[colug-432] ubuntu headless install preseed problems

[Mike Plemmons]

I did some quick searching and found the following.

http://serverfault.com/questions/143296/how-to-get-http-preseed-to-work-correctly-on-ubuntu-10-04-lts-lucid

I realize it is old but it states that you cannot use the desktop ISO and
use preseed.  You may have to use a server or alternate ISO.
On Sep 18, 2014 1:36 AM, "Rick Hornsby" <richardjhornsby at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Basement server.  No monitor or keyboard and I’m too lazy to haul it all
> the way upstairs (jt is really heavy), or haul my good desktop LCD all the
> way down to the basement and all the way back upstairs.  So, trying to do a
> headless install of Ubuntu and it isn’t going well so far.  Frankly,
> everything I can find on Ubuntu’s site is either way more complicated than
> what I need or way out of date so that it doesn’t look anything like what
> I’m looking at in the 14.04 ISO.
>
> I’m working with the netboot mini.iso image, and more or less following
> this (along with some other random documentation from Google’s lucky answer
> box)
>
> http://www.sgvulcan.com/installing-debian-using-only-ssh/
>
> I’m using vmware to test the ISO before burning a disc, and so that I can
> see what is happening i.e. if it is actually working.
>
> Problem is that no matter what I do, I can’t get seem to get the installer
> to read or use the preseed file - either including it in the ISO
> (“/cdrom/preseed.cfg”) or putting it on an http server on the local
> network.  Every time, the installer stops on the very first step of what
> would be an interactive install and prompts for the install language.  I
> tried answering the first few questions to see if many the preseed file was
> just missing one or two things, but the installer seems to be oblivious.
>
> This is my preseed.cfg file:
>
> # Locale sets language and country.
> d-i debian-installer/locale select en_US
> # Keyboard selection.
> d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select us
> d-i debconf/priority                   select critical
> d-i auto-install/enabled               boolean true
> d-i netcfg/choose_interface            select auto
> d-i netcfg/get_hostname                string archer
> d-i netcfg/get_domain                  string local
> d-i network-console/password           password SECRET123
> d-i network-console/password-again     password SECRET123
> d-i preseed/early_command string anna-install network-console
>
>
> and here’s what I have in the txt.cfg file for the netboot that is on the
> remastered ISO:
>
> label netinstall
>         kernel linux
>         append vga=normal initrd=initrd.gz file=/cdrom/preseed.cfg
> preseed/url=http://192.168.2.201/~rhornsby/preseed.cfg
> console-setup/layoutcode=us console-setup/layout="U.S. English"
> console-setup/variantcode=intl countrychooser/country-name="United States"
> debian-installer/country=US languagechooser/language-name="English"
> languagechooser/language-name-fb="English" netcfg/get_hostname=archer
> mirror/http/countries=US mirror/http/hostname=us.archive.ubuntu.com
> DEBCONF_PRIORITY=critical interface=eth0 hostname=localhost
> domain=localdomain --
>
> I’ve tried file=, preseed/file=, preseed/url= and nothing seems to work.
> I know I have both file= and url/preseed=.  I was getting desperate.  I’m
> not seeing any requests in the apache log for the file, and everything goes
> by so fast in the console that I can’t tell if it is throwing any errors
> there - but I haven’t seen any.
>
> Any thoughts or ideas?
>
>
> thanks!
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