Use virt-install to fully automate the install for Devuan Ceres with preseed, March 2020 edition
I have previously written about using virt-install to automate installing a new Devuan GNU+Linux virtual machine in libvirt/qemu. This article is the March 2020 edition, that uses devuan_ascii_2.1_amd64_dvd-1.iso which is the latest Devuan Ascii iso available. With this new iso, a number of changes have been made to the image itself, that will interfere with the default settings of virt-install. The branding of the ISO file was updated, so now isoinfo shows "Devuan" in the name and not Debian.
$ isoinfo -J -i devuan_ascii_2.1_amd64_dvd-1.iso -x /.disk/info
Devuan GNU/Linux 2.1 (ascii) amd64 DVD1 - 2019-12-21 07:24:54 UTC
Virt-manager uses this identifying info to find the initramfs/initrd and kernel ("vmlinuz," "linux," or similar) to boot. With the branding change, the Devuan disc changed the name of its initrd for some reason. I wrote a patch for /usr/share/virt-manager/virtinst/urlfetcher.py for package virt- install-1.5.0-7.el7.noarch.
--- /usr/share/virt-manager/virtinst/urlfetcher.py.orig 2020-02-20 21:06:53.515076802 -0500
+++ /usr/share/virt-manager/virtinst/urlfetcher.py 2020-02-20 21:41:17.649056883 -0500
@@ -1279,6 +1279,33 @@
logging.debug("Didn't find any known codename in the URL string")
return self.os_variant
+class DevuanDistro(DebianDistro):
+ name = "Devuan"
+ urldistro = "devuan"
+ def _is_install_cd(self):
+ # For install CDs
+ if not self._check_info(".disk/info"):
+ return False
+
+ if self.arch == "x86_64":
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("linux",
+ "initrd.gz")
+ elif self.arch == "i686":
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("install.386/vmlinuz",
+ "install.386/initrd.gz")
+ elif self.arch == "aarch64":
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("install.a64/vmlinuz",
+ "install.a64/initrd.gz")
+ elif self.arch == "ppc64le":
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("install/vmlinux",
+ "install/initrd.gz")
+ elif self.arch == "s390x":
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("boot/linux_vm", "boot/root.bin")
+ else:
+ kernel_initrd_pair = ("install/vmlinuz", "install/initrd.gz")
+ self._hvm_kernel_paths += [kernel_initrd_pair]
+ self._xen_kernel_paths += [kernel_initrd_pair]
+ return True
class UbuntuDistro(DebianDistro):
# http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/natty/main/installer-amd64/
It's clear that we are defining a number of architectures and the kernel and initrd pairs. I copied and altered the DebianDistro class to use the relevant info. I only tested with the x86_64 arch, but it should be easy for you to read the iso file for your architecture and adjust the other pairs as needed. No word is out on if the initrd and kernel filenames will be static now in Devuan, so I have not tried to submit a patch upstream, who have refactored now anyway. And now, here is my one-liner for installing with the following, updated preseed file.
vm=d2-04a ; time sudo virt-install -n "${vm}" --memory 2048 --vcpus=1 --os-variant=debiantesting -v --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/"${vm}".qcow2,size=20 -l /mnt/public/Support/SetupsBig/Linux/devuan_ascii_2.1_amd64_dvd-1.iso --initrd-inject=/mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/preseed/preseed.cfg --extra-args "hostname=${vm} NOTIFYEMAIL=bgstack15@gmail.com interface=auto" --debug --network type=bridge,source=br0 --noautoconsole
I usually omit the --no-autoconsole so my prompt returns after the VM has installed and rebooted.
