Workstation Autoinstall Preseed

This is a full Preseed file that will install a Ubuntu Desktop. It's the actual preseed we use, with some specifics removed.

There are two additional scripts used for the final stages. You can find them here: Enterprise/WorkstationAutoinstallScripts

Here's how to integrate use Cobbler for installation over the network: Enterprise/Cobbler

Notes

• It's localised for Switzerland
• You need to adapt it and fill in some blanks
• It's designed so it doesn't ask any questions. It will wipe the entire disk.
• The disk is fully encrypted with a temporary password that is replaced in the final script

• It is based on the official example-preseed

Preseed File

# Preseeding only locale sets language, country and locale.
d-i debian-installer/locale string de_CH.UTF-8

# The values can also be preseeded individually for greater flexibility.
#d-i debian-installer/language string en
#d-i debian-installer/country string CH
#d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8
# Optionally specify additional locales to be generated.
d-i localechooser/supported-locales multiselect de_CH.UTF-8, C.UTF-8, en_US.UTF-8

# Keyboard selection.
# Disable automatic (interactive) keymap detection.
d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false
#d-i keyboard-configuration/modelcode string pc105
d-i keyboard-configuration/layoutcode string ch
# To select a variant of the selected layout (if you leave this out, the
# basic form of the layout will be used):
#d-i keyboard-configuration/variantcode string dvorak

# Disable network configuration entirely. This is useful for cdrom
# installations on non-networked devices where the network questions,
# warning and long timeouts are a nuisance.
#d-i netcfg/enable boolean false

# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

# To pick a particular interface instead:
#d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth1

# If you have a slow dhcp server and the installer times out waiting for
# it, this might be useful.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_timeout string 60

# If you prefer to configure the network manually, uncomment this line and
# the static network configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean true

# If you want the preconfiguration file to work on systems both with and
# without a dhcp server, uncomment these lines and the static network
# configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed note
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually

# Static network configuration.
#d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.1.42
#d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
#d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true

# Any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take precedence over
# values set here. However, setting the values still prevents the questions
# from being shown, even if values come from dhcp.
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string host234
d-i netcfg/get_domain string example.com

# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
# The wacky dhcp hostname that some ISPs use as a password of sorts.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_hostname string radish

# If non-free firmware is needed for the network or other hardware, you can
# configure the installer to always try to load it, without prompting. Or
# change to false to disable asking.
#d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean true

# Use the following settings if you wish to make use of the network-console
# component for remote installation over SSH. This only makes sense if you
# intend to perform the remainder of the installation manually.
#d-i anna/choose_modules string network-console
#d-i network-console/password password r00tme
#d-i network-console/password-again password r00tme

# If you select ftp, the mirror/country string does not need to be set.
#d-i mirror/protocol string ftp
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/http/hostname string archive.ubuntu.com
d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu
d-i mirror/http/proxy string

# Alternatively: by default, the installer uses CC.archive.ubuntu.com where
# CC is the ISO-3166-2 code for the selected country. You can preseed this
# so that it does so without asking.
d-i mirror/http/mirror select ch.archive.ubuntu.com

# Suite to install.
#d-i mirror/suite string squeeze
# Suite to use for loading installer components (optional).
#d-i mirror/udeb/suite string squeeze
# Components to use for loading installer components (optional).
#d-i mirror/udeb/components multiselect main, restricted

# Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

# You may set this to any valid setting for $TZ; see the contents of
# /usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid values.
d-i time/zone string Europe/Zurich

# Controls whether to use NTP to set the clock during the install
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
# NTP server to use. The default is almost always fine here.
#d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string ntp.example.com


# snippet 'ubuntu_partition'
# If the system has free space you can choose to only partition that space.
# This is only honoured if partman-auto/method (below) is not set.
# Alternatives: custom, some_device, some_device_crypto, some_device_lvm.
#d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select biggest_free

# Alternatively, you may specify a disk to partition. If the system has only
# one disk the installer will default to using that, but otherwise the device
# name must be given in traditional, non-devfs format (so e.g. /dev/hda or
# /dev/sda, and not e.g. /dev/discs/disc0/disc).
# For example, to use the first SCSI/SATA hard disk:
#d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
# In addition, you'll need to specify the method to use.
# The presently available methods are:
# - regular: use the usual partition types for your architecture
# - lvm:     use LVM to partition the disk
# - crypto:  use LVM within an encrypted partition
# d-i partman-auto/method string lvm

