Hi folks, I've got a couple of machines I want to give away and I'm hoping to do that with a PXE'd Debian install done using its OEM mode (in other words it'll ask them some questions from the recipient on first boot to set up their account). However, everything I can find about oem mode (which isn't a lot) talks about using the preseed file and as there's just 2 of these I was rather hoping that it would be a boot option to make it use OEM mode. If I do need to use OEM mode I've no idea how I'd do that with a PXE netboot'ed install.. Ideas ? cheers! Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 21:23, Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> wrote:
Hi folks,
I've got a couple of machines I want to give away and I'm hoping to do that with a PXE'd Debian install done using its OEM mode (in other words it'll ask them some questions from the recipient on first boot to set up their account).
However, everything I can find about oem mode (which isn't a lot) talks about using the preseed file and as there's just 2 of these I was rather hoping that it would be a boot option to make it use OEM mode. If I do need to use OEM mode I've no idea how I'd do that with a PXE netboot'ed install..
AFAIK oem-config is only available in ubuntu, and not in debian. The PXE line we use for debian squeeze is: label squeeze_amd64_auto_install kernel debian/squeeze/amd64/linux append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/amd64/initrd.gz -- auto=true url=http://yourwebserver/debian/squeeze/preseed.cfg locale=en_AU interface=eth0 console-keymaps-at/keymap=us country=AU hostname=ChangeMe domain=localdomain language=en and the preseed.cfg on the webserver: d-i debian-installer/locale string en_AU d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select us d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth0 d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true d-i mirror/protocol string http d-i mirror/country string manual d-i mirror/http/hostname string mirror.aarnet.edu.au d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian d-i mirror/http/proxy string d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true d-i time/zone string Australia/Melbourne d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string au.pool.ntp.org d-i partman-auto/method string regular d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true d-i partman/choose_partition select finish d-i partman/confirm boolean true d-i passwd/make-user boolean false tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server vim popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note It looks like (from some quick googling), if you decide to go with ubuntu and use oem-config, the following are the d-i oem-config options: d-i oem-config/enable boolean true d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak boolean true d-i passwd/user-fullname string OEM Configuration (temporary user) d-i passwd/username string oem d-i passwd/user-password string oem d-i passwd/user-password-again string oem Alternatively, from the screenshots here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubuntu_OEM_Installer_Overview It looks like you could loop mount an ubuntu cd, copy the vmlinuz/initrd/pxelinux.{0.cfg} and pxechain the netboot installer and choose the "Install in OEM mode" option, e.g. label ubuntu kernel pxechain.com append ::ubuntu/11.10/amd64/pxelinux.0 Hope that helps, Marcus. -- Marcus Furlong
Marcus Furlong wrote:
AFAIK oem-config is only available in ubuntu, and not in debian.
Just so: $ rmadison -uubuntu,debian oem-config ubuntu: oem-config | 1.37 | hardy | source, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, lpia, powerpc, sparc oem-config | 1.37.2 | hardy-updates | source, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, lpia, powerpc, sparc oem-config | 2.2.23 | lucid | all oem-config | 2.2.27 | lucid-updates | all oem-config | 2.4.8 | maverick | all oem-config | 2.4.10 | maverick-proposed | all oem-config | 2.6.10 | natty | all oem-config | 2.6.11 | natty-proposed | all oem-config | 2.8.7 | oneiric | all oem-config | 2.9.2 | precise | all debian: $
The PXE line we use for debian squeeze is:
label squeeze_amd64_auto_install kernel debian/squeeze/amd64/linux append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/amd64/initrd.gz -- auto=true url=http://yourwebserver/debian/squeeze/preseed.cfg locale=en_AU interface=eth0 console-keymaps-at/keymap=us country=AU hostname=ChangeMe domain=localdomain language=en
Note that latest versions of d-i ought to be able to use busybox wget's tftp support, meaning that you can put the preseed file on the PXE server instead of off separately with the web content.
It looks like you could loop mount an ubuntu cd, copy the vmlinuz/initrd/pxelinux.{0.cfg} and pxechain the netboot installer and choose the "Install in OEM mode" option, e.g.
label ubuntu kernel pxechain.com append ::ubuntu/11.10/amd64/pxelinux.0
Urk. Just use the normal ubuntu netboot d-i, e.g. http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/{hardy,lucid}/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/ubuntu-installer/amd64/{linux,initrd.gz}
hannah commodore wrote:
On 16/11/2011, at 9:35, "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
able to use busybox wget's tftp support
say what? that is an awesome feature. I wish busybox had better documentation.
The documentation might've been compiled out of your one to save space :-) The options in its "make menuconfig" are enlightening, I recommend wading through it sometime. Oh, and note that Ubuntu "helpfully" disabled most applets (like less, vi and httpd) in their default-installed busybox, presumably to save some space in the ramdisk after plymouth doubles its size...
