[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]
  _______________________________________________
  cobbler mailing list
  cobbler at lists.fedorahosted.org
  https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler [7]

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
_______________________________________________
cobbler mailing list
cobbler at lists.fedorahosted.org
https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/cobbler


More information about the cobbler mailing list