Automated Server installer config file reference

Important:
This documentation has been moved and is now being maintained as part of the Ubuntu Installer documentation. For the up-to-date version of this content, please refer to this version instead.

Overall format

The autoinstall file is YAML. At top level it must be a mapping containing the keys described in this document. Unrecognized keys are ignored.

Schema

Autoinstall configs are validated against a JSON schema before they are used.

Command lists

Several config keys are lists of commands to be executed. Each command can be a string (in which case it is executed via “sh -c”) or a list, in which case it is executed directly. Any command exiting with a non-zero return code is considered an error and aborts the install (except for error-commands, where it is ignored).

Top-level keys

version

type: integer
default: no default

A future-proofing config file version field. Currently this must be “1”.

interactive-sections

type: list of strings
default:

A list of config keys to still show in the UI. So for example:

version: 1
interactive-sections:
 - network
identity:
 username: ubuntu
 password: $crypted_pass

Would stop on the network screen and allow the user to change the defaults. If a value is provided for an interactive section it is used as the default.

You can use the special section name of “*” to indicate that the installer should ask all the usual questions – in this case, the autoinstall.yaml file is not really an “autoinstall” file at all, instead just a way to change the defaults in the UI.

Not all config keys correspond to screens in the UI. This documentation indicates if a given section can be interactive or not.

If there are any interactive sections at all, the reporting key is ignored.

early-commands

type: command list
default: no commands
can be interactive: no

A list of shell commands to invoke as soon as the installer starts, in particular before probing for block and network devices. The autoinstall config is available at /autoinstall.yaml (irrespective of how it was provided) and the file will be re-read after the early-commands have run to allow them to alter the config if necessary.

locale

type: string
default: en_US.UTF-8
can be interactive: yes, always interactive if any section is

The locale to configure for the installed system.

refresh-installer

type: mapping
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

Controls whether the installer updates to a new version available in the given channel before continuing.

The mapping contains keys:

update

type: boolean
default: no

Whether to update or not.

channel

type: string
default: "stable/ubuntu-$REL"

The channel to check for updates.

keyboard

type: mapping, see below
default: US English keyboard
can be interactive: yes

The layout of any attached keyboard. Often systems being automatically installed will not have a keyboard at all in which case the value used here does not matter.

The mapping’s keys correspond to settings in the /etc/default/keyboard configuration file. See its manual page for more details.

The mapping contains keys:

layout

type: string
default: "us"

Corresponds to the XKBLAYOUT setting.

variant

type: string
default: ""

Corresponds to the XKBVARIANT setting.

toggle

type: string or null
default: null

Corresponds to the value of grp: option from the XKBOPTIONS setting. Acceptable values are (but note that the installer does not validate these): caps_toggle, toggle, rctrl_toggle, rshift_toggle, rwin_toggle, menu_toggle, alt_shift_toggle, ctrl_shift_toggle, ctrl_alt_toggle, alt_caps_toggle, lctrl_lshift_toggle, lalt_toggle, lctrl_toggle, lshift_toggle, lwin_toggle, sclk_toggle

The version of Subiquity released with 20.04 GA does not accept null for this field due to a bug.

source

type: mapping, see below
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

search_drivers

type: boolean
default: true

Whether the installer should search for available third-party drivers. When set to false, it disables the drivers screen and section.

id

type: string
default: identifier of the first available source.

Identifier of the source to install (e.g., "ubuntu-server-minimized").

network

type: netplan-format mapping, see below
default: DHCP on interfaces named eth* or en*
can be interactive: yes

Netplan-formatted network configuration. This will be applied during installation as well as in the installed system. The default is to interpret the config for the install media, which runs DHCPv4 on any interface with a name matching “eth*” or “en*” but then disables any interface that does not receive an address.

For example, to run DHCPv6 on a particular NIC:

network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    enp0s31f6:
      dhcp6: yes

Note that thanks to a bug, the version of Subiquity released with 20.04 GA forces you to write this with an extra network: key like so:

network:
  network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
      enp0s31f6:
        dhcp6: yes

Later versions support this syntax too for compatibility but if you can assume a newer version you should use the former.

proxy

type: URL or null
default: no proxy
can be interactive: yes

The proxy to configure both during installation and for apt and for snapd in the target system.

apt

type: mapping
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

Apt configuration, used both during the install and once booted into the target system.

