[05:22] <ProfMac> I'm having fun with partman.  I have found the log files at /var/log/partman during an unsuccessful installation, from one of the terminal windows.  I am, as is everyone, debugging a preseed file.
[05:23] <ProfMac> I wonder if somehow I can feed the preseed file into the front of the pipe, and observer meaningful steps along the path.
[09:35] <cjwatson> ProfMac: Preseed files aren't imperative in a way that would cause that to make sense; they operate by setting a load of values in a database, which are used by later steps in the installer.
[09:36] <cjwatson> ProfMac: The usual swiss-army-knife for debugging is to pass DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer on the kernel command line when starting the installer.  That will cause a trace of all debconf interaction (i.e. nearly everything) to be written to /var/log/syslog.
[09:37] <ProfMac> ah.  I'll try that.  I take it that it takes a while for people to grok the preseed partition descriptions.
[09:38] <ProfMac> I wish that the working examples worked :-)
[09:40] <xnox> CarlFK, but, we do support NVMe drives....
[09:42] <xnox> CarlFK, e.g. we did SRU bug fixes for it - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub-installer/1.128ubuntu5.1
[09:52] <cjwatson> ProfMac: Declarative partitioning is certainly the most complicated part of the task by a long shot.
[09:54] <ProfMac> I would like to find documentation on how partman works, and a working example with LVM and/or raid.  I have several apparantly well written examples, but they don't work in my hands.
[09:57] <ProfMac> is there a tool that reads an existing set of disks, and produces a preseed file that implies how to re-create them?
[10:00] <cjwatson> I don't believe so, unfortunately.
[12:08] <CarlFK> xnox: thanks
[20:21] <ProfMac> I notice the X-window system is alive during install.  I have used ssh to reach out to another system.  openssh-server is not installed, however.  Is there any way to reach in from the outside during the install process?
[20:46] <CarlFK> ProfMac: well.. here is what I came up with like 6 years ago:
[20:46] <CarlFK> https://github.com/CarlFK/veyepar/blob/master/setup/nodes/pxe/shaz/var/www/ec/early_command.sh
[20:47] <CarlFK> d-i preseed/early_command string cd /tmp && wget  http://$url/ec/early_command.sh && chmod u+x early_command.sh  && ./early_command.sh
[20:49] <ProfMac> CarlFK, it looks nice and clean.
[20:50] <CarlFK> d-i preseed/late_command string /tmp/misc/isshd.sh
[20:51] <CarlFK> from what I remember,  i can't run isshd.sh at the time early_command runs - it errors and all goes bad
[20:52] <CarlFK> so I grab all the files, let them sit till needed.  like if the installer stops at some point, I can hit a-f2, /tmp/misc/issd.sh and then ssh in from my laptop
[20:53] <ProfMac> Yes, that is pretty much the plan, ssh in when it needs attention.
[21:03] <CarlFK> I just found "preseed/run”  but haven't tried it. nor can I find any docs. there was a bug report that said it ran pretty early.  there is prof it exits here: https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/installation-guide/armhf/apbs02.html
[21:04] <CarlFK> I am always a little bothered that I need to go to the keyboard of the machine being installed
[21:05] <CarlFK> I think there is something to provide the anyway, but never figured out how to make that work either
[23:09] <CarlFK> xnox: does the 128  in  grub-installer/1.128ubuntu5.1 mean I don't have it in BusyBox v1.22.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.22.0-15ubuntu1) built-in shell (ash)