[11:21]  * infinity kisses ti-omap4 goodbye from the archive.
[11:22] <stgraber> yay!
[20:03] <^charlie> is there a method for popping a custom prompt during ubuntu installation, but before first boot?  i want to collect a string and store it to a file for use during post-install firstboot.
[20:04] <^charlie> i am currently using an unattended setup seed for 12.04LTS, plan to use it for 14.04LTS as well
[21:06] <^charlie> anyone here fielding questions?
[21:08] <antarus> this channel is pretty quiet, even during the week ;)
[21:09] <antarus> infinity, cjwatson, and xnox are about the only regulars
[21:09]  * antarus is only in here to pester colin with annoying questions
[21:10] <xnox> antarus: i am about, but coding. What's up?
[21:11] <^charlie> i'd like to collect a string from the user either from d-i or ubiquity during installation, and store it to a file on the system for consumption during first boot when i take over with more scripts
[21:11] <^charlie> from what i see online, a custom udeb might be able to ask questions but i'm not finding enough info about it to understand.
[21:12] <^charlie> online general searches about "install prompt user" et al get me a lot of hits regarding apt-get and the like
[21:12] <antarus> you can definitely use a udeb to add a step to the install process, that prompts the user if the answer is not preseeded
[21:13] <antarus> I can't say I could point you at some steps to do it though
[21:13] <antarus> it involves debconf, debconf templates, building udeb, and the right control fields to add your step to the right place in the install
[21:13] <^charlie> dang, that was my next q :_
[21:13] <antarus> and at least for me, its mostly 'find another package that does this, copy liberally'
[21:13] <antarus> s/package/udeb/
[21:13] <antarus> ;)
[21:14] <antarus> fwiw, this is for d-i
[21:14] <^charlie> ok i'll take a look around, thanks.
[21:14] <antarus> ubiquity is probably way easier
[21:14] <antarus> or asking them in oem-config
[21:14] <antarus> also way easier
[21:14] <^charlie> i haven't seen oem-config yet.
[21:14] <^charlie> let me look around for that.
[21:14] <xnox> ^charlie: all of d-i is just shell scripts that invoke debconf to ask user questions, so all / any installer screens are examples of what you want.
[21:14] <antarus> oem-config is (IIRC) the UI that the user gets after the install
[21:14] <antarus> to let them pick their TZ,  language, and so forth
[21:15] <^charlie> does that oem-install occur before the reboot
[21:15] <antarus> no
[21:15] <antarus> well, possibly
[21:15] <antarus> it doesn't in our setup ;p
[21:16] <^charlie> how do i get ubiquity to askquestions?  is it the same udeb type stuff?
[21:17] <antarus> you have to write some...python..or glade..or something
[21:17] <antarus> I don't have the code in front of me, and my code was written in 2008, so I'd hope there is something better now ;p
[21:17] <^charlie> python is just fine.  is there some example script i can look at?
[21:17] <antarus> I'd just go grab the ubiquity source
[21:17] <^charlie> ok
[21:17] <antarus> or oem-config?
[21:18] <antarus> there are screens that Ubuntu is using
[21:18] <xnox> ^charlie: pure oem-config in d-i has (typically) three parts - ask questions during install / execute some things, allow reboot into final system and do as you like (optional), pop-up instance/end-user config when shipped.
[21:18] <antarus> also maybe search the wiki
[21:18] <^charlie> yeah i'll check oem-config too.  it all depends if it's executing before the first boot.
[21:18] <xnox> antarus: ubiquity wraps d-i with python modules, so one can do debconf based questions, or just pure python questions/answers + exec things in the target/first boot.
[21:18] <antarus> for our process, we have basically given up on having things ready 'pre first boot'
[21:18] <^charlie> agree
[21:19] <xnox> antarus: e.g. see ubuntuone plugin that asks non-d-i questions and does things to /target
[21:19] <^charlie> the vast majority of what i do occurs after first boot
[21:19] <antarus> we try to get the machine as close as we can, and then reboot into a 'provisioning environment'
[21:19] <antarus> (which is essentially ubiquity)
[21:19] <antarus> and then we prep the machine
[21:19] <^charlie> i am just trying to collect some credentials and have them ready for some git/svn activities during first boot
[21:20] <^charlie> first boot being what happens after ubiquity is all done and ejects the disc
[21:20] <^charlie> currently those credentials are in a script in the install media.... and i dislike the idea of having to do that.
[21:21] <^charlie> i'd rather make the user cough them up.
[21:21] <antarus> yeah putting creds in the install media is not so nice
[21:21] <antarus> we've been trying put stuff in the TPM
[21:22] <antarus> or wrapped with the TPM
[21:22] <antarus> but shockingly, the TPM does not function very well
[21:22] <^charlie> heh
[21:22] <^charlie> i'm not fond of tpm from the user side either.
[21:22] <antarus> we end up fighting a lot with vendors who either ship a TPM that just doesn't work, or doesn't work in linux, or...
[21:23] <antarus> and canonical doesn't care about the TPM (not that I blame them...since no one uses it ;p)
[21:23] <antarus> so even when we try to buy canonical certified hardware
[21:23] <antarus> it still may not work ;p
[21:23] <antarus> hardware is 'fun'
[21:23] <antarus> virtual machines for everyone!
[21:23] <^charlie> TPM won't be so useful for me, i'm providing a dev/qa environment to teammates who use VMs and dumpy unwanted hardware
[21:24] <antarus> yeah
[21:24] <antarus> I'm more talking about credentials in general
[21:24] <^charlie> ah okay
[21:25] <^charlie> so i'll take a look at oem-config and also the ubiquity sources and see what i can come up with.
[21:25] <^charlie> if anyone knows of a decent udeb tutorial that would be awesome.  or source of an existing udeb that asks for a string and stores it.