Debian support -- Good news and bad news.

Monday, 27 October 2008

Apologies for the long rambling email. I've just been needing to get
this out to the list.

First, the good news. I've verified that automated installs of Debian
"Etch" work properly.

It is pretty straightforward to get your Debian distro imported into
cobbler. I did the following.

* mirror a single arch/version of Debian to my local hard drive inside
of a web-accessible directory.(approx 50 gig, not for the faint of
heart, nor low of disk space)
 * I used rsync, and have a proper rsync.excludes file for doing a
single arch of etch (amd64 version of etch -- attached). This work could
be included into a proper "cobbler import" command

* Create the Debian distro in cobbler by running this command:

cobbler distro add --name=debian-etch-amd64 --arch=x86_64 --breed=debian
--initrd=/var/www/debian-mirror/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
--kernel=/var/www/debian-mirror/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/linux
--kopts='priority=critical vga=normal' --ksmeta='tree=@@http_server@@'

* Copy the attached preseed file to /etc/cobbler

* Create the new profile using that preseed file

cobbler profile add --name=debian-etch-amd64 --profile=debian-etch-amd64
 --kickstart=/etc/cobbler/etch-sample.cfg

Those are the steps I followed to get a basic Debian install done via
Cobbler.

The bad news is that many of the advanced features of the kickstart
templating don't work:

* The $kickstart_start and $kickstart_done don't work for tracking
installs when wrapped up in the Debian preseed "early-command" and
"late-command" features.

There are a couple of ways we can make this work properly, The heart of
the matter is that RedHat style kickstarts "%pre" and "%post"
sections
allow multi-line arguments (essentially they're in-line shell scripts),
whereas the Debian "*-commands" are a single-line string.

One way to fix the problem is to change cobbler/kickgen.py and do a
per-breed build of the proper value for $kickstart_start and
$kickstart_done.  I've tried to come up with something along those lines
but I'm not yet familiar enough with either Python or Cobbler to get my
idea to compile. I've attached a patch which doesn't work, but does get
that idea out in code. It needs fleshing out but is a pretty good idea.

Another possible solution is to revert what appears to be a purposeful
newline to the front of the string returned for the variables. This
would allow embedding of the wget commands into the Debian preseed file
by adding a backslash escaped newline above the variable and in each
line of the value like this:

d-i preseed/late_command string \
wget "http://10.50.0.254/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/debian-etch-amd64" -O
/target/root/preseed.cfg;\
wget
"http://10.50.0.254/cblr/svc/op/trig/mode/post/profile/debian-etch-amd64"
-O /dev/null;

A third solution is to generate a shell script dynamically with all
commands which are needed to run, and downloading and running it in this
manner:

d-i preseed/run string foo.sh

This downloads the file foo.sh from the same location the preseed file
was found (in my case http://10.50.0.254/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/) and
executes it. Something similar can be done in the early/late commands:

d-i preseed/late_command string wget http://server/file.sh -O
/target/tmp/file.sh; /bin/bash /target/tmp/file.sh

I'm not sure which option is best, that's why I've talked about all of
them I could come up with.  If any of you have other ideas, or can make
some of mine work properly, it would make Debian more than just "at your
own risk" supported and make Cobbler that much better from a sysadmin
perspective.

--
Derek Carter
(aka goozbach)

#### Contents of the preconfiguration file
### Localization
# Locale sets language and country.
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US

# Keyboard selection.
#d-i console-tools/archs select at
d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select us
# Example for a different keyboard architecture
#d-i console-keymaps-usb/keymap select mac-usb-us

### Network configuration
# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

# To pick a particular interface instead:
#d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth1

# If you have a slow dhcp server and the installer times out waiting for
# it, this might be useful.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_timeout string 60

# If you prefer to configure the network manually, uncomment this line and
# the static network configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true

# If you want the preconfiguration file to work on systems both with and
# without a dhcp server, uncomment these lines and the static network
# configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed note
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually

# Static network configuration.
#d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.1.42
#d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
#d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true

