[03:14] <cr3> how can I determine what d-i identifier corresponds to what prompt in the installer, like netcfg/choose_interface? it's usually obvious, but I'm just wondering how to understand the mapping
[04:29] <cr3> if I want to preseed a netinstall, would it make sense to simply add the url of the preseed.txt in the pxelinux.cfg/default boot menu?
[06:22] <cr3> just to make sure, I need to build my own boot image to preseed a netinstall, right?
[06:23] <cjwatson> no, just boot it with preseed/url=blah
[06:23] <cjwatson> should fit somewhere in pxelinux.cfg
[06:23] <thom> cr3: no, just update pxelinux.cfg/default
[06:23] <cjwatson> 02:14 < cr3> how can I determine what d-i identifier corresponds to what prompt in the installer, like netcfg/choose_interface? it's usually obvious, but I'm just wondering how to understand the mapping
[06:24] <cjwatson> cr3: run with DEBCONF_DEBUG=5 and the installer will log what it's asking
[06:24] <cjwatson> like INPUT critical netcfg/choose_interface
[06:24] <cjwatson> or whatever
[06:48] <arnaud> hi
[06:48] <arnaud> i'm looking for a dapper installer (netboot) with a more recent kernel
[06:52] <cr3> cjwatson: so the installer syslog output returned "INPUT critical languagechooser/language-name-fb", so I added to my pressed file "d-i languagechooser/language-name-fb string English". however, that doesn't seem to take and I still get a prompt for the language
[06:58] <cr3> I tried changing "string" for "select", and I also tried removing "-fb" from language-name, still doesn't quite work
[07:13] <cr3> so, I tried using the example-preseed.txt and I still get all the prompts. syslog seems to show that the preseed file is being retrieve though: Dec  5 18:00:19 debconf: <-- 0 http://midir.certification.canonical.com/edgy/i386/preseed.txt
[07:21] <cr3> even if I specify languagechooser/language-name=English in the boot paramters, it still prompts for it :(
[07:25] <cjwatson> no, localechooser is weird, don't do that
[07:25] <cjwatson> see the installation-guide
[07:25] <cjwatson> you want debian-installer/locale=en_CA.UTF-8 (or whatever)
[07:26] <cjwatson> arnaud: no such exists, I'm afraid
[07:26] <cjwatson> unless you build it yourself
[07:27] <cjwatson> http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Modify/CustomKernel is the closest documentation available but it isn't correct for Ubuntu; we don't have the separate linux-kernel-di-* step; instead our kernel packages build udebs directly
[07:27] <cjwatson> cr3: are you sure you get all the prompts, and not just the first few?
[07:36] <cr3> cjwatson: yes, sorry for the confusion
[07:36] <cjwatson> can I see the preseed file?
[07:36] <cjwatson> also your boot options
[07:37] <cr3> cjwatson: your suggestion worked to answer the language prompt worked, now working on console-setup/ask_detect or somesudh
[07:37] <cr3> cjwatson: sure, give me a minute to prepare the urls
[07:37] <cjwatson> console-setup/ask_detect should be straightforward
[07:38] <cjwatson> you know that everything that comes before the installer retrieves the preseed file has to be given on the kernel command line, right?
[07:40] <cr3> cjwatson: I downloaded the syslog file from the machine after the network detection and it seemed that the preseed file was being retrieved before language selection.
[07:40] <cjwatson> are you using kickstart?
[07:40] <cjwatson> the preseed file is only retrieved before language selection if you're using kickstart, absolutely not otherwise
[07:40] <cjwatson> I wrote the code to do that in kickstart, and it was bloody hard, so :)
[07:41] <cr3> cjwatson: that's just the impression I got from the syslog file, I might be misunderstanding the output so I'm uploading that file as well
[07:41] <cjwatson> cr3: this should all be explained in the appendix on preseeding in the installation-guide
[07:43] <cr3> cjwatson: http://people.ubuntu.com/~cr3/netinstall
[07:44] <cr3> cjwatson: I missed that part of the installation-guide but I'm reading it carefully now: B.2. Using preseeding
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: --> SET preseed/url http://midir.certification.canonical.com/edgy/i386/preseed.txt
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: <-- 0 value set
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: --> METAGET preseed/url type
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: <-- 0 string
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: --> FSET preseed/url seen true
[07:44] <cjwatson> Dec  5 18:20:44 frontend: <-- 0 true
[07:44] <cjwatson> you're looking at those lines, right?
[07:44] <cr3> Dec  5 18:20:45 debconf: --> GET preseed/url
[07:45] <cjwatson> that's actually the preseeding infrastructure copying stuff from the kernel command line into the debconf database - it doesn't actually fetch that URL until rather later
[07:45] <cjwatson> cr3: oh, I see your confusion. That's the main menu confirming that it should be including network-preseed in its menu.
