Ubuntu Preseed not found

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hello there!

I am not certain that this is the proper place to post this, but I will try anyway.

I am trying to install Ubuntu using a preseed on a USB thumb drive, and I am having problems. Hopefully someone here is able to help me.

I have a file named 'preseed.cfg' in the root directory of my thumb drive.

I am installing using an Ubuntu Server x86 v8.04 CD.

At boot, I press F6 to enter the advanced options menu, and, to my boot options, add the line:

preseed/file=/hd-media/preseed.cfg

I enter my language, country, keyboard type, etc..

Then, I get this message:

Anyone have any solutions as to how I can make the installation find the file?

2

Have you tried the Ubuntu Forums?

3

I have, but there has not been any response there.

I have gotten this working though, by going around it. From what I seem to be able to tell, the preseed file has to be on the same device that you are booting from.

I was curious if there was a way to do it without being the boot device though, seeing as I am fairly sure that you can host a preseed file on a webpage, and use it to boot.

4

The trick is to know the device name of the USB stick. The kernel might not be configured exactly the same as the actual OS you eventually install, but /hd-media is certainly a directory on the boot device. If your USB stick is visible and properly mounted, all you need is the correct path, but it might take more than that. You might have more luck by looking for information from Debian; the mechanism was developed on Debian, and is probably more used by distros built from Debian than on Ubuntu in particular.

Why don't you just run the whole installer from the thumb drive, though (provided it has enough space)?

5

That is what I eventually resulted to, was actually gunzip the initrd.gz file, and then cpio extract the initrd file, and placing the preseed.cfg in the initrd cpio file, so that it found it automatically, no additional boot parameters were required. Then, replacing the initrd.gz file with on whatever device I was using to boot, in this case the thumb drive.