Preseed file
# File: /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/preseed/preseed.cfg
# Locations:
# /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/preseed/preseed.cfg
# Author: bgstack15
# Startdate: 2019-06-25
# Title: Preseed for devuan vms for ipa.example.com
# Purpose: To provide an easy installation for VMs and other systems in the Mersey network
# History:
# 2017-06 I learned how to use kickstart files for the RHCSA EX-200 exam
# 2017-08-08 Added notifyemail to --extra-args
# 2017-10-29 major revision to use local repository
# 2019-06-25 fork from centos7-ks.cfg
# 2019-12-29 fix up repos and in-target conclusion stuff
# 2020-02-27 heavy rewrite to use ascii 2.1
# Usage with virt-install:
# vm=d2-04a ; time sudo virt-install -n "${vm}" --memory 2048 --vcpus=1 --os-variant=debiantesting -v --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/"${vm}".qcow2,size=20 -l /mnt/public/Support/SetupsBig/Linux/devuan_ascii_2.1_amd64_dvd-1.iso --initrd-inject=/mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/preseed/preseed.cfg --extra-args "hostname=${vm} NOTIFYEMAIL=bgstack15@gmail.com interface=auto" --debug --network type=bridge,source=br0 --noautoconsole
# vm=d2-04a; sudo virsh destroy "${vm}"; sudo virsh undefine --remove-all-storage "${vm}";
# Reference:
# https://sysadmin.compxtreme.ro/automatically-set-the-hostname-during-kickstart-installation/
# /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/CentOS7/install-vm.txt
# https://serverfault.com/questions/481244/preseed-command-string-fail-with-newline-character-using-virt-install-initrd-inj
# https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apbs01.html.en
# https://github.com/jameswthorne/preseeds/blob/master/debian-7-wheezy-unattended.seed
# syntax for --location https://www.queryxchange.com/q/1_908324/virt-install-preseed-not-working/
# example preseed https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/example-preseed.txt
# skip next dvd question https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/409212/preseed-directive-to-skip-another-cd-dvd-scanning
# grub problem caused by consolekit:amd64 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=915947#10
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39861614/how-to-fully-automate-unattended-virt-install
# https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apbs03.html.en
# https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=1853
# https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-setup-serial-console-on-debian-linux/
# https://github.com/virt-manager/virt-manager/blob/master/virtinst/install/urldetect.py
# /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/fix-virt-manager.txt
# https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=3332
# https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2387570
# sudo debconf-get-selections -c /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/preseed/preseed.cfg
# on d2-03a: sudo debconf-get-selections --installer
# https://serverfault.com/questions/593388/unable-to-nfs-mount-in-debian-preseed-target/593389
# Improve:
# discover how to send email, using postfix or sendmail. Don't care which, but exclude exim4.
# echo "$( hostname ) has IP $( ip -4 -o a s eth0 | awk '{print $4}' | sed -r -e 's/\/.*$//' )" |
# 2020-02-24 add the kernel lines: console=ttyS0 console=tty1. Get this to work; use grub.cfg and "linux" line, not "kernel"
d-i debian-installer/country string US
d-i debian-installer/keymap select us
d-i debian-installer/language string en
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US
d-i localechooser/supported-locales string en_US.UTF-8
d-i keyboard-configuration/layoutcode string us
d-i keyboard-configuration/variantcode string
d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select us
d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig boolean false
d-i netcfg/get_domain string ipa.example.com
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
# disable asking for non-free firmware, because this is a vm and has none
d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean false
#d-i apt-setup/enable-source-repositories boolean false
# ORIGINAL d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security updates, release updates, backported software
d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
d-i apt-setup/disable-cdrom-entries boolean true
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean true
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/http/directory string /merged
d-i mirror/http/hostname string deb.devuan.org
d-i mirror/http/proxy string
d-i mirror/protocol string http
d-i mirror/suite string testing
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-failed boolean false
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-first boolean false
d-i apt-setup/cdrom/set-next boolean false
## my repos and ceres
d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string stack123deb
d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/deb/stack123deb.gpg
d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/deb/ /
d-i apt-setup/local1/comment string devuan-deb
d-i apt-setup/local1/key string http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/deb/stack123deb.gpg
d-i apt-setup/local1/repository string http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/devuan-deb/ /
d-i apt-setup/local2/comment string ceres
d-i apt-setup/local2/key string http://www.example.com/mirror/devuan/dists/ceres/Release.gpg
d-i apt-setup/local2/repository string http://www.example.com/mirror/devuan ceres main contrib non-free
#d-i apt-setup/local2/key string http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged/dists/ceres/Release.gpg
#d-i apt-setup/local2/repository string http://pkgmaster.devuan.org/merged ceres main contrib non-free