# crypto with preseeded passphrase
d-i partman-auto/method string crypto
d-i partman-crypto/passphrase password temporarypassword
d-i partman-crypto/passphrase-again password temporarypassword


# If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned
# contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a
# warning. This can be preseeded away...
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
# The same applies to pre-existing software RAID array:
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
# And the same goes for the confirmation to write the lvm partitions.
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true

# For LVM partitioning, you can select how much of the volume group to use
# for logical volumes.
d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
#d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string 10GB
#d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string 50%
 
d-i partman-auto-lvm/new_vg_name string vg-workstation

# You can choose one of the three predefined partitioning recipes:
# - atomic: all files in one partition
# - home:   separate /home partition
# - multi:  separate /home, /usr, /var, and /tmp partitions
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select custom-lvm

# Or provide a recipe of your own...
# If you have a way to get a recipe file into the d-i environment, you can
# just point at it.
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe_file string /hd-media/recipe

# If not, you can put an entire recipe into the preconfiguration file in one
# (logical) line. This example creates a small /boot partition, suitable
# swap, and uses the rest of the space for the root partition:
d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string                         \
      custom-lvm ::                                           \
        250 250 250 ext4 $primary{ } $bootable{ }             \
        mountpoint{ /boot }                                   \
        method{ format }                                      \
        format{ }                                             \
        use_filesystem{ }                                     \
        filesystem{ ext4 }                                    \
        .                                                     \
        10240 20480 40960 ext4 $lvmok{ }                      \
        mountpoint{ / }                                       \
        lv_name{ root }                                       \
        in_vg { vg-workstation }                              \
        method{ format }                                      \
        format{ }                                             \
        use_filesystem{ }                                     \
        filesystem{ ext4 }                                    \
        .                                                     \
        10240 40960 1000000 ext4 $lvmok{ }                    \
        mountpoint{ /home }                                   \
        lv_name{ home }                                       \
        in_vg { vg-workstation }                              \
        method{ format }                                      \
        format{ }                                             \
        use_filesystem{ }                                     \
        filesystem{ ext4 }                                    \
        .                                                     \
        4096 8192 200% linux-swap $lvmok{ }                   \
        lv_name{ swap }                                       \
        in_vg { vg-workstation }                              \
        method{ swap }                                        \
        format{ }                                             \
        .


# If you just want to change the default filesystem from ext3 to something
# else, you can do that without providing a full recipe.
d-i partman/default_filesystem string ext4

# The full recipe format is documented in the file partman-auto-recipe.txt
# included in the 'debian-installer' package or available from D-I source
# repository. This also documents how to specify settings such as file
# system labels, volume group names and which physical devices to include
# in a volume group.

# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation, provided
# that you told it what to do using one of the methods above.
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

# The default is to mount by UUID, but you can also choose "traditional" to
# use traditional device names, or "label" to try filesystem labels before
# falling back to UUIDs.
#d-i partman/mount_style select uuid


# snippet 'ubuntu_base'
# Configure APT to not install recommended packages by default. Use of this
# option can result in an incomplete system and should only be used by very
# experienced users.
#d-i base-installer/install-recommends boolean false

# The kernel image (meta) package to be installed; "none" can be used if no
# kernel is to be installed.
#d-i base-installer/kernel/image string linux-generic

# Skip creation of a root account (normal user account will be able to
# use sudo). The default is false; preseed this to true if you want to set
# a root password.
d-i passwd/root-login boolean true
# Alternatively, to skip creation of a normal user account.
d-i passwd/make-user boolean false

# Root password, either in clear text
#d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme
#d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme
# or encrypted using an MD5 hash.
#d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password [MD5 hash] # any pw hash will work as stored in /etc/shadow
d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password #add hash

# To create a normal user account.
#d-i passwd/user-fullname string Ubuntu User
#d-i passwd/username string ubuntu
# Normal user's password, either in clear text
#d-i passwd/user-password password insecure
#d-i passwd/user-password-again password insecure
# or encrypted using an MD5 hash.
#d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password [MD5 hash]
# Create the first user with the specified UID instead of the default.
#d-i passwd/user-uid string 1010
# The installer will warn about weak passwords. If you are sure you know
# what you're doing and want to override it, uncomment this.
#d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak boolean true

