Nothing has changed in terms of disk-detect not handling dmraid-udeb.
User2: -ETOOMANYNEGATIONS
User3: heh
User3: basically no it hasn't changed.
User2: Ok, got it :)
User1: ok, thanks
User4: Hi! I am trying to make a custom ubuntu installer with preseeding. The problem is that some of my preseeds are being ignored (or they are wrong): for example, I have "d-i mirror/http/hostname string local_machine:9999"  in the preseed file, but I still get asked for the mirror. (local_machine is the domain name of a local machine which runs approx (apt proxy). Any ideas?)
User4: also: does the order of lines in the preseed file matter?
User4: In general, why don't the preseed lines mentioned in https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-contents.html work? (I am using http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-updates/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso as a base)
User1: User4 so how are you feeding the preseed file to the installer?
User1: and exactly which question do you get asked? (a transcription of the question text would be best)
User5: Hello. I'm using PXE boot to install Hardy from a local mirror. Recently it's stop working, stopping with a 'Failed to load installer component: Loading apt-mirror-setup failed for unknown reasons' message. Has anyone any experience with this or how to debug?
User1: User5 update your installer image to the one in hardy-updates
User5: That's funny. I was just reading your comments in Launchpad saying the same thing.. :-)
User5: Trying it now..
User5: Phew! Thanks, works perfectly now. I was starting to sweat a bit.. giving a demo of our Ubuntu/puppet build to try and get Ubuntu officially supported in our organisation..
User1: sorry about that bug, it was one of those things that intrinsically only showed up after release
User5: No problems at all, it's nice to actually get to speak to one of the devs directly rather than through a call centre.
User5: User1 On a slightly different note, do you know if Canonical offers educational pricing on their support contracts?
User1: I don't; Canonical tends to insulate its developers from having to care about pricing details :)
User5: No problem :-)
User1: http://forms.canonical.com/dashboard/survey/response.jsp seems to be the, er, canonical way to find out
User5: (filling that out, right now)
User4: cjwatson, I put it in the cd image and pass the filename in isolinux.cfg as a boot parameter. Some preseed settings _are_ apparently being used, for example I am not asked for the keyboard configuration (which my preseed file also contains)
User4: The first question I am asked is to okay the hostname, and the second "Choose a mirror of the Ubuntu archive" (by country, in the installer one long list of countries with "United States" set default and "enter information manually" at top.)
User1: you may have to put some of those things on the kernel command line instead
User1: e.g. netcfg/get_hostname=foobar
User1: the installation guide does say some stuff about this
User1: 12:00 <abli_> also: does the order of lines in the preseed file matter?
User1: it does not matter; think of it as setting lots of variables and then setting the whole thing going
User1: by the same token, if you try to set the same question twice, the last one will win
User4: cjwatson, thanks. Which "installation guide" are you talking about? I am trying to follow https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization  and using https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-contents.html for some preseed settings.
User1: I mean the latter
User1: see e.g. the first paragraph of "Network configuration"
User1: and https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-using.html#preseed-bootparms for general advice
User4: But that talks about "may use kernel command line instead of preseed file" and not "have to use kernel command line", right? My preseed file is on the CD, so having all settings in one file, instead of some in the preseed file and some on the kernel command line would be nicer.
User4: Also, why doesn't "d-i netcfg/get_hostname string test-machine" work from the preseed file, if "netfg/get_hostname" works from the kernel commandline?
User4: I think the preseed-contents.htm is not fully up-to-date: for example, it mentiones"d-i partman...." lines for preseeding the partitioner, but if I do an install, and then dump the debconf settings, I see "partman partman-auto...." lines being used. Is "d-i partman..." the correct one? (I couldn't get partitioning preseeded either way, not even for a "fully automatic use whole disk" setup)
User1: sorry, you can't put all of them in one file even if they're on the CD. The reason is that the installer doesn't actually have enough brain to read files off the CD until it's got a little way through the installation.
User4: Putting " netcfg/get_hostname=foobar" on the kernel command line did solve the hostname-asking part. But how do I turn off dhcp? I have both "d-i netcfg/use_dhcp boolean false" and "d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true" but the installer still uses dhcp
User1: the "may" equivocation is because the exact questions you have to put on the kernel command line vary depending on which installation method you're using.
User1: in other words, the preseed file isn't read until after netcfg runs, so setting netcfg questions in there is useless.
User1: (in your installation method; not in others)
User1: "d-i partman..." is correct
User1: netcfg/disable_dhcp=true on the kernel command line
User1: I wouldn't recommend dumping the debconf database as a source of preseeding options, particularly not for partitioning. The advice in the installation guide is a much better source there
User4: But I tried what the installation guide suggested and it didn't appear to work.
User4: But back to the dhcp part: if I am using the netinstall mini.iso as a base, everything that preseed-contents.html would suggest to put in the preseed file as "d-i netcfg/.." I have to put in the kernel commandline?
User4: Also, even thought I have "netcfg/disable_dhcp=true" on the kernel commandline, dhcp is still used by the installer
User1: re partitioning, I can perhaps help if I see the preseed file
User1: netcfg: yes, the installation guide even says that explicitly
User4: I am not _booting_ from the network. The way I interpret the installation guide, putting it in the kernel command line is only needed when booting from the network, not when using the netinst mini.iso (which, after all boots from the CD, so there is no reason the installer can't read the preseed file before running netcfg)
User1: the thing that makes a difference is what the image was built for - that is, which particular installer components are built into the image
User1: if you use a netboot image, it doesn't matter whether you happen to boot it from the network or from its CD form factor
User1: please just take my word for it?
