Package: netcfg Version: 1.106 Severity: normal Tags: d-i Dear Maintainer,
* What led up to the situation? I have built a preseed.cfg file to perform an automated installation on a remote Virtual Machine with a static IP address. The original iso image was downloaded from: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/wheezy/main/installer- amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso [built on 20130211] Then the iso image has been rebuild with a custom initrd including the preseed.cfg file at its root, with: [...] # gunzip initrd.gz # ls preseed.cfg | cpio --create --append --format newc --file initrd # gzip --best initrd [...] # genisoimage [...] I'm not an expert nor a wizard of preseeding, but enough familiar with this technique to read and understand documentation. First of all, I have read this page: http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2013/20130217 where it is explicitly said: 'Use netcfg/disable_autoconfig instead of netcfg/disable_dhcp (#689531).' This is confirmed by: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2012/10/msg00054.html http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=689531#25 and even /var/lib/dpkg/info/netcfg.templates in the initrd of the installer. But with: d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true netcfg still try DHCP first, and installation fails. * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)? I don't own an amd64 PC, so I have performed other tests with my i386 laptop. I have played with several sets of configuration in preseed.cfg or on boot command line, with the following, surprising results: d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true -> doesn't work d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false -> doesn't work d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false -> doesn't work on boot cmdline: netcfg/disable_autoconfig=true netcfg/use_autoconfig=false -> doesn't work But with the official mini.iso (the same as above but for i386), without preseed.cfg or whatever, just on boot command line of the default menu entry: netcfg/disable_dhcp -> leads me directly to the configuration of a static IP Now, if I put this in a preseed.cfg: d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.1.86/24 d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.1.1 d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.1.1 it works like a charm So, what about netcfg/use_autoconfig and netcfg/disable_autoconfig ? Or what about the documentation ? I don't understand. The version of netcfg shipped in the downloaded mini.iso is 1.106; there was a bugreport against the same program, version 1.92, to say that d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true fails [1]. Is 1.106 a regression ? Now, to build a generic preseed.cfg file that could work with different versions of the installer, and to be sure DHCP config is skipped, I use: d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true d-i netcfg/use_autoconfig boolean false knowing that at least one of them (and probably two) is useless; but how to know which, in advance... cheers, quidame [1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=688273 -- System Information: Debian Release: 7.0 APT prefers testing APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'testing-proposed-updates') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-486 Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130323010014.8865.70633.reportbug@debian