# The user account will be added to some standard initial groups. To
# override that, use this.
#d-i passwd/user-default-groups string audio cdrom video

# Set to true if you want to encrypt the first user's home directory.
d-i user-setup/encrypt-home boolean false

# Policy for applying updates. May be "none" (no automatic updates),
# "unattended-upgrades" (install security updates automatically), or
# "landscape" (manage system with Landscape).
d-i pkgsel/update-policy select none

# Some versions of the installer can report back on what software you have
# installed, and what software you use. The default is not to report back,
# but sending reports helps the project determine what software is most
# popular and include it on CDs.
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

# By default, the system's locate database will be updated after the
# installer has finished installing most packages. This may take a while, so
# if you don't want it, you can set this to "false" to turn it off.
d-i pkgsel/updatedb boolean true

# With a few exceptions for unusual partitioning setups, GRUB 2 is now the
# default. If you need GRUB Legacy for some particular reason, then
# uncomment this:
#d-i grub-installer/grub2_instead_of_grub_legacy boolean false

# This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR
# if no other operating system is detected on the machine.
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true

# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if it also finds some other
# OS, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

# Alternatively, if you want to install to a location other than the mbr,
# uncomment and edit these lines:
#d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string (hd0,0)
# To install grub to multiple disks:
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev  string (hd0,0) (hd1,0) (hd2,0)

# Optional password for grub, either in clear text
#d-i grub-installer/password password r00tme
#d-i grub-installer/password-again password r00tme
# or encrypted using an MD5 hash, see grub-md5-crypt(8).
#d-i grub-installer/password-crypted password [MD5 hash]

# Use the following option to add additional boot parameters for the
# installed system (if supported by the bootloader installer).
# Note: options passed to the installer will be added automatically.
#d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts string nousb


# snippet 'ubuntu_package'
# You can choose to install restricted and universe software, or to install
# software from the backports repository.
d-i apt-setup/restricted boolean true
d-i apt-setup/universe boolean true
d-i apt-setup/multiverse boolean true
d-i apt-setup/partner boolean true
d-i apt-setup/extras boolean true
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
d-i apt-setup/backports boolean false
# Uncomment this if you don't want to use a network mirror.
#d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean false
# Select which update services to use; define the mirrors to be used.
# Values shown below are the normal defaults.
#d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security
#d-i apt-setup/security_host string security.ubuntu.com
#d-i apt-setup/security_path string /ubuntu

# Additional repositories, local[0-9] available
#d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \
#       http://local.server/ubuntu squeeze main
#d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string local server
# Enable deb-src lines
#d-i apt-setup/local0/source boolean true
# URL to the public key of the local repository; you must provide a key or
# apt will complain about the unauthenticated repository and so the
# sources.list line will be left commented out
#d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://local.server/key

# Add custom repository
d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \
       http://apt.example.ch/ precise-example main

d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://apt.example.ch/example-apt.gpg

# By default the installer requires that repositories be authenticated
# using a known gpg key. This setting can be used to disable that
# authentication. Warning: Insecure, not recommended.
#d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated boolean true


# Accept Microsoft Fonts EULA
ttf-mscorefonts-installer msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula boolean true

# don't set adobe reader as default
acroread-common acroread-common/default-viewer boolean false

# Setuid bit for davfs2, allow davfs mounts by users.
davfs2 davfs2/suid_file boolean true

tasksel tasksel/first multiselect ubuntu-desktop, virt-host
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect lamp-server, print-server
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect kubuntu-desktop

