Automated Install with Preseed File

Installation
1

I am attempting to use Packer with the vmware-iso builder to build an Ubuntu Budgie VM. In order to do this I have been using a preseed.cfg file similar to the one found here ubuntu-preseed-iso-generator/example.seed at main · covertsh/ubuntu-preseed-iso-generator · GitHub.

I have boot options set to the following:

linux /casper/vmlinuz noprompt url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/preseed.cfg automatic-ubiquity quiet splash ---
initrd /casper/initrd

It boots up fine, but it gets to the installer screen and just stops at the language selection even though that has already been selected in the preseed.cfg file.

I’m wondering if there is something different about how the Ubuntu Budgie installer works that may be causing this. I searched this board and I didn’t find anything about automated installs for this distro. Any ideas?

2

The installer is called called ubiquity and is the Canonical installer. All official flavours with the exception of lubuntu use ubiquity. Lubuntu uses calamares.

Official flavours cannot customise ubiquity other than the slideshow displayed after installation begins.

Think the question could deserve a wider audience such as on ubuntuforums.org and askubuntu.com

1 Like
3

That Q&A mentions preseeding is no longer supported and autoinstall (cloudinit) is the way to go. Kind of makes sense from a server context.

This article says autoinstall can be used for desktop installs Molnár Péter's Professional Blog - Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy) autoinstall over PXE

4

Yes, that second link points to the desktop based install, which I am doing with local vmware workstation. That link goes directly to ubiquity using preseed files, which I find the documentation is all over the place and not very clear about all of the options. It’s like a mix and match of ubiquity commands and d-i commands. Super confusing.