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Mikey T.K.
Asked: 2014-08-09 06:16:25 +0800 CST

Completing a "minimal virtual machine" install with a kickstart file

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I have built an unattended setup ISO for Ubuntu 12.04.4 using instructions provided on the community wiki, however, I'm having a hard time with two specific pieces of the install:

  • The installer hangs for a couple of minutes about three minutes into the installation process, with a "Retrieving file 1 of 1" message. The kickstart configuration has it pointed at a local update mirror, so there's no reason the installer should be trying to call out to the internet (indeed, the network is set up so that it has no route to do so).

Looking at the created sources.list file after install, I see that the internet-facing Security repos have been enabled (http://security.ubuntu.com stuff). This is the only thing I can see which should lead to this timeout during the install.

Question the first: What do I need to drop into the Kickstart file to ensure this is either disabled outright, or redirected internally?

  • Secondly, despite adopting the preseed settings from the "Minimal virtual machine" install reached by hitting F4 on the boot screen, my resulting install is hardly minimal. A dead giveaway is that the Landscape advertising blurb appears on the MOTD during my automated install, but not if I select "minimal virtual machine" and do the install by hand.

Question the second: How do I ensure that I get a "minimal virtual machine" installation when using Kickstart?

Below is a version of my kickstart file. This is loaded into the standard 12.04.4 server ISO.

Thanks in advance!

  #System language
  lang en_US
  #langsupport en_US
  keyboard us
  timezone --utc America/Denver

  #Root password (standard)
  rootpw --iscrypted password-goes-here

  #Skip initial user, root only.
  user --disabled

  #Reboot after installation
  reboot
  #Use text mode install
  text
  #Install OS instead of upgrade
  install
  #Install from update server (replace with 'cdrom' to use local)
  url --url http://internal-server/archive-ubuntu/ubuntu/
 
  #Setup NTP
  preseed clock-setup/ntp boolean true
  preseed clock-setup/ntp-server string internal-ntp-server
 
  #Use our local repo instead of going out to the internet
  preseed mirror/country string manual
  preseed mirror/http/hostname string internal-server
  preseed mirror/http/directory string /archive-ubuntu
  preseed mirror/http/proxy string
  preseed mirror/http/mirror internal-server
 
  #Ensure a minimal install
  #Options taken from ISO/preseed/ubuntu-server-minimalvm.seed
  preseed base-installer/kernel/headers boolean false
  preseed tasksel/skip-tasks string standard
  preseed pkgsel/language-pack-patterns string
  preseed pkgsel/install-language-support boolean false
  preseed base-installer/kernel/altmeta string lts-saucy

  #System bootloader configuration
  bootloader --location=mbr

  #For safety, initialize everything
  #Clear the Master Boot Record
  zerombr yes
  #Partition clearing information
  clearpart --all --initlabel

  #Partition Setup
  #Redacted

  #System authorization information
  auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5

  #Network information
  #Redacted

  #Firewall configuration
  firewall --disabled
  #Do not configure the X Window System
  skipx
12.04

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