This section historically used the same format as curtin, which is documented here. Nonetheless, some key differences with the format supported by curtin have been introduced:

  • Subiquity supports an alternative format for the primary section, allowing to configure a list of candidate primary mirrors. During installation, subiquity will automatically test the specified mirrors and select the first one that seems usable. This new behavior is only activated when the primary section is wrapped in the mirror-selection section.
  • The fallback key controls what subiquity should do if no primary mirror is usable.
  • The geoip key controls whether a geoip lookup is done to determine the correct country mirror.

The default is:

apt:
    preserve_sources_list: false
    mirror-selection:
        primary:
            - country-mirror
            - arches: [i386, amd64]
              uri: "http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu"
            - arches: [s390x, arm64, armhf, powerpc, ppc64el, riscv64]
              uri: "http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports"
    fallback: abort
    geoip: true

mirror-selection

if the primary section is contained within the mirror-selection section, the automatic mirror selection is enabled. This is the default in new installations.

primary (when placed inside the mirror-selection section):

type: custom, see below

In the new format, the primary section expects a list of mirrors, which can be expressed in two different ways:

  • the special value country-mirror
  • a mapping with the following keys:
    • uri: the URI of the mirror to use, e.g., “http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
    • arches: an optional list of architectures supported by the mirror. By default, this list contains the current CPU architecture.

fallback

type: string (enumeration)
default: abort

Controls what subiquity should do if no primary mirror is usable.
Supported values are:

  • abort → abort the installation
  • offline-install → revert to an offline installation
  • continue-anyway → attempt to install the system anyway (not recommended, the installation will certainly fail)

geoip

type: boolean
default:: true

If geoip is true and one of the candidate primary mirrors has the special value country-mirror, a request is made to https://geoip.ubuntu.com/lookup. Subiquity then sets the mirror URI to http://CC.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu (or similar for ports) where CC is the country code returned by the lookup. If this section is not interactive, the request is timed out after 10 seconds.

If the legacy behavior (i.e., without mirror-selection) is in use, the geoip request is made if the mirror to be used is the default, and its URI ends up getting replaced by the proper country mirror URI.

If you just want to specify a mirror, you can use a configuration like this:

apt:
    mirror-selection:
        primary:
            - uri: YOUR_MIRROR_GOES_HERE
            - country-mirror
            - uri: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

To add a ppa:

apt:
    sources:
        curtin-ppa:
            source: ppa:curtin-dev/test-archive

storage

type: mapping, see below
default: use “lvm” layout in a single disk system, no default in a multiple disk system
can be interactive: yes

Storage configuration is a complex topic and the description of the desired configuration in the autoinstall file can also be complex. The installer supports “layouts”, simple ways of expressing common configurations.

Supported layouts

The two supported layouts at the time of writing are “lvm” and “direct”.

storage:
  layout:
    name: lvm
storage:
  layout:
    name: direct

By default these will install to the largest disk in a system, but you can supply a match spec (see below) to indicate which disk to use:

storage:
  layout:
    name: lvm
    match:
      serial: CT*
storage:
  layout:
    name: disk
    match:
      ssd: yes

(you can just say “match: {}” to match an arbitrary disk)

When using the “lvm” layout, LUKS encryption can be enabled by supplying a password.

storage:
  layout:
    name: lvm
    password: LUKS_PASSPHRASE

The default is to use the lvm layout.

sizing-policy

The lvm layout will, by default, attempt to leave room for snapshots and further expansion. A sizing-policy key may be supplied to control this behavior.

type: string (enumeration)
default: scaled

Supported values are:

  • scaled → adjust space allocated to the root LV based on space available to the VG
  • all → allocate all remaining VG space to the root LV

The scaling system is currently as follows:

  • Less than 10 GiB: use all remaining space for root filesystem
  • Between 10-20 GiB: 10 GiB root filesystem
  • Between 20-200 GiB: use half of remaining space for root filesystem
  • Greater than 200 GiB: 100 GiB root filesystem

Action-based config

For full flexibility, the installer allows storage configuration to be done using a syntax which is a superset of that supported by curtin, described at https://curtin.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/storage.html.

If the “layout” feature is used to configure the disks, the “config” section will not be used.

As well as putting the list of actions under the ‘config’ key, the grub and swap curtin config items can be put here. So a storage section might look like:

storage:
    swap:
        size: 0
    config:
        - type: disk
          id: disk0
          serial: ADATA_SX8200PNP_XXXXXXXXXXX
        - type: partition
          ...

The extensions to the curtin syntax are around disk selection and partition/logical volume sizing.

