Hi,

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 10:36 AM, Zack Perry <zack.perry@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Hi James and Andrew,

[...]
> Gentlemen, please give me a few days. I still have a couple
> of ideas to try out before we give up on Ubuntu 12.10 and later
> completely. [...] Will report back to the list.
[...]

I got some progress in PXE booting Ubuntu 12.10 x86_64, but still having an issue with installing the desktop UI.

Once that's resolved, IMHO cobbler 2.4.0's Ubuntu import support from DVD/CD support up to 12.10 can be considered quite good - without needing any Debian/Ubuntu specific additions (e.g. the cobbler-ubuntu-import bash script and other patches).

The lubuntu-12.10-alternate-amd64.iso provides netboot {initrd.gz, linux} that work OOTB for PXE booting with the server preseed that I created for Ubuntu 12.04.1 x86_64.

But so far, I haven't been able to get the default desktop to install.

The following are relevant d-i lines in my preseed file:

# Setup the installation source
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/http/hostname string $http_server:$http_port
d-i mirror/http/directory string $install_source_directory
d-i mirror/http/proxy string
# Components to use for loading installer components (optional).
d-i mirror/udeb/components multiselect main, restricted
[...]
# You can choose to install restricted and universe software, or to install
# software from the backports repository.
d-i apt-setup/restricted boolean true
d-i apt-setup/universe boolean true
d-i apt-setup/backports boolean true
[...]
# Select which update services to use; define the mirrors to be used.
# Values shown below are the normal defaults.
d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security
d-i apt-setup/security_host string security.ubuntu.com
d-i apt-setup/security_path string /ubuntu

The first time, I tried to PXE boot the test netbook, it came up with just a text login window like the result for server. No graphical UI. So, I added in the following lines to see if I could trigger such an action:

d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server \
lubuntu-artwork \
lubuntu-artwork-12-10 \
lubuntu-default-settings \
lubuntu-icon-theme \
lubuntu-lxpanel-icons \
lxmenu-data lxpanel \
lxsession \
lxsession-data
d-i pkgsel/language-pack-patterns string

I did so because Ubuntu 12.10 and its derivatives such as lubuntu no longer provide the ubunutu-desktop meta package that existed until 12.04.1's main/u/ubuntu-meta

But now the debian-installer complains (Alt-F4):

Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: Package lubuntu-default-settings is not available, but is referred to by another package.
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsolted, or
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: is only available from another source
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target:
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: unable to locate package lubuntu-artwork
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lubuntu-artwork-12-10
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Package 'lubuntu-default-settings' has no installation candidate
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lubuntu-icon-theme
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lubuntu-lxpanel-icons
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lxmenu-data
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lxpanel
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lxsession
Nov 18 17:29:54 in-target: E: Unable to locate package lxsession-data
Nov 18 17:29:54 main-menu[417]: WARNING **: Configurating 'pkgsel' failed with error code 100
Nov 18 17:29:54 main-menu[417]: WARNING **: Menu item 'pkgsel' failed.

But, upon examing the loop mounted lubuntu-12.10-alternate-amd64.iso, all of them are available!

[root@cobbler l]# pwd
/mnt/pool/universe/l
[root@cobbler l]# ls
lame lubuntu-artwork lxinput lxsession
ldm-ubuntu-themes lubuntu-default-settings lxkeymap lxshortcut
leafpad lubuntu-meta lxlauncher lxtask
lightdm-gtk-greeter lubuntu-software-center lxmenu-data lxterminal
linux-wlan-ng lxappearance lxpanel
loudmouth lxappearance-obconf lxrandr

I think that I enabled the universe in my preseed. So, why the debian-installer was complaining? IMHO if we can figure out a way to trigger the installation of the lubuntu desktop, then we can close this chapter.

You might want to check the dists folder and make sure that you have a "universe" folder in there so that it is able to get package listings.

I played with this a bit this weekend as well. I ended up getting a minimal mirror of the Ubuntu packages needed setup but it requires a bit of work to get going. 

First I downloaded the quantal dists folders from a mirror. Then, I had to create a package list of the squashfs image on the installation disk as well as a list of packages that failed to install during a test installation. It isn't ideal but it is a possibility for getting 12.10 up with a subset of the repository (thought I've only tested the server install so I can't really help you with the desktops issues here). If anyone is interested I can send out instructions on what I did.

Regards,

Andrew
 

Regards,

-- Zack