On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 02:33:23PM +0000, Brian wrote: > On Fri 19 Jan 2018 at 22:10:39 +0900, Mark Fletcher wrote: > > > On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 06:43:10AM +0100, john doe wrote: > > > > > > > So, I return to the essential question, which I led with in my original > > post, which is which method does the installer use to set up networking, > > and where can I find documentation on that so I can replicate it for my > > wireless connection? > > The installer uses the netcfg udeb to configure networking; the files in > the package are the documentation (AFAIK). For a wired connection netcfg > produces a file /etc/network/interfaces for use with the installer which > is something like > > allow-hotplug enp0s25 > iface enp0s25 inet dhcp > > This file is transferred to the new system (mounted on /target) just > before d-i finishes and booting into the new system takes place. > > If you had chosen to install over a wifi connection, interfaces would > have looked like this: > > allow-hotplug wlx0060b3f580c4 > iface wlx0060b3f580c4 inet dhcp > wpa-ssid <access_point> > wpa-psk <secret> > > I would preseed the installer to replace the interfaces file it puts on > /target with this file. Any firmware for the wireless adaptor would also > have to be transferred to /target/lib/firmware too. > > A fly in the ointment is the desktop you install (if any). If it brings > in network-manager (MATE does) there is a possibility that there is no > network at first boot. >
Thank you Brian -- this is exactly the information I was after. Much appreciated, once again! To get out of the situation I'm in on those two machines, I just need to hand-craft the interfaces file to something like what you have above, with appropriate device, ssid and WPA password values substituted. For these PARTICULAR systems, firmware doesn't seem to be a problem. Thanks Mark