This project allows to add preseeded installation support to any Debian iso file, such that the installation results in a Debian minimal system which can be used with ansible. The idea would then be to continue the installation using ansible mechanisms like playbooks, roles ....

Usage

Downloading

In order to use this package, download an iso from debian, e.g. debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso. You can use the script ./download_iso.sh for this. It will download the iso as well as the sha512 checksums and verify your download. Just run for example

./download_iso.sh http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso

If you want to add the non-free firmware blobs to the iso image, download additionally the appropriate tarball from cdimage.debian.org, e.g.

./download_iso.sh http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/testing/20180402/firmware.tar.gz

The script will add the firmware files to the iso automatically alongside the preseeds.

Adding the preseeds

Then just add the preseed files using

./add_preseeds_to_iso.sh debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso

This will ask you for your preferred locale and keyboard configuration. It will also ask you for ssh keys to include in the installation image. Those will be installed automatically to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys in some of the installation modes (see below).

Available installation modes

Adding the preseeds using the aforementioned command adds a new menu to the Debian Installer Boot Menu, namely Preansible Debian automatic install. It should contain the following preseeded configurations:

RootOnly

Install a machine, ready for ansible, which only has a root but no other user accounts. During installation it will ask the following:

• Hostname
• Password for root
• Partitioning of your hard drives
• Location where to install grub

After the installation root login is possible on the terminal via the provided password and login via ssh is possible using the preseeded ssh keys.

RootOnlyNoAsk

Completely automated install yielding a root account, but no other user accounts. It partitions the full hard drive, i.e. it erases all data without asking for confirmation. root login is only possible via ssh and the preseeded ssh keys. The hostname is ansible.lan, which may be overwritten using a properly configured dhcp server during the installation process.

RootOnlyWeakPass

Same as RootOnlyNoAsk, but the root account is additionally assigned the default password r00tme, so login is possible via ssh and the terminal. Needless to say that this is very insecure, so only run the installation like this inside a local network and change the password immediately after the installation has succeeded.

SingleUser

Install a machine, which has a disabled root account as well as a user-configured admin account. During installation we query for:

• Hostname
• Admin user name
• Admin user password
• Partitioning of your hard drive
• Location where to install grub

No ssh keys are added to root in this case and only login to the admin user is possible. Login can be accomplished both via ssh as well as the terminal.

Installed packages

In all cases the following packages are automatically installed (next to debian minimal):

• openssh-server
• sudo
• python3-apt

Warning: What has been tested

These scripts have only been tested using jessie, stretch and buster amd64 netinstall images. They should also work for i386 or other images as well, but I have not tested this. Please let me know if things break or work sucessfully there.