[07:46] <cjwatson> look for "Menu item 'network-preseed' selected" - that's where it actually fetches the preseed file
[07:46] <cr3> aha: Dec  5 18:22:04 preseed: successfully loaded preseed file from http://midir.certification.canonical.com/edgy/i386/preseed.txt
[07:47] <cjwatson> rigt
[07:47] <cjwatson> right
[07:47] <cr3> ok, that makes sense now, thanks for holding my hand there :)
[07:47] <cjwatson> so drop console-tools/archs and kbd-chooser/method; those are obsolete in edgy
[07:48] <cjwatson> drop debian-installer/locale from the preseed file, as it's only useful on the boot prompt
[07:48] <cjwatson> er, kernel command line
[07:48] <cr3> cjwatson: gotcha, and I'll add console-setup/ask_detect to the kernel command line
[07:48] <cjwatson> and add console-setup/ask_detect=false console-setup/layoutcode=ca or something like that
[07:49] <cjwatson> maybe console-setup/variantcode=fr (for French Canadian)
[07:50] <cjwatson> I should have documented console-setup/ask_detect in installation-guide, though. I've fixed that in my local copy.
[07:52] <cr3> cjwatson: that's new in edgy though, right?
[07:52] <cjwatson> yes
[07:52] <cjwatson> what you had before would be fine in dapper, if you moved it to the kernel command line
[07:57] <cr3> I intend to test it later
[08:12] <mark> wth happened to vim in edgy
[08:12] <mark> it's so extremely painful
[08:12] <mark> the cursor keys not working etc
[08:12] <mark> I don't recall dapper doing that
[08:14] <thom> mark: apt-get install vim ; i rather suspect vim-tiny sets compat mode
[08:14] <mark> ok
[08:14] <mark> I'll have to pull that in in the default install then :)
[08:15] <cjwatson> right
[08:15] <cjwatson> need to fiddle with our configuration changes a bit - some of them massively predate vim-tiny and I think they're unnecessary now
[08:15] <thom> yeah, $work-standard deps on vim for that very reason
[08:15] <cjwatson> which would probably make vim a little more usable out of the box in Ubuntu, on top of using vim rather than vim-tiny
[08:16] <arnaud> cjwatson, it seems a bit complicated but anyway i think i'll have to do this
[08:16] <cjwatson> arnaud: yes, it is complicated. what's the actual problem?
[08:16] <cjwatson> arnaud: you might consider using edgy instead; it's probably a lot easier if you need a new kernel
[08:17] <arnaud> yes but i have to install dapper for lts :)
[08:17] <arnaud> is it possible to download and install dapper from an edgy cd or netboot?
[08:17] <arnaud> ie when i choose the mirror
[08:17] <arnaud> i think i have seen this in debian
[08:20] <cr3> arnaud: interesting question, that'd be nice!
[08:20] <thom> mirror/suite
[08:20] <thom> should do you, iirc
[08:21] <cr3> I get a red error message saying "No root file system is defined, please correct this from the partition menu." when adding "d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select Erase entire disk" to my preseed file
[08:22] <arnaud> let's try.
[08:33] <cr3> I have updated my syslog file: http://people.ubuntu.com/~cr3/netinstall/syslog
[08:42] <cr3> the same error occurs for "d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select Use the largest continuous free space"
[08:48] <cr3> the problem with using "partman-auto/init_automatically_partition" with something like "Erase entire disk: SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda)..." is that the first disk might not be given the SCSI ID 1, it might be 5 for example.
[09:13] <cr3> hm, still getting "No root file system is defined" using several combinations including expert_recipe
[09:14] <cr3> syslog says something about "Adding swap on /dev/sda5" but nothing about /
[09:19] <cr3> interesting, I see this in syslog: SUBST partman/choose_partition CHOICES Guided partitioning, Help on partitioning, , SCSI5 (0\,0\,0) (sda) - 80.0 GB ATA ST380811AS,      #1 primary   78.5 GB B K ext3       /media/sda1,      #5 logical    1.5 GB   F swap       swap, , Undo changes to partitions, Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
[09:20] <cr3> so, that basically tells me there's a primary partition defined for /media/sda1 but no mountpoint defined
[10:17] <cr3> sorry for having to leave like that, has there been any action while I was gone :)
[10:31] <cr3> the reason why I was getting a "No root partition" error is that the expert_recipe doesn't seem to define the mountpoint properly, I'm seeing "/media/sda1" and "/media/sda2" in the partition disks step
[10:33] <mpt> cr3, no action while you were gone
[10:34] <cr3> mpt: darn, action is good :)
[10:52] <cr3> aha! I found a bug related to what I'm trying to do: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/partman-auto/+bug/40186