Disk selection extensions

Curtin supported identifying disks by serial (e.g. Crucial_CT512MX100SSD1_14250C57FECE) or by path (e.g. /dev/sdc) and the server installer supports this as well. The installer additionally supports a ‘‘match spec’’ on a disk action that supports more flexible matching.

The actions in the storage config are processed in the order they are in the autoinstall file. Any disk action is assigned a matching disk – chosen arbitrarily from the set of unassigned disks if there is more than one, and causing the installation to fail if there is no unassigned matching disk.

A match spec supports the following keys:

  • model: foo: matches a disk where ID_VENDOR=foo in udev, supporting globbing
  • path: foo: matches a disk where DEVPATH=foo in udev, supporting globbing (the globbing support distinguishes this from specifying path: foo directly in the disk action)
  • serial: foo: matches a disk where ID_SERIAL=foo in udev, supporting globbing (the globbing support distinguishes this from specifying serial: foo directly in the disk action)
  • ssd: yes|no: matches a disk that is or is not an SSD (vs a rotating drive)
  • size: largest|smallest: take the largest or smallest disk rather than an arbitrary one if there are multiple matches (support for smallest added in version 20.06.1)

A special sort of key is install-media: yes, which will take the disk the installer was loaded from (the ssd and size selectors will never return this disk). If installing to the install media, care obviously needs to be take to not overwrite the installer itself!

So for example, to match an arbitrary disk it is simply:

 - type: disk
   id: disk0

To match the largest SSD:

 - type: disk
   id: big-fast-disk
   match:
     ssd: yes
     size: largest

To match a Seagate drive:

 - type: disk
   id: data-disk
   match:
     model: Seagate
Partition/logical volume extensions

The size of a partition or logical volume in curtin is specified as a number of bytes. The autoinstall config is more flexible:

  • You can specify the size using the “1G”, “512M” syntax supported in the installer UI.
  • You can specify the size as a percentage of the containing disk (or RAID), e.g. “50%”.
  • For the last partition specified for a particular device, you can specify the size as “-1” to indicate that the partition should fill the remaining space.
 - type: partition
   id: boot-partition
   device: root-disk
   size: 10%
 - type: partition
   id: root-partition
   size: 20G
 - type: partition
   id: data-partition
   device: root-disk
   size: -1

identity

type: mapping, see below
default: no default
can be interactive: yes

Configure the initial user for the system. This is the only config key that must be present (unless the user-data section is present, in which case it is optional).

A mapping that can contain keys, all of which take string values:

realname

The real name for the user. This field is optional.

username

The user name to create.

hostname

The hostname for the system.

password

The password for the new user, encrypted. This is required for use with sudo, even if SSH access is configured.

The crypted password string must conform to what passwd expects. Depending on the special characters in the password hash, quoting may be required, so it’s safest to just always include the quotes around the hash.

Several tools can generate the crypted password, such as mkpasswd from the whois package, or openssl passwd.

Example:

identity:
  realname: 'Ubuntu User'
  username: ubuntu
  password: '$6$wdAcoXrU039hKYPd$508Qvbe7ObUnxoj15DRCkzC3qO7edjH0VV7BPNRDYK4QR8ofJaEEF2heacn0QgD.f8pO8SNp83XNdWG6tocBM1'
  hostname: ubuntu

active-directory

type: mapping, see below
default: no default
can be interactive: yes

Accepts data required to join the target system in an Active Directory domain.

A mapping that can contain keys, all of which take string values:

admin-name

A domain account name with privilege to perform the join operation. That account’s password will be requested during runtime.

domain-name

The Active Directory domain to join.

ubuntu-pro

type: mapping, see below
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

token

type: string
default: no token

A contract token to attach to an existing Ubuntu Pro subscription.

ssh

type: mapping, see below
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

Configure SSH for the installed system. A mapping that can contain keys:

install-server

type: boolean
default: false

Whether to install OpenSSH server in the target system.

authorized-keys

type: list of strings
default: []

A list of SSH public keys to install in the initial user’s account.

allow-pw

type: boolean
default: true if authorized_keys is empty, false otherwise

codecs

type: mapping, see below
default: see below
can be interactive: no

Configure whether common restricted packages (including codecs) from [multiverse] should be installed.

install

type: boolean
default: false

Whether to install the ubuntu-restricted-addons package.

drivers

type: mapping, see below
default: see below
can be interactive: yes

install

type: boolean
default: false

Whether to install the available third-party drivers.

