I'm attempting to do an Ubuntu 11.10 server install using a preseed file for the first time.
I created my preseed file by starting with the example file and just uncommenting/choosing what seemed reasonable. Here's the result, with no comments, for (relative) brevity. You can see the whole thing, comments and all, here.
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US
d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false
d-i console-setup/layoutcode string us
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string leeroy
d-i netcfg/get_domain string wharton.upenn.edu
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/http/hostname string http.us.debian.org
d-i mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu
d-i mirror/http/proxy string
d-i mirror/suite string squeeze
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean false
d-i time/zone string US/Eastern
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda1
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select home
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/mount_style select traditional
d-i base-installer/kernel/image string linux-generic
d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
d-i passwd/user-fullname string Adam Tuttle
d-i passwd/username string jatuttle
d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password 8dbf2c32b5f2cd0670e53dc63e82da3f
d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak boolean true
d-i user-setup/encrypt-home boolean false
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
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server build-essential
d-i pkgsel/update-policy select none
d-i pkgsel/updatedb boolean true
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_monitor boolean true
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method \
select medium
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/mode-list \
select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz
When I boot the installer with this preseed file, it runs fine until it chokes with this error:
VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(8,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
0b00 1048575 sr0 driver: sr
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)
I originally thought this might be because I had left the line d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/hda commented out, and I've tried it with both /dev/hda,/dev/hda1, /dev/sda,/dev/sda1 (not sure which is correct), but I still get the same error each time.
What am I missing?
It's occurred to me that maybe I'm passing the wrong set of boot params to the installer. Before I make my changes, they start out as:
file=/cdrom/pressed/ubuntu-server.seed vga=788 initrd=install/initrd.gz quiet --
I've tried what feels like every possible combination of these existing parameters and the one I (am under the impression that I) need to add to use the preseed file. The only combination that seems to automate the installer is by deleting everything and using just this:
url=http://raw.github.com/gist/1301366/
Maybe the problem is that I need to include something here -- either something new or something from the original params, to setup the hard disk access? Any ideas?
