Preseed Answers for apt-get install

Today we are continuing to polish off how to do unattended installs of Linux.

Yesterday I covered how to run a bash script after a kickstarted installation to do any additional setup that isn't handled by the Kickstart file.

Installation of some packages require user input, which breaks the entire concept of "unattended" installs. Here's a quick fix to get around that.

First, on a setup computer, install the following:

sudo apt-get install debconf-utils

Now, install whatever packages you wish to later install in an unattended mode. Answer the questions for installation appropriately when prompted. Next we will export those answers into a "seed" file that we can use when installing the package on a new machine. For instance, I've installed several ldap authentication packages, so I might want to grab all of the settings those packages ask for.

sudo debconf-get-selections | grep ldap > ldap.seed

If you remember from yesterday, we created an archive that included a setup script and several config files. Place the ldap.seed file inside that archive along with the other scripts, and just before doing the apt-get install add the following line to the add2network.sh file:

debconf-set-selections ./ldap.seed

And there you have it - your apt-get won't ask for details anymore.