[clug] Debian - mirror selection in preseed.cfg not working?

[Scott Ferguson]

On Sun, 7 Aug 2011 22:20:47 +1000 Adam Baxter wrote:>
> Hi all,
> Anyone done automated Debian installs?
> I've been learning how to preseed a PXE booted installer, I'm having
> trouble overriding the mirror selection
>
> I have the following in my preseed.cfg
>
> d-i ? ? ? ? ? ? mirror/country ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?string manual
> d-i ? ? ? ? ? ? mirror/http/hostname ? ? ? ? ? ?string 10.2.0.1
> d-i ? ? ? ? ? ? mirror/http/directory ? ? ? ? ? string /debian
>
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/hostname ? ? ? ? ? ? ?string 10.2.0.1
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/directory ? ? ? ? ? ? string /debian
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/uri_type ? ? ? ? ? ? ?select http
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/country ? ? ? ? ? ? ? select enter
> information manually
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/another ? ? ? ? ? ? ? boolean false
> base-config ? ? apt-setup/security-updates ? ? ?boolean true
>
> I believe the mirror selection is being overridden by my locale - en_AU
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  GET mirror/http/countries
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 AU
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  SET mirror/country AU
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 value set
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  GO
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 ok
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  GET mirror/country
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 AU
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  SUBST mirror/http/mirror mirrors
> ftp.au.debian.org, mirror.waia.asn.au, cdn.debian.net,
> mirror.aarnet.edu.au,ftp.monash.edu.au,ftp.uwa.edu.au,
> mirror.eftel.com, mirror.pacific.net.au,ftp.iinet.net.au,
> mirror.optus.net,
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: Adding [mirrors] ->  [ftp.au.debian.org,
> mirror.waia.asn.au, cdn.debian.net, mirror.aarnet.edu.au,
> ftp.monash.edu.au,ftp.uwa.edu.au, mirror.eftel.com,
> mirror.pacific.net.au,ftp.iinet.net.au, mirror.optus.net,
> mirror.cse.unsw.
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  INPUT high mirror/http/mirror
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 30 question skipped
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  GO
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 ok
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  GET mirror/http/mirror
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0ftp.au.debian.org
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf: -->  SET mirror/http/hostnameftp.au.debian.org
> Aug ?6 09:59:56 debconf:<-- 0 value set
>
> Am I missing something?

Question 30 would be helpful...
Preseed URL?

>
> Thanks,
> Adam Baxter
>

Ref:-
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/doc/internals/ch02.html

DI boots.
1. Init stuff - debian-installer-startup and debian-installer binaries.
2. Main (menu) installer - network, keyboard, locale.
3. read the preseed.cfg

You can "preseed" 2. by including the preseed in the initrd.... or use 
kernel append parameters, which will cause d-i not to prompt for the 
initial settings,  eg:-

label debian601
MENU INDENT 1
MENU LABEL -> Debian GNU 6.0.1
kernel /images/Debian/6.0.1/i386/linux
append vga=normal 
initrd=/images/Debian/6.0.1-2.6.32-5-686/i386/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=65536 \
root=/dev/rd/0 devfs=mount,dall rw auto \
url=http://my.webserver.private/configs/Debian/6.0.1/i386/preseed.cfg \
locale=en_US console-keymaps-at/keymap=sg-latin1 \
interface=eth0 hostname=localhost domain=localdomain --

Ref:-
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apbs01.html.en#preseed-methods

Cheers