# Any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take precedence over
# values set here. However, setting the values still prevents the questions
# from being shown, even if values come from dhcp.
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname
d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain

# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
# The wacky dhcp hostname that some ISPs use as a password of sorts.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_hostname string radish

### Mirror settings
# If you select ftp, the mirror/country string does not need to be set.
#d-i mirror/protocol string ftp
d-i mirror/country string enter information manually
d-i mirror/http/hostname string $tree
d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian
d-i mirror/http/proxy string

# Suite to install.
#d-i mirror/suite string testing
# Suite to use for loading installer components (optional).
#d-i mirror/udeb/suite string testing

### Partitioning
# If the system has free space you can choose to only partition that space.
# Note: this must be preseeded with a localized (translated) value.
#d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition \
#      select Guided - use the largest continuous free space

# Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name
# can be given in either devfs or traditional non-devfs format.
# For example, to use the first disk:
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/discs/disc0/disc
# In addition, you'll need to specify the method to use.
# The presently available methods are: "regular", "lvm" and
"crypto"
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm

# If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned
# contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a
# warning. This can be preseeded away...
d-i partman-auto/purge_lvm_from_device boolean true
# And the same goes for the confirmation to write the lvm partitions.
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true

# You can choose from any of the predefined partitioning recipes.
# Note: this must be preseeded with a localized (translated) value.
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
       select All files in one partition (recommended for new users)
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
#       select Separate /home partition
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
#       select Separate /home, /usr, /var, and /tmp partitions

# Or provide a recipe of your own...
# The recipe format is documented in the file devel/partman-auto-recipe.txt.
# If you have a way to get a recipe file into the d-i environment, you can
# just point at it.
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe_file string /hd-media/recipe

# If not, you can put an entire recipe into the preconfiguration file in one
# (logical) line. This example creates a small /boot partition, suitable
# swap, and uses the rest of the space for the root partition:
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string                         \
#      boot-root ::                                            \
#              40 50 100 ext3                                  \
#                      $primary{ } $bootable{ }                \
#                      method{ format } format{ }              \
#                      use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }    \
#                      mountpoint{ /boot }                     \
#              .                                               \
#              500 10000 1000000000 ext3                       \
#                      method{ format } format{ }              \
#                      use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }    \
#                      mountpoint{ / }                         \
#              .                                               \
#              64 512 300% linux-swap                          \
#                      method{ swap } format{ }                \
#              .

# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation.
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition \
       select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true

### Clock and time zone setup
# Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

# You may set this to any valid setting for $TZ; see the contents of
# /usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid values.
d-i time/zone string US/Eastern

### Apt setup
# You can choose to install non-free and contrib software.
#d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
#d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
# Uncomment this if you don't want to use a network mirror.
#d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean false
# Uncomment this to avoid adding security sources, or
# add a hostname to use a different server than security.debian.org.
#d-i apt-setup/security_host string

# Additional repositories, local[0-9] available
#d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \
#       deb http://local.server/debian stable main
#d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string local server
# Enable deb-src lines
#d-i apt-setup/local0/source boolean true
# URL to the public key of the local repository; you must provide a key or
# apt will complain about the unauthenticated repository and so the
# sources.list line will be left commented out
#d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://local.server/key

# By default the installer requires that repositories be authenticated
# using a known gpg key. This setting can be used to disable that
# authentication. Warning: Insecure, not recommended.
#d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated string true

### Account setup
# Skip creation of a root account (normal user account will be able to
# use sudo).
#d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
# Alternatively, to skip creation of a normal user account.
#d-i passwd/make-user boolean false

# Root password, either in clear text
d-i passwd/root-password password cangetin
d-i passwd/root-password-again password cangetin
# or encrypted using an MD5 hash.
#d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password [MD5 hash]

# To create a normal user account.
d-i passwd/user-fullname string Derek Carter
d-i passwd/username string dcarter
# Normal user's password, either in clear text
d-i passwd/user-password password cangetin
d-i passwd/user-password-again password cangetin
# or encrypted using an MD5 hash.
#d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password [MD5 hash]

