Louwrentius

Debian Linux provides a mechanism to install the operating system without user intervention. This mechanism is called 'preseeding' and is similar to Red Hat Kick Start and Sun Solaris Jump Start.

The basic idea is that the installer is fed a recipe, according to which the system is installed. This recipe can be fed by a floppy, usb stick, cdrom, or through a web server over the network. To use such a recipe, just boot from a Debian CD-rom and issue the following command:

Floppy based: (you really shouldn't be using those anymore) 

Boot: auto file=/floppy/preseed.cfg

USB stick based:

Boot: auto file=/hd-media/preseed.cfg

Network based: 

Boot: auto url=http://internal.web.server.com/preseed.cfg

The only work you have to do is to create a preseed configuration file. This is really simple, since preseeding is well-documented and preseed configuration files are easy to understand.

d-i debian-installer/country string US 

d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8 

d-i mirror/country string manual 

d-i mirror/http/hostname string ftp.uk.debian.org 

d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian 

base-config apt-setup/hostname string ftp.uk.debian.org 

base-config apt-setup/directory string /debian

As you can see, it is just a text-based file that configures some variables that are used during installation. It is basically an answer file. Questions that are asked by the installer during installation are answered with the preseed file.

For a full example, take a look here. 

Very extensive documentation can be found here.

A  minimal debian installation without support for X can be installed within 2.5 minutes, assuming a network-based installation (tested in VMware Workstation). 

Please note that if your company uses Debian Linux not only for servers but also for desktops / laptops, preseeding is an ideal solution to provide your users with a new and fresh installation whenever they want. Users or sysadmins shouldn't be bussy manually installing these systems. 

I have implemented Debian Preseeding to create a fully unattended and automated installation of laptops, based on LUKS full disk encryption, which is supported by the Debian installer (!), with all required software installed. All additional software is installed with a custom installation framework based on shell-scripts. The installation framework makes sure that if anything goes wrong during installation, it is noticed. 

Unattended installation allows system administrators to quickly deploy new installations and guarantee that such installations are 100% correct. They rule out the human factor, which tends to introduce random errors. So take a look at Debian Preseeding and decide for yourself how useful it is.

There are many Linux distributions around. However, I always come back to just one: Debian. The reason why so many people use Debian is the same reason I like it so much: software management.  With good old apt-get or the new aptitude, software is installed within minutes. Due to the vast amount of software available even the most obscure software can be installed without resorting to manually downloading and compiling.

But the most important aspect of Debian is it's mantra of stability. It is build for servers. For people who don't want to take risks and prefer stability and security above anything else. This is also the main gripe most people have about Debian: it is often not very up-to-date regarding drivers or the latest software versions.  If that is a problem, there is still the possibility to run the testing branch of Debian, exchanging the risk on things getting broken or unstable for the availability of newer software.

As a part-time system administrator, one of the most ideal components of Debian is its installer. Especially the "preseeding" bit. Preseeding is for Debian what Kickstart is for Red Hat and Jump start is for Sun Solaris. It allows a full unattended installation of Debian Linux on any hardware without ever touching your keyboard. This isn't new, but it is much more user friendly as opposed to, for example, kick start. 

Debian Preseeding is very well documented and can easily be extended to run your own scripts after installation for some post-configuration.

I currently use it to install hosts by booting them with an USB stick and using a network install. Not only are network installs often the fastest solution, assuming that a local Debian mirror is available, the system is also direct up-to-date. 

Abount preseeding:

[http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/apb.html

]1

[http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed

]2

About setting up a local Debian mirror (requires about 50 GB of storage space on a web server) 

http://www.howtoforge.com/local_debian_ubuntu_mirror

The current state of Linux is amazing. If we take a look at, for example, Ubuntu Linux, we have to admit that the Linux desktop is really becoming a nice, user-friendly environment. I'm truly starting to like what I see. I considered whiping Mac OS X from my macbook, but there are some reasons why I won't. 

• I like to mess around in Adobe Photoshop now and then. There is no serious Linux alternative.

• I've got an iPhone, so now i'm 'stuck' with iTunes. I really like my iPhone btw.

• I really like iPhoto, it is very easy to use and archive my photo's.

• My entire music collection is in iTunes -> especially the song ratings are important.

Maybe those reasons can be overcome. But for day-to-day usage, I still prefer Mac OS X above Linux. Especially software like iPhoto makes life so much easier. The hardware comes at a premium but I think it is worth it.