snaps

type: list
default: install no extra snaps
can be interactive: yes

A list of snaps to install. Each snap is represented as a mapping with required name and optional channel (defaulting to stable) and classic (defaulting to false) keys. For example:

snaps:
    - name: etcd
      channel: edge
      classic: false

debconf-selections

type: string
default: no config
can be interactive: no

The installer will update the target with debconf set-selection values. Users will need to be familiar with the package debconf options.

packages

type: list
default: no packages
can be interactive: no

A list of packages to install into the target system. More precisely, a list of strings to pass to “apt-get install”, so this includes things like task selection (dns-server^) and installing particular versions of a package (my-package=1-1).

kernel

type: mapping (mutually exclusive), see below
default: default kernel
can be interactive: no

Which kernel gets installed. Either the name of the package or the name of the flavor must be specified.

package

type: string

The name of the package, e.g., linux-image-5.13.0-40-generic

flavor

type: string

The flavor of the kernel, e.g., generic or hwe.

timezone

type: string
default: no timezone
can be interactive: no

The timezone to configure on the system. The special value “geoip” can be used to query the timezone automatically over the network.

updates

type: string (enumeration)
default: security
can be interactive: no

The type of updates that will be downloaded and installed after the system install.
Supported values are:

  • security → download and install updates from the -security pocket
  • all → also download and install updates from the -updates pocket

shutdown

type: string (enumeration)
default: reboot
can be interactive: no

Request the system to power off or reboot automatically after the installation has finished.
Supported values are:

  • reboot
  • poweroff

late-commands

type: command list
default: no commands
can be interactive: no

Shell commands to run after the install has completed successfully and any updates and packages installed, just before the system reboots. They are run in the installer environment with the installed system mounted at /target. You can run curtin in-target -- $shell_command (with the version of subiquity released with 20.04 GA you need to specify this as curtin in-target --target=/target -- $shell_command) to run in the target system (similar to how plain in-target can be used in d-i preseed/late_command).

error-commands

type: command list
default: no commands
can be interactive: no

Shell commands to run after the install has failed. They are run in the installer environment, and the target system (or as much of it as the installer managed to configure) will be mounted at /target. Logs will be available at /var/log/installer in the live session.

reporting

type: mapping
default: type: print which causes output on tty1 and any configured serial consoles
can be interactive: no

The installer supports reporting progress to a variety of destinations. Note that this section is ignored if there are any interactive sections; it only applies to fully automated installs.

The config, and indeed the implementation, is 90% the same as that used by curtin.

Each key in the reporting mapping in the config defines a destination, where the type sub-key is one of:

The rsyslog reporter does not yet exist

  • print: print progress information on tty1 and any configured serial console. There is no other configuration.
  • rsyslog: report progress via rsyslog. The destination key specifies where to send output.
  • webhook: report progress via POSTing JSON reports to a URL. Accepts the same configuration as curtin.
  • none: do not report progress. Only useful to inhibit the default output.

Examples:

The default configuration is:

reporting:
 builtin:
  type: print

Report to rsyslog:

reporting:
 central:
  type: rsyslog
  destination: @192.168.0.1

Suppress the default output:

reporting:
 builtin:
  type: none

Report to a curtin-style webhook:

reporting:
 hook:
  type: webhook
  endpoint: http://example.com/endpoint/path
  consumer_key: "ck_foo"
  consumer_secret: "cs_foo"
  token_key: "tk_foo"
  token_secret: "tk_secret"
  level: INFO

user-data

type: mapping
default: {}
can be interactive: no

Provide cloud-init user data which will be merged with the user data the installer produces. If you supply this, you don’t need to supply an identity section (but then it’s your responsibility to make sure that you can log into the installed system!).

3 Likes

The type specified for the toggle sub-key under keyboard seems to be incorrect:

According to the JSON schema in JSON schema for autoinstall config | Ubuntu, it must be a string, and that seems to correspond with the behaviour of the installer, which says, when toggle is set to null:

jsonschema.exceptions.ValidationError: None is not of type 'string'

Failed validating 'type' in schema['properties']['toggle']:
    {'type': 'string'}

On instance['toggle']:
    None
1 Like

I think this example is wrong:

If I use that (with an appropriate uri) I get an error:

TypeError: argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable

I think the arches and uri should be part of the same list item, like this:

apt:
    primary:
        - arches: [default]
          uri: YOUR_MIRROR_GOES_HERE
1 Like

Thanks for the comments!

