debian-preseed-generator

This project exists to provide a miminum configuration for a full Debian installation with sane defaults used where relevant.

The preseed installs to a singe disk with LVM and uses a simple static networking setup or DHCP. The default user/pass is jan/Welkom123!@#, with the same password for the root user.

sudo and ssh-server are installed by default.

Requirements

• python3
• python3-venv
• bash
• (Optional) grub toolset (for generating a grub password with grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2)

Howto

1. Clone this project:

git clone https://gitlab.com/victordejong/debian-preseed-generator
cd debian-preseed-generator

2. (Optional) 2 files can be used to automatically provide answers for the template. vars can be used and is the file deploy.sh writes to to save answers you provided manually for future use. vars.custom fulfills the same function as vars, but takes precedence and will never be written to by the deploy.sh script. For any missing option the default value will be used, see Default values.

3. To render the preseed file and make it available over HTTP, run this command from this repository:

./deploy.sh

           For more options, see ./deploy help

4. Add the following to the Debian Installer linux GRUB entry BEFORE the dashes (---):

linux   [...] auto=true hostname=[HOSTNAME] domain=[EXAMPLE.COM] url=http://WEBHOST:PORT/preseed.cfg

Warning

When starting the installer, the preseed file is configured as such to overwrite all data on the target disk if there is any, without prompting the user!

           The domain part is not necessary and may be left empty domain=.

Default values

Currently, the following default values are active.

# Unset static network configuration enables DHCP in the preseed file
DEBINSTALL_NET_IP=
DEBINSTALL_NET_MASK=
DEBINSTALL_NET_GW=
DEBINSTALL_NET_NS=

DEBINSTALL_MACHINE_HOSTNAME='debian'
DEBINSTALL_DOMAIN='example.org'
DEBINSTALL_EXTRA_PACKAGES='sudo htop build-essential'

DEBINSTALL_BOOTDISK='/dev/sda'

# Timezone and country are for the Netherlands
DEBINSTALL_COUNTRY='nl'
DEBINSTALL_TIMEZONE='Europe/Amsterdam'

DEBINSTALL_FULL_USERNAME='Jan Modaal'
# Both passwords are 'Welkom123!@#'
DEBINSTALL_USER_PASS='$6$KGtfj9Pk5Bf0lXxe$UbreL0Kpk3XymAhXwhlIx0DhS9PqbQWtjcrAq8sTBUi/kf4nyl.WgRzEyaSd7HtSvdqHmXS5JZk0G.zvS1YeF0'
DEBINSTALL_GRUB_PASS='grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.D653BB7638769417A9A6A35F5E6ACFEB1DDD6C28321581AB800A02278255AF36CEDDA55919D197992590127DEA20957A9A593E8615CDA1729EC30FB76FB85962.906A00F5C102E490C2D61570390F272E7B450466CE6C71D923C4792FD2CAE25D862E6A7915DD3F90669087CFFF2FC2E72BFF95257E7C741893D4D241F0002DB7'

An example static networking configuration:

DEBINSTALL_NET_IP=10.0.0.2
DEBINSTALL_NET_MASK=255.255.255.0
DEBINSTALL_NET_GW=10.0.0.1
DEBINSTALL_NET_NS=1.1.1.1

The DEBINSTALL_USER_PASS can be generated as follows:

openssl passwd -6 [PASSWORD]

The DEBINSTALL_GRUB_PASS can be generated using the grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2 tool, which is usually shipped with the relevant grub2 package for your system.

Supported OS'

This preseed has been tested on the following OS':

• Debian 11 Bullseye
• Debian 12 Bookworm
• Debian 13 Trixie

Other version might also work, but are not guaranteed.