The configuration fragments used in this appendix are also available as an example preconfiguration file from ../example-preseed.txt.
Note that this example is based on an installation for the Intel x86 architecture. If you are installing a different architecture, some of the examples (like keyboard selection and bootloader installation) may not be relevant and will need to be replaced by debconf settings appropriate for your architecture.
Setting localization values will only work if you are using initrd preseeding. With all other methods the preconfiguration file will only be loaded after these questions have been asked.
The locale can be used to specify both language and country.
To specify the locale as a boot parameter, use
locale=.
en_US
# Locale sets language and country. d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US
Keyboard configuration consists of selecting a keyboard architecture and a keymap. In most cases the correct keyboard architecture is selected by default, so there's normally no need to preseed it. The keymap must be valid for the selected keyboard architecture.
To specify the keymap as a boot parameter, use
console-setup/ask_detect=false
console-setup/layoutcode=.
The layout code is an X layout name, as would be used in the
usXkbLayout option in
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.
# Keyboard selection. # Disable automatic (interactive) keymap detection. d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false #d-i console-setup/modelcode string pc105 d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us # To select a variant of the selected layout (if you leave this out, the # basic form of the layout will be used): #d-i console-setup/variantcode string dvorak
The changes in the input layer for 2.6 kernels have made the keyboard
architecture virtually obsolete. For 2.6 kernels normally a “PC”
(pc105) model should be selected.
Of course, preseeding the network configuration won't work if you're loading your preconfiguration file from the network. But it's great when you're booting from CD or USB stick. If you are loading preconfiguration files from the network, you can pass network config parameters by using kernel boot parameters.
If you need to pick a particular interface when netbooting before loading
a preconfiguration file from the network, use a boot parameter such as
interface=.
eth1
Although preseeding the network configuration is normally not possible when using network preseeding (using “preseed/url”), you can use the following hack to work around that, for example if you'd like to set a static address for the network interface. The hack is to force the network configuration to run again after the preconfiguration file has been loaded by creating a “preseed/run” script containing the following lines:
killall.sh dhclient netcfg
# 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
Depending on the installation method you use, a mirror may be used both to
download additional components of the installer, the base system and to
set up the /etc/apt/sources.list for the installed
system.
The parameter mirror/suite determines the suite for
the installed system.
The parameter mirror/udeb/suite determines the suite
for additional components for the installer. It is only useful to set this
if components are actually downloaded over the network and should match the
suite that was used to build the initrd for the installation method used for
the installation.
By default the value for mirror/udeb/suite is the
same as mirror/suite.
d-i mirror/country string enter information manually d-i mirror/http/hostname string archive.ubuntu.com d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu d-i mirror/http/proxy string # Suite to install. #d-i mirror/suite string feisty # Suite to use for loading installer components (optional). #d-i mirror/udeb/suite string feisty
Using preseeding to partition the harddisk is very much limited to what is
supported by partman-auto. You can choose to either
partition existing free space on a disk or a whole disk. The layout of the
disk can be determined by using a predefined recipe, a custom recipe from
a recipe file or a recipe included in the preconfiguration file. It is
currently not possible to partition multiple disks using preseeding nor to
set up RAID.
The identification of disks is dependent on the order in which their drivers are loaded. If there are multiple disks in the system, make very sure the correct one will be selected before using preseeding.
# 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 Use the largest continuous free space
# Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name must
# be given in traditional non-devfs format.
# For example, to use the first SCSI hard disk:
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
# Or, if you want to use LVM:
#d-i partman-auto-lvm/disk string /dev/sda
# 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 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
# 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
Setup of the /etc/apt/sources.list and basic configuration
options is fully automated based on your installation method and answers to
earlier questions. You can optionally add other (local) repositories.
# You can choose to install restricted and universe software, or to install # software from the backports repository. #d-i apt-setup/restricted boolean true #d-i apt-setup/universe boolean true #d-i apt-setup/backports boolean true # Uncomment this to avoid adding security sources, or # add a hostname to use a different server than security.ubuntu.com. #d-i apt-setup/security_host string # Additional repositories, local[0-9] available #d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \ # deb http://local.server/ubuntu feisty 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 #d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://local.server/key
The password for the root account and name and password for a first regular user's account can be preseeded. For the passwords you can use either clear text values or MD5 hashes.
Be aware that preseeding passwords is not completely secure as everyone with access to the preconfiguration file will have the knowledge of these passwords. Using MD5 hashes is considered slightly better in terms of security but it might also give a false sense of security as access to a MD5 hash allows for brute force attacks.
# Skip creation of a root account (normal user account will be able to # use sudo). The default is false; preseed this to true if you want to set # a root password. #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 r00tme #d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme # 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 Ubuntu User #d-i passwd/username string ubuntu # Normal user's password, either in clear text #d-i passwd/user-password password insecure #d-i passwd/user-password-again password insecure # or encrypted using an MD5 hash. #d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password [MD5 hash]
The passwd/root-password-crypted and
passwd/user-password-crypted variables can also
be preseeded with “!” as their value. In that case, the
corresponding account is disabled. This may be convenient for the root
account, provided of course that an alternative method is setup to allow
administrative activities or root login (for instance by using SSH key
authentication or sudo).
An MD5 hash for a password can be generated using the following command.
$ echo "r00tme" | mkpasswd -s -H MD5
There is actually not very much that can be preseeded for this stage of the installation. The only questions asked concern the installation of the kernel.
# Select the initramfs generator used to generate the initrd for 2.6 kernels. #d-i base-installer/kernel/linux/initramfs-generators string yaird
# 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 if finds some other OS # too, 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/bootdev string (hd0,0) #d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false #d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false
You can choose to install any combination of tasks that are available. Available tasks as of this writing include:
ubuntu-standard
ubuntu-desktop
kubuntu-desktop
edubuntu-desktop
xubuntu-desktop
dns-server
lamp-server
You can also choose to install no tasks, and force the installation of a
set of packages in some other way. We recommend always including the
standard task.
If you want to install a few extra individual packages as well as tasks,
then you can use the parameter pkgsel/include. The
value of this parameter may be either comma-separated or space-separated, so
you can use it easily on the kernel command line.
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ubuntu-standard, ubuntu-desktop #tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ubuntu-standard, lamp-server #tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ubuntu-standard, kubuntu-desktop #d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server build-essential # 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
# 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 Ubuntu's X config is possible, but you probably need to know some details about the video hardware of the machine, since Ubuntu's X configurator does not do fully automatic configuration of everything.
# X can detect the right driver for some cards, but if you're preseeding,
# you override whatever it chooses. Still, vesa will work most places.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select vesa
# A caveat with mouse autodetection is that if it fails, X will retry it
# over and over. So if it's preseeded to be done, there is a possibility of
# an infinite loop if the mouse is not autodetected.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_mouse boolean true
# Monitor autodetection is recommended.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_monitor boolean true
# Uncomment if you have an LCD display.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/lcd boolean true
# X has three configuration paths for the monitor. Here's how to preseed
# the "medium" path, which is always available. The "simple" path may not
# be available, and the "advanced" path asks too many questions.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method \
select medium
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/mode-list \
select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz
# 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