UNC Linux Users Group

[cmpalmer AT ils.unc.edu]

It's a bit hackish, but I have a working .iso for lenovo T60p owners.

http://garp.metalab.unc.edu/ubuntu-7.04-unc-alt.iso

This allows for a completely unattended install of a default Ubuntu
Feisty desktop on a CCI lenovo T60p. DO NOT TRY THIS ON OTHER
HARDWARE: YOUR XORG WILL BE BROKEN. FURTHERMORE THIS CD ERASES YOUR
HARD DRIVE AND REPLACES ALL YOUR DATA WITH A FRESH UBUNTU
INSTALL. MAKE A BACKUP IF YOU WANT TO TRY THIS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

This disk is different from the default "alternate" Ubuntu installer
in several key ways:

(1) A seed file "unc.seed" has been added to the CD. That file can be
found here:

http://garp.metalab.unc.edu/preseed

Astute readers will be able to find the username and password for
accessing the newly-installed Ubuntu system in that file. What that
file does is answer all the questions you'd normally answer during an
install. These are questions like keyboard layout, disk partition
layout, hostname, username/password, etc.

(2) This shell script:

http://garp.metalab.unc.edu/install.sh

is on the disk and gets installed by the seed file. This script runs
at first boot and does the following:

(a) changes /etc/apt/sources.list to _not_ look for the CD-ROM
(b) runs apt-get update
(c) installs the free-to-download but proprietary xorg-driver-fglrx
driver and fglrx-control program
(d) installs a working xorg.conf
(e) restarts gdm (the login manager)
(f) erases itself

(3) The above are made the default action by changes made to
isolinux/isolinux.cfg on the disk.

Here are some of the reference materials I used in making this disk:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization/PreseedExamples
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed

If people would like for me to give a talk on what I've done, I'd be
happy to do that. Preseeding has the potential to dramatically reduce
the overhead involved for lab managers and other people who have to
deploy many very similar computers. In some ways this is the Debian
equivalent to redhat's kickstart, though Ubuntu/debian actually allow
you to _use_ a kickstart file as part of this process if you so
desire. Again, I'd be happy to talk to people about what I've done and
how you can tweak something like this for your own use.

Cheers,
-- 
Cristóbal Palmer
ibiblio.org systems administrator