d-i apt-setup/local3/comment string obsmirror
d-i apt-setup/local3/key string http://www.example.com/mirror/obs/Release.key
d-i apt-setup/local3/repository string http://www.example.com/mirror/obs/ /
# if for some reason I really need to turn off the gpg key check:
#d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated boolean false
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, ssh-server
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect none
# adapted from /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/devuan.txt, main fluxbox desktop, but for a vm
# no xscreensaver, for a vm.
#d-i pkgsel/include string \
# alsamixergui alttab apt-transport-https bgconf bgscripts bgscripts-core \
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server
d-i pkgsel/upgrade select none
popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean true
d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true
d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string dns1.ipa.example.com
d-i time/zone string America/New_York
# skip grub during main part, because we will do it in late_command
#d-i grub-installer/skip boolean true
#d-i grub-installer/skip-again boolean true
#d-i grub-installer/skip-confirm boolean true
#d-i grub-installer/confirm_skip boolean true
#d-i nobootloader/confirmation_common boolean true
d-i choose-init/select_init select sysvinit
d-i choose-init/selected_sysvinit bool true
grub-installer grub-installer/choose_bootdev select /dev/vda
d-i lilo-installer/skip boolean true
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
d-i grub-installer/grub2_instead_of_grub_legacy boolean true
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/vda
#d-i grub-installer/choose_bootdev select /dev/vda
#grub-installer grub-installer/force-efi-extra-removable boolean false
d-i passwd/root-password password somethingStrongHere
d-i passwd/root-password-again password somethingStrongHere
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select home
d-i partman-auto-crypto/erase_disks boolean false
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/vda
d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select biggest_free
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman/choose_label string gpt
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/default_label string gpt
#d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman-md/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
#d-i partman/mount_style select uuid
d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
# Uncomment this to add multiarch configuration for i386
#d-i apt-setup/multiarch string i386
d-i passwd/make-user boolean true
d-i passwd/user-fullname string bgstack15-local
d-i passwd/username string bgstack15-local
d-i passwd/user-password-crypted password $6$85aKM2DkiD5g9r3D$zkBcVES1Bzu.b5dBJxklSGgEJzswZBlVAyc9lUUIzMA2OLRH3PD2ZWE9Q40ztw/32OyDm2nF031hfE4s5LGuG1
d-i passwd/user-default-groups string audio cdrom video
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note
d-i cdrom-detect/eject boolean true
# additional application stuff just in case it works and is useful
# LDAP server URI:
d-i shared/ldapns/ldap-server string ldapi:///ipa.example.com
d-i openssh-server/password-authentication boolean true
d-i openssh-server/permit-root-login boolean false
d-i preseed/late_command string mkdir -p /target/etc/apt/sources.list.d /target/mnt/bgstack15 /target/mnt/public ; cd /target/etc/apt ; \
in-target wget -O /Release.gpg http://www.example.com/mirror/devuan/dists/ceres/Release.gpg ; in-target apt-key add /Release.gpg ; \
echo "deb http://www.example.com/mirror/devuan ceres main contrib non-free" > sources.list ; \
in-target wget -O /stack123deb.gpg http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/deb/stack123deb.gpg ; in-target apt-key add /stack123deb.gpg ; \
echo "deb http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/deb/ /" > sources.list.d/stack123deb.list ; \
echo "deb http://www.example.com/stack123/repo/devuan-deb/ /" > sources.list.d/devuan-deb.list ; \
in-target wget -O /Release.key http://www.example.com/mirror/obs/Release.key ; in-target apt-key add /Release.key ; \
echo "deb http://www.example.com/mirror/obs/ /" > sources.list.d/home\:bgstack15.list ; \
in-target apt-get update ; \
in-target apt-get purge -q -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" consolekit exim4\* lxqt\* udev ; \
in-target apt-get install -q -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" alsamixergui alttab apt-transport-https bgconf bgscripts bgscripts-core cifs-utils curl fluxbox freeipa-client git grub lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter mlocate net-tools nfs-common ntpdate oddjob-mkhomedir=0.0.1-1 openssh-server p7zip palemoon-ublock-origin parted qemu-guest-agent rsync scite screen spice-vdagent strace sudo tcpdump vim vlc volumeicon-alsa xfce4-terminal xfe xserver-xorg-video-qxl fluxbox-themes-stackrpms xdgmenumaker man logout-manager freeipa-helper palemoon waterfox ; \
in-target wget http://www.example.com/stack123/certs/ca-ipa.example.com.crt -O /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca-ipa.example.com.crt && update-ca-certificates || : ; \
in-target su bgstack15-local -c "sudo /usr/bin/bgconf.py -d 10 1>/home/bgstack15-local/clone.log 2>&1" ; \
in-target wget -O /root/set-my-repos.sh http://www.example.com/stack123/Support/Platforms/devuan/set-my-repos.sh ; in-target sh /root/set-my-repos.sh ; \
in-target wget -O /root/lightdm-elogind.sh http://www.example.com/stack123/Support/Platforms/devuan/lightdm-elogind.sh ; in-target sh /root/lightdm-elogind.sh ; \
in-target wget -O /root/set-local-devuan-repo.sh http://www.example.com/stack123/Support/Platforms/devuan/set-local-devuan-repo.sh ; in-target sh /root/set-local-devuan-repo.sh ; \
in-target apt-get install -q -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" postfix ; \
in-target wget -O /root/update-devuan.sh http://www.example.com/stack123/Support/Platforms/devuan/update-devuan.sh ; in-target sh /root/update-devuan.sh preseed ; \
in-target sed -i -r -e '/^\s*linux/s/(\s*console=.{1,7}[0-9])*\s*$/ console=tty0 console=ttyS0/;' /boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep -E '^\s*linux' ; \
in-target sed -i -r -e '/^\s*kernel/s/(\s*console=.{1,7}[0-9])*\s*$/ console=tty0 console=ttyS0/;' /boot/grub/menu.lst ; \
in-target sed -i -r -e '$aT0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100' /etc/inittab ;
#### SHOULDN'T NEED THIS ANYMORE
# in-target install -m0644 /mnt/public/Support/Platforms/devuan/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list ; \
For some reason, the pkgsel/include answer would not work here. Also, the native answers for custom apt repositories wouldn't work, but it might have been implementation errors on my side. So I learned the tricky in-target or not in-target logic required to manipulate apt and install my phone book of packages.
References
Weblinks
My original conversation: Installing Devuan Ascii 2.1 with virt-install / Installation / Dev1 Galaxy Forum
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