[cobbler] Fwd: RE: Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
Will Dennis
wdennis at nec-labs.com
Fri Sep 26 14:33:47 UTC 2014
Yup, have seen all of this already... anyone have a reference URL for the d-I partman* config directives? (Not finding too much out there, don't want to have to start reading source if I can help it...)
I agree with the statement in https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/PartMan which says:
"Debian preseed's partman options are an incomprehensible automatic partitioning language."
Truth.
- Will
-----Original Message-----
From: cobbler-bounces at lists.fedorahosted.org [mailto:cobbler-bounces at lists.fedorahosted.org] On Behalf Of alastair at alastair-munro.com
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 5:30 PM
To: cobbler mailing list
Subject: [cobbler] Fwd: RE: Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/apb.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/installation-guide/i386/appendix-preseed.html
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather than a preseed?
Date: 2014-09-25 22:17
From: Will Dennis <wdennis at nec-labs.com>
To: Alastair Munro <alastair at alastair-munro.com>
Thanks for your help in this. So far, trying to spec partitions in d-i
has been a rather painful experience... Using a ks file is MUCH less
painful in this area (even if all the partitioner options are not
available.) If you have working examples of any d-i partitioning that
work in Cobbler, I’d be grateful to see them (either “regular”
hard partitions, or LVM...)
Best,
Will
FROM: Alastair Munro [mailto:alastair at alastair-munro.com]
SENT: Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:53 PM
TO: Will Dennis
SUBJECT: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Hi
I suspect kickstart support in ubuntu is immature at present. It should
get better. As with all things cobbler you need the time and patience to
experiment and test things out. I went with debian installer because we
need to support ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04. Ubuntu ks only turned up in
14.04. However i managed to reuse most of my centos snippets for ubuntu
by just embedding them in a copy of the post seed file. So the change to
d-i was not so painful and not too much reworking required.
For the cobbler system definitions for ubuntu i had to put default
gateways in the interface rather than the global networking, and it
needs the nameserver fields to be filled in too (rather than just
putting a resolv.conf inplace which gets overwritten by resolver). Other
than that it works the same as fedora/centos.
--
Alastair Munro
-----Original Message-----
From: Will Dennis <wdennis at nec-labs.com>
To: cobbler mailing list <cobbler at lists.fedorahosted.org>
Cc: "alastair at alastair-munro.com" <alastair at alastair-munro.com>
Sent: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:40
Subject: RE: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Thanks, Alastair. Guess I'll be learning Debian Installer syntax then ;)
Would be cool in the future if Cobbler could support either d-i or
kickstart for breed "ubuntu", since there is support now, and I'd wager
most Cobbler users are more familiar with kickstart...
Best,
Will
-----Original Message-----
From: cobbler-bounces at lists.fedorahosted.org
[mailto:cobbler-bounces at lists.fedorahosted.org] On Behalf Of
alastair at alastair-munro.com
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 2 [1]:57 PM
To: cobbler at lists.fedorahosted.org
Subject: Re: [cobbler] Can deploy Ubuntu using a kickstart file rather
than a preseed?
Debian/ubuntu uses debian installer. All lines start d-i. See this that
I wrote:
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%20Debian%20and%20Ubuntu%20seeds
[2]
Use the cobbler sample.seed and then replace the pre and post seed
files with your own, with embedded snippets.
I have not played round with lvm or partitioning on ubuntu/debian, but
I was able to use all the snippets I wrote for centos with ubuntu (with
some slight tweaks). These snippets are now multi platform!
The ubuntu guides tell you about debian installer and what the various
lines do. I didn't have to tweak the sample.seed much.
Alastair
On 2014-09-25 16 [3]:39, Will Dennis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Went looking for an automated way to install a bunch of Ubuntu
(14.04)
> nodes I had to bring up, and happily found that Ubuntu now supports
> Kickstart (albeit in a non-complete way...)
>
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart
> [1]
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility [5] [2]
>
> I created a USB installer, and authored a kickstart file (via the
> Ubuntu app "system-config-kickstart"), placed it in the root of the
> USB key, and then in /syslinux/txt.cfg I added "ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg" to
> the end of the "append" line for the default install. Booted my test
> node from the USB key, and the kickstart worked like a champ.
>
> Now, since I've been using Cobbler to install RedHat-family nodes, I
> thought I'd try to add a Ubuntu OS choice. So I added the install ISO
> to Cobbler via the 'cobbler import' command, and also did a 'cobbler
> reposync' to add the local repo. Tried PXE-booting my test node, my
> Ubuntu 14.04 OS choice shows up in the menu, and can be installed
(but
> for some reason stops at the "Partition disks" setup screen...)
>
> When I checked out the "kickstart" file for the profile, I was
> surprised to find that it was actually a Debian preseed file instead
> of a kickstart... Since I don't understand preseed files, and wanted
> to use my (working) kickstart file, I imported my kickstart file into
> /var/lib/cobbler/kickstarts and then made a copy of the Ubuntu 14.04
> profile, and changed the kickstart file to be mine instead of
> "sample.seed". Upon PXE booting the test node and selecting my new
> profile, it errored out with the following message:
>
> "The installer failed to process the preconfiguration file from
> http://<cobbler-svr-ip>/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/<profile_name [6]
[3]>. The
> file may be corrupt."
>
> So, is there a way to support using kickstart files against Ubuntu
> nodes, instead of preseed files? If so, any docs anywhere?
>
> Also, is there a way to search the list archives (such as Gmane,
etc.)
> for keywords such as "Ubuntu kickstart" - I'm sure this has been
> discussed before on the list, but couldn't (quickly) find anything...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Will
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1]
>
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[4]
> ckstart [2] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[5]
> [3]
http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name [6]
>
> _______________________________________________
> cobbler mailing list
> cobbler at lists.fedorahosted.org
> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [7]
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Links:
------
[1] tel:20142
[2]
https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Using%20template%20scripts%20for%20Debian%20and%20Ubuntu%20seeds
[3] tel:2014092516
[4]
https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/installation-guide/amd64/ch04s06.html#ki
[5] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KickstartCompatibility
[6] http://%3ccobbler-svr-ip%3e/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/%3cprofile_name
[7] https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler
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