# Individual additional packages to install
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server \
  language-pack-de \
  language-pack-gnome-de \
  language-pack-en \
  language-pack-gnome-en \
  wngerman \
  wogerman \
  wamerican \
  wbritish \
  wswiss \
  firefox-locale-de \
  thunderbird-locale-de \
  libreoffice \
  libreoffice-l10n-de \
  libreoffice-help-de \
  hyphen-de \
  hyphen-en-us \
  mythes-de-ch \
  mythes-de \
  mythes-en-us \
  hunspell-de-de \
  hunspell-de-ch \
  hunspell-en-us \
  poppler-data \
  myspell-en-gb \
  acroread \
  apt-file \
  autofs \
  build-essential \
  byobu \
  chromium-browser \
  cifs-utils \
  console-common \
  davfs2 \
  eclipse \
  eclipse-egit \
  enigmail \
  filezilla \
  gedit-plugins \
  git \
  gitg \
  gnupg \
  gnupg-agent \
  gpm \
  htop \
  inkscape \
  libcrack2 \
  libreoffice-presenter-console \
  lightning-extension \
  meld \
  nautilus-compare \
  nautilus-filename-repairer \
  nautilus-image-converter \
  nautilus-open-terminal \
  network-manager-openvpn \
  network-manager-openvpn-gnome \
  nmap \
  regexxer \
  rdesktop \
  retext \
  ruby \
  shutter \
  skype \
  synaptic \
  terminator \
  traceroute \
  ubuntu-restricted-extras \
  vim \
  virt-manager \
  vlc \
  wine \
  wireshark \
  zenity



# Whether to upgrade packages after debootstrap.
# Allowed values: none, safe-upgrade, full-upgrade
d-i pkgsel/upgrade select full-upgrade

# Language pack selection
d-i pkgsel/language-packs multiselect de, en

pkgsel/ignore-incomplete-language-support boolean true

# Policy for applying updates. May be "none" (no automatic updates),
# "unattended-upgrades" (install security updates automatically), or
# "landscape" (manage system with Landscape).
d-i pkgsel/update-policy select none

# Some versions of the installer can report back on what software you have
# installed, and what software you use. The default is not to report back,
# but sending reports helps the project determine what software is most
# popular and include it on CDs.
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

# By default, the system's locate database will be updated after the
# installer has finished installing most packages. This may take a while, so
# if you don't want it, you can set this to "false" to turn it off.
d-i pkgsel/updatedb boolean true


# During installations from serial console, the regular virtual consoles
# (VT1-VT6) are normally disabled in /etc/inittab. Uncomment the next
# line to prevent this.
#d-i finish-install/keep-consoles boolean true

# Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

# This will prevent the installer from ejecting the CD during the reboot,
# which is useful in some situations.
#d-i cdrom-detect/eject boolean false

# This is how to make the installer shutdown when finished, but not
# reboot into the installed system.
#d-i debian-installer/exit/halt boolean true
# This will power off the machine instead of just halting it.
d-i debian-installer/exit/poweroff boolean true

# X can detect the right driver for some cards, but if you're preseeding,
# you override whatever it chooses. Still, vesa will work most places.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select vesa

# A caveat with mouse autodetection is that if it fails, X will retry it
# over and over. So if it's preseeded to be done, there is a possibility of
# an infinite loop if the mouse is not autodetected.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_mouse boolean true

# Monitor autodetection is recommended.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_monitor boolean true
# Uncomment if you have an LCD display.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/lcd boolean true
# X has three configuration paths for the monitor. Here's how to preseed
# the "medium" path, which is always available. The "simple" path may not
# be available, and the "advanced" path asks too many questions.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method \
       select medium
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/mode-list \
       select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz


# Depending on what software you choose to install, or if things go wrong
# during the installation process, it's possible that other questions may
# be asked. You can preseed those too, of course. To get a list of every
# possible question that could be asked during an install, do an
# installation, and then run these commands:
#   debconf-get-selections --installer > file
#   debconf-get-selections >> file


# d-i preseeding is inherently not secure. Nothing in the installer checks
# for attempts at buffer overflows or other exploits of the values of a
# preconfiguration file like this one. Only use preconfiguration files from
# trusted locations! To drive that home, and because it's generally useful,
# here's a way to run any shell command you'd like inside the installer,
# automatically.


d-i preseed/late_command string \
  in-target wget -O /root/desktop-bootstrap.sh "http://example.com/ubuntu-desktop-bootstrap.sh"; \
  in-target chmod +x /root/desktop-bootstrap.sh; \
  in-target /root/desktop-bootstrap.sh; \
  cp /var/log/syslog /target/root/log/install-syslog;

# No boot splash screen.
#d-i debian-installer/splash boolean false

# Install the debconf oem-config frontend (if in OEM mode).
#d-i oem-config-udeb/frontend string debconf
# Add the network and tasks oem-config steps by default.
#oem-config oem-config/steps multiselect language, keyboard, user, network, tasks