User1: I'll be happy to try to get the installation guide clarified, and would appreciate a bug filed on the installation-guide package in Ubuntu for that specific issue (i.e. not clear enough about booting from network vs. booting a netboot image) to remind me
User1: the reason that the installer can't read the preseed file before running netcfg is that the netboot installer image doesn't actually contain any CD drivers - it has to fetch them from the network
User1: booting from the CD and getting Linux to understand the CD are two very different matters, often confused
User4: ah. ok.
User4: The preseed file: http://angel.elte.hu/~abeld/preseed
User1: disable_dhcp> interesting, I can't reproduce that. Perhaps you could add DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer to the kernel command line and get me the syslog (go back to installer main menu, select "save debug logs") so that I can investigate that
User1: lose those partman-auto preseeds, they're useless
User4: ok.
User1: I mean the ones beginning partman-auto rather thand-i
User4: yeah, ok.
User1: if you have more than one disk then you'll need to preseed partman-auto/disk
User4: I only want to automate the "install to the whole disk" (i.e. the most trivial installation), so it should work
User1: as the guide says:
User1: # Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name must
User1: # be given in traditional non-devfs format.
User1: # For example, to use the first SCSI/SATA hard disk:
User1: d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
User1: # Note: If you want to use whatever disk is available, no matter
User1: # what its device name, comment the line above out. This will only work if
User1: # the system only has one disk.
User1: if you have more than one disk and leave out partman-auto/disk, then the preseeding will be ignored ...
User4: Well, I have only one disk (actually I am only trying to automate installing in a kvm virtual machine so that I can debug/test other parts of the automatic installer faster.)  I'll try the disable_dhcp debugging in about an hour.
User4: btw. can I preseed the "save debug logs" setting? :)
User1: you can't preseed the process of dropping out and going back to the installer main menu at some point in the middle, no
User4: cjwatson, ouch. So I can't create an "all debugs turned on" automatic install?
User4: I submitted the documentation bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/installation-guide/+bug/262330
User1: you only need the "save debug logs" bit if the installation fails part-way through
User1: if it succeeds, logs will automatically be saved in /var/log/installer/ on the target system
User1: and putting DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer provides a complete trace of most things
User1: putting that on the kernel command line, I mean
User4: ok. so " DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer" is the setting I was looking for
User4: The contents of /var/log/installer I uploaded to http://angel.elte.hu/~abeld/test-installer-logs/  The preseed file used is at http://angel.elte.hu/~abeld/preseed
User1: "true" is spelt thus, not "tru".
User1: I don't think preseed/file is ever honoured in netboot installations. I'd suggest putting it somewhere network-accessible and using preseed/url instead.
User1: furthermore, the CD is never mounted in an installation from a netboot image - you boot off it, but Linux never looks at it after that - so you couldn't use preseed/file=/cdrom/... anyway
User4: woops. yes. I had a typo in isolinux.cfg
User4: ok. that explains a lot.
User1: there is an "initrd preseeding" mechanism that you can use if you absolutely have to have the preseed file on the CD you're using; it's documented in the installation guide, I think, and requires unpacking and rebuilding the installer image
User1: most people find preseed/url easier
User4: No, I'll just use preseed/url, thanks.
User4: I'll also update the documentation bug to "note that preseed/file won't work with netboot"
User1: if you could file a separate bug for that, I'd appreciate it
User4: ok.
User1: dumping multiple problems into the one bug often causes problems later (for example if one bit gets fixed but the other doesn't), and generally makes things harder to track
User1: the guide does actually sort of say that already, but only by omission
User4: althought the two are sort-of related: one has to configure network before preseed/url can be read, so noting that preseed/file won't work with netboot image fixes the currently filed bug, too
User1: the "if you're netbooting:", "if you're booting a remastered CD:", etc. bit
User1: I'd rather it were separate anyway, please
User1: it's much easier to merge bugs in Launchpad than it is to split them
User4: where is that "if you are netbooting" part?
User4: ok. seperate bug it is.
User1: in the "Loading the preconfiguration file" section
User1: linked from https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html
User4: ah ok.
User1: oh, actually, that second bug would be invalid
User1: https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/installation-guide/i386/preseed-intro.html already has a table saying that file preseeding isn't supported with netboot
User4: ouch
User4: I didn't even see that page... I started from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization (which does link to it, but the link is a bit tucked away). So what really mislead me was that that page (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization) only talks about 'full' CDs, i.e. non-netboot ones
User4: Another problem: I am using preseed/url now, but even thought the preseed file contains "d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu" it is somehow read by the installer as "(null)": In /var/log/syslog I get "debconf: <-- GET mirror/http/directory" and on the next line "debconf: <-- 0 (null)". And then it tries to wget "http://csik.elte.hu:9999(dist)/hardy/Release/" which, of course, fails. The preseed file is at http://angel.elte.hu/~abeld/preseed.cfg
User4: I mean wget "http://csik.elte.hu:9999(null)/dists/hardy/Release/"
User4: I have to go now, but if you have any idea about this mirror-directory setting, I'll read the logs tomorrow.
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