In this post i will detail how to automate the installation of Debian through the use of a Seed File and DHCP. If like me you install a few Debian Servers for things like web servers and stuff. you will have had to sit through the installation, clicking options. Well now you don’t have to.
Seed file. Place preseed.cfg on a web server in the root, or easy access path.
#_preseed_V1
## Country and system locale
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_GB.UTF-8
d-i debconf/language string en_GB.utf8
d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select gb
d-i console-setup/layout string "United Kingdom"
## Network config
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth0
## Sort Keyboard settings
d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select gb
d-i kbd-chooser/method select "United Kingdom"
d-i kbd-chooser/method select "British English"
d-i keyboard-configuration/variant select English (UK)
keyboard-configuration keyboard-configuration/variant select English (UK)
## Sort Root Password
d-i passwd/root-password password password123456789
d-i passwd/root-password-again password password123456789
## Add new user and set password
user-setup-udeb passwd/username string Bob.User
d-i passwd/user-fullname string Dob.User
d-i passwd/user-password password password
d-i passwd/user-password-again password password
## Set Time Zone information
d-i time/zone string Europe/London
tzsetup-udeb time/zone select Europe/London
tzdata tzdata/Zones/Europe select London
d-i clock-setup/utc-auto boolean true
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string uk.pool.ntp.org
## Choose Local mirror to install software
d-i mirror/https/mirror select deb.debian.org
choose-mirror-bin mirror/http/countries select GB
## Select Software
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ssh-server, standard
d-i tasksel/first multiselect SSH server, standard system utilities
d-i pkgsel/include string sudo curl snmpd nano zip gnupg ntp hyperv-daemons salt-minion salt-common bmon mc htop
## Sort out PArtition
d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
## Sort Grub Stuff
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda
d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note
## Sort End of install to eject CD and reboot
d-i cdrom-detect/eject boolean true
d-i kbd-chooser/method select "United Kingdom"
DHCP Config. The below is the DHCP Config for VyOS
service {
dhcp-server {
shared-network-name LAB {
subnet 10.10.10.0/24 {
bootfile-name http://10.10.10.2/preseed.cfg
default-router 10.10.10.1
dns-server 8.8.8.8
domain-name LAB.local
range 0 {
start 10.10.10.10
stop 10.10.10.200
}
}
}
}
}Debian Installation Options
