Look Ma!
No hands!
just watching a system PXE-boot and install itself into a fully operational
system is fun. PXE boot and preseeding is not enough however to accomplish
this.
By itself, preseeding only installs a basic operating system. Next, you need
to configure all sorts of things and services, install additional software,
create accounts. etc.
So there is a whole post-install process that you also need to automate.
Preseeding by itself, as I understand it, does not seem to be able to do that
for you. But you can execute commands at the end of the installation.
First, I'd like to point out that the alternative to Debian preseeding is, in
my opinion, FAI or Fully Automated Installation. I want to make clear
that this is a product with a long history that may better suit your needs. I
do not use FAI because I find it way to complicated. It seems very powerful to
me, but I don't understand it.
I understand preseeding and shell scripts. Putting commands that I would
otherwise execute manually are now performed by some shell script. And I think
every administrator understands shell scripts and will be able to automate
installation with almost no effort by just executing a bunch of shell scripts
that install various additional components.
I wrote a small installation 'framework' that can be used in conjunction with
preseeding to truly fully automate your installation, without the requirement
of learning complex stuff like FAI.
Unfortunately, it is not available yet on-line, but as soon as I find the
time, a new project will be started and this small installation framework will
be available with some example preseed configuration.
In day-to-day operations I use this script to install servers and laptops.
Once you see it you will like it.