On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 09:35, Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
Marcus Furlong wrote:
AFAIK oem-config is only available in ubuntu, and not in debian.
Just so:
$ rmadison -uubuntu,debian oem-config ubuntu: oem-config | 1.37 | hardy | source, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, lpia, powerpc, sparc oem-config | 1.37.2 | hardy-updates | source, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, lpia, powerpc, sparc oem-config | 2.2.23 | lucid | all oem-config | 2.2.27 | lucid-updates | all oem-config | 2.4.8 | maverick | all oem-config | 2.4.10 | maverick-proposed | all oem-config | 2.6.10 | natty | all oem-config | 2.6.11 | natty-proposed | all oem-config | 2.8.7 | oneiric | all oem-config | 2.9.2 | precise | all debian: $
The PXE line we use for debian squeeze is:
label squeeze_amd64_auto_install kernel debian/squeeze/amd64/linux append vga=normal initrd=debian/squeeze/amd64/initrd.gz -- auto=true url=http://yourwebserver/debian/squeeze/preseed.cfg locale=en_AU interface=eth0 console-keymaps-at/keymap=us country=AU hostname=ChangeMe domain=localdomain language=en
Note that latest versions of d-i ought to be able to use busybox wget's tftp support, meaning that you can put the preseed file on the PXE server instead of off separately with the web content.
Nice, didn't know that.
It looks like you could loop mount an ubuntu cd, copy the vmlinuz/initrd/pxelinux.{0.cfg} and pxechain the netboot installer and choose the "Install in OEM mode" option, e.g.
label ubuntu kernel pxechain.com append ::ubuntu/11.10/amd64/pxelinux.0
Urk. Just use the normal ubuntu netboot d-i, e.g.
Much of a muchness, they're the same files. I find it easier to download the cd image and keep it handy in case I overwrite any of the pxe menu options (in a bad way). From syslinux 4ish you can also boot directly to iso (syslinux website is currently down, so can't check exactly which version it was). Marcus. -- Marcus Furlong
Marcus Furlong wrote:
It looks like you could loop mount an ubuntu cd, copy the vmlinuz/initrd/pxelinux.{0.cfg} and pxechain the netboot installer and choose the "Install in OEM mode" option, e.g.
label ubuntu kernel pxechain.com append ::ubuntu/11.10/amd64/pxelinux.0
Urk. Just use the normal ubuntu netboot d-i, e.g.
Much of a muchness, they're the same files.
No, they aren't. The netboot ramdisk includes drivers for NICs. The CD ramdisk includes drivers for SCSI/ATA. If you netboot the CD ramdisk, you won't be able to reach the udebs that contain the other drivers. Well, unless you *also* had the udebs on a local CD or HDD, but that would seem a roundabout way to perform a network install.
From syslinux 4ish you can also boot directly to iso (syslinux website is currently down, so can't check exactly which version it was).
Blech. Chainloading an ISO of non-optical media is as fugly as using tar on non-tape media.
On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 10:47, Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
Marcus Furlong wrote:
It looks like you could loop mount an ubuntu cd, copy the vmlinuz/initrd/pxelinux.{0.cfg} and pxechain the netboot installer and choose the "Install in OEM mode" option, e.g.
label ubuntu kernel pxechain.com append ::ubuntu/11.10/amd64/pxelinux.0
Urk. Just use the normal ubuntu netboot d-i, e.g.
Much of a muchness, they're the same files.
No, they aren't. The netboot ramdisk includes drivers for NICs. The CD ramdisk includes drivers for SCSI/ATA. If you netboot the CD ramdisk, you won't be able to reach the udebs that contain the other drivers. Well, unless you *also* had the udebs on a local CD or HDD, but that would seem a roundabout way to perform a network install.
For the current version of ubuntu, the md5sums are the same for initrd.gz on the mini.iso and for the downloadable netboot initrd.gz. When I said loop-mount the cd image, I was referring to the netboot cd image. http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ubuntu/dists/oneiric/main/installer-amd64/curren... http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ubuntu/dists/oneiric/main/installer-amd64/curren... Marcus. -- Marcus Furlong
Hiya Marcus! On 15/11/11 22:51, Marcus Furlong wrote:
AFAIK oem-config is only available in ubuntu, and not in debian.
Hmm, that's what I thought but I was sure I'd read a document that listed using it with Debian last night. Could have misread it of course! Sadly Ubuntu isn't an option as their current kernels won't boot on at least one of the two systems as it's a VIA C3 "Samuel 2" CPU and I don't think it implements CMOV, which I believe their kernel needs now.. :-( It'll make a decent Debian console system though as it's got 1GB of RAM. The other is a P3 box with 128MB of RAM, and given I couldn't get a Lubuntu live CD to work on a P4 with 256MB of RAM I suspect that's out too.. Oh well, just will do the installs by hand and whoever gets them will need to fix them up later! cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC
participants (4)
-
Chris Samuel -
hannah commodore -
Marcus Furlong -
Trent W. Buck