Debian (Lenny) Custom installation

G'day everyone,

Over the past couple of weeks I have been on a very steep learning curve as a new Linux user. I've got a number of computers (more as time goes on) that I'm looking after and these will all soon be Linux based.

My problem is mass installation. If I could get a couple of pointers or know of a how to for this, I would be very grateful. The computers do not have CD/DVD drives but I do have a working PXE setup on the network and this is how I've been installing Debian so far.

I'd like to take this a step further and create a local repository, (not a mirror, just packages I select and will not get updated). I would also like to automate the majority of the network installation, including apt-get files from the local repository.

Does this sound possible? I've seen a similar how to for creating a CD/DVD install with packages but it wasn't very clear.

Thank you for your time,

Griffo

EDIT*** I should have stated these computers may differ in hardware from one to the other, but are all i386 compatible.

Hi,

this is possible and actually very commonplace in computer administration.

The keywords you must look for is "debian unattended install".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GNU-Fan

Hi,

this is possible and actually very commonplace in computer administration.

The keywords you must look for is "debian unattended install".

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Of course. As an old Windows administrator you would have thought I would have searched using 'unattended' as a search word. Thank you, I appear to be having a brain fart. In fact, going back to DOS and I've noticed myself using bash commands and the wrong bloody slash!...whoops!

One of the first links after searching for this I came up with using preseed.cfg and I managed to get this going with a simple change to my PXELinux menu.

Now I just need a full list of the commands/options available so I can set the exact set of packages I want to use, also set a local repository as the repository used for the install.

most of your commands can be found in the help sections of your distro.
as far as appearing to have a brain fart welcome to the club.
happens to me a lot when i get in a hurry!
I find its better to plan ahead and make a list of steps and keep it handy
if you get a bit frazzled you have the reference for procedures