> Hi, > > I'm working on a system for doing semi-automatic Debian installations (code > name: deblab). It's more of a hack than an elegant solution but it works > for us (tm) in our department (Debian on Sparc, Alpha and i386, different > package lists for terminal and server).
Will this become fully automatic?? > Let me lay out the basic ideas: > > * Install the base system via the usual installation mediums; that's the > reason why I call it semi-automatic; I'll take a look at the shell script > Massimo Dal Zotto posted about some weeks ago to automate the first step too Good. Can we make this work with dhcp too?? > * after the reboot you skip the profiles and the dselect step and log in as > root > * get the autoinstallation tarball via ftp or nfs Why a tar-ball?? Why not a deb-package? > * the following installation is done in three phases which are executed by a > simple bash script: > > 1. configure apt and install some necessary packages (I use cfengine and > expect as installation engines) How are they defined? > 2. invoke cfengine to do some preinstallation e.g. install /etc/exim.conf > (exim skips the postinst if it finds a valid exim.conf), /etc/gpm.conf > and similar cases > 3. set the packages to install via dpkg --set-selections > 4. start the installation via an expect-script which runs apt-get and answers > the questions according to its data How do you create the "data"??? > 5. invoke cfengine to do the postinstallation (copying site-wide master > configuration files); e.g. hosts, hosts.allow, XF86Config, autofs, etc. > 6. Voila, done ;-) > > Several drawbacks: > > - I didn't scan all installation scripts for interaction; I automated the > scripts from the packages we use; potential users should give me feedback > which scripts are missing > - If it takes more than 8 minutes between two Setting up lines the expect > script assumes that we are hanging because of a user interaction which > isn't automated yet and will give the keyboard control back to the user > to answer the question; on slow machines this timeout is too short for > example when compiling the emacs calc package; after completing the user > interaction expect resumes automatic mode > - it's not general enough yet and probably very fragile > > What are the configuration files ? > You need templates for some of your config files like exim.conf, most config > files will be site-wide the same. You need a reference package list, > a simple text database of the answers for the expect script and a cfengine > configuration for later maintenance. > > I'll test the setup today and tomorrow in our department and could put > together a Debian package over the weekend if somebody is interested. > Note however that you should regard the package as an alpha thingie. > But perhaps we can get it in a more general usable state 'til the release > of potato. This sounds like a good start. I do belive however that there should be some changes in the format of the debian-package to make it work non-interactive. I do belive that all scripts that are in install or uninstall should be able to run uninteractive if asked to! /Erik -- Erik B�gfors | http://www.acc.umu.se/~bagfors/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Center for Parallel Computers GSM +46 70 398 54 43 | Supporter of free software