### Base system installation
# Select the initramfs generator used to generate the initrd for 2.6 kernels.
#d-i base-installer/kernel/linux/initramfs-generators string yaird

### Boot loader installation
# Grub is the default boot loader (for x86). If you want lilo installed
# instead, uncomment this:
#d-i grub-installer/skip boolean true

# This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR
# if no other operating system is detected on the machine.
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true

# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if it also finds some other
# OS, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

# Alternatively, if you want to install to a location other than the mbr,
# uncomment and edit these lines:
#d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string (hd0,0)
# To install grub to multiple disks:
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string (hd0,0) (hd1,0) (hd2,0)

### Package selection
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect 
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, web-server
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, kde-desktop

# Individual additional packages to install
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server rsync

# Some versions of the installer can report back on what software you have
# installed, and what software you use. The default is not to report back,
# but sending reports helps the project determine what software is most
# popular and include it on CDs.
#popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

### Finishing up the first stage install
# Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

# This will prevent the installer from ejecting the CD during the reboot,
# which is useful in some situations.
d-i cdrom-detect/eject boolean false

### Preseeding other packages
# Depending on what software you choose to install, or if things go wrong
# during the installation process, it's possible that other questions may
# be asked. You can preseed those too, of course. 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

#### Advanced options
### Running custom commands during the installation
# d-i preseeding is inherently not secure. Nothing in the installer checks
# for attempts at buffer overflows or other exploits of the values of a
# preconfiguration file like this one. Only use preconfiguration files from
# trusted locations! To drive that home, and because it's generally useful,
# here's a way to run any shell command you'd like inside the installer,
# automatically.

# This first command is run as early as possible, just after
# preseeding is read.
#d-i preseed/early_command string anna-install some-udeb
d-i preseed/early_command string wget
"http://$server/cblr/svc/op/trig/mode/pre/profile/$name" -O /dev/null

# This command is run just before the install finishes, but when there is
# still a usable /target directory. You can chroot to /target and use it
# directly, or use the apt-install and in-target commands to easily install
# packages and run commands in the target system.
#d-i preseed/late_command string apt-install zsh; in-target chsh -s /bin/zsh
d-i preseed/late_command string wget
"http://10.50.0.254/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/debian-etch-amd64" -O
/target/root/preseed.cfg; wget
"http://10.50.0.254/cblr/svc/op/trig/mode/post/profile/debian-etch-amd64" -O
/dev/null

*/binary-alpha/*
*/binary-arm/*
*/binary-hppa/*
*/binary-ia64/*
*/binary-mips/*
*/binary-mipsel/*
*/binary-powerpc/*
*/binary-s390/*
*/binary-sparc/*
*/binary-i386/*
*/installer-alpha/*
*/installer-arm/*
*/installer-hppa/*
*/installer-ia64/*
*/installer-mips/*
*/installer-mipsel/*
*/installer-powerpc/*
*/installer-s390/*
*/installer-sparc/*
*/installer-i386/*
Contents-alpha.gz
Contents-arm.gz
Contents-hppa.gz
Contents-ia64.gz
Contents-mips.gz
Contents-mipsel.gz
Contents-powerpc.gz
Contents-s390.gz
Contents-sparc.gz
Contents-i386.gz
*alpha.deb
*arm.deb
*hppa.deb
*ia64.deb
*mips.deb
*mipsel.deb
*powerpc.deb
*s390.deb
*sparc.deb
*m68k.deb
*armel.deb
*hurd-i386.deb
*i386.deb
*alpha.udeb
*arm.udeb
*hppa.udeb
*ia64.udeb
*mips.udeb
*mipsel.udeb
*powerpc.udeb
*s390.udeb
*sparc.udeb
*m68k.udeb
*armel.udeb
*hurd-i386.udeb
*i386.udeb
source/*
*.tar.gz
*.diff.gz
*.dsc

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008