Ah yes this was a bug in the version released with 20.04 GA and I’ve updated the docs to say so. If you use the image from Ubuntu Server 20.04.6 LTS (Focal Fossa) Daily Build it should be better.

Quite right, also fixed.

Hello,

The link to the netplan reference under the network section is incorrect, it currently links to https://netplan.io/reference%7Cnetplan but should link to https://netplan.io/reference.

Thanks
-Lewis

1 Like

Thanks, must have mangled that when converting the wiki page to markdown. Fixed now!

1 Like

Here is late-commands only ?

runcmd is can be use ?

late-commands:
    - curtin in-target --target=/target -- apt-get -qq update

to

runcmd:
   - "apt-get -qq update"

more easily ?

runcmd is interpreted by cloud-init. If you put it in the cloud-config that also contains the autoinstall config, it will run before the installer starts. If you put it inside the user-data section of the autoinstall config, it will run on first boot of the installed system.

2 Likes

autoinstall-generator is not work with d-i seed file. It’s seem to be Name, Username and Password only.

if we will provide preseed to user-data / cloud-init interpreter.

a lot of seed file will be convert and upgrade.

Easy to migrate.

  • convert d-i phase by phase
    • d-i anna/choose_modules
    • d-i apt-setup/backports
    • d-i apt-setup/local0/comment
    • d-i apt-setup/local0/key
    • d-i apt-setup/local0/repository
    • d-i apt-setup/local0/source
    • d-i apt-setup/multiarch
    • d-i apt-setup/restricted
    • d-i apt-setup/security_host
    • d-i apt-setup/security_path
    • d-i apt-setup/services-select
    • d-i apt-setup/universe
    • d-i apt-setup/use_mirror
    • d-i base-installer/install-recommends
    • d-i base-installer/kernel/image
    • d-i cdrom-detect/eject
    • d-i clock-setup/ntp
    • d-i clock-setup/ntp-server
    • d-i clock-setup/utc
    • d-i console-setup/ask_detect
    • d-i debian-installer/add-kernel-opts
    • d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated
    • d-i debian-installer/country
    • d-i debian-installer/exit/halt
    • d-i debian-installer/exit/poweroff
    • d-i debian-installer/language
    • d-i debian-installer/locale
    • d-i finish-install/keep-consoles
    • d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress
    • d-i grub-installer/bootdev
    • d-i grub-installer/only_debian
    • d-i grub-installer/password
    • d-i grub-installer/password-again
    • d-i grub-installer/password-crypted
    • d-i grub-installer/skip
    • d-i grub-installer/with_other_os
    • d-i hw-detect/load_firmware
    • d-i keyboard-configuration/toggle
    • d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap
    • d-i lilo-installer/skip
    • d-i live-installer/net-image
    • d-i localechooser/supported-locales
    • d-i mirror/country
    • d-i mirror/http/directory
    • d-i mirror/http/hostname
    • d-i mirror/http/mirror
    • d-i mirror/http/proxy
    • d-i mirror/protocol
    • d-i mirror/suite
    • d-i mirror/udeb/components
    • d-i mirror/udeb/suite
    • d-i netcfg/choose_interface
    • d-i netcfg/confirm_static
    • d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed
    • d-i netcfg/dhcp_hostname
    • d-i netcfg/dhcp_options
    • d-i netcfg/dhcp_timeout
    • d-i netcfg/dhcpv6_timeout
    • d-i netcfg/disable_autoconfig
    • d-i netcfg/enable
    • d-i netcfg/get_domain
    • d-i netcfg/get_gateway
    • d-i netcfg/get_hostname
    • d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress
    • d-i netcfg/get_nameservers
    • d-i netcfg/get_netmask
    • d-i netcfg/hostname
    • d-i netcfg/link_wait_timeout
    • d-i netcfg/wireless_wep
    • d-i network-console/authorized_keys_url
    • d-i network-console/password
    • d-i network-console/password-again
    • d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe
    • d-i partman-auto/disk
    • d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe
    • d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe_file
    • d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition
    • d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size
    • d-i partman-auto/method
    • d-i partman-auto-raid/recipe
    • d-i partman/choose_partition
    • d-i partman/confirm
    • d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite
    • d-i partman/default_filesystem
    • d-i partman/early_command
    • d-i partman-lvm/confirm
    • d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite
    • d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm
    • d-i partman-md/confirm
    • d-i partman-md/device_remove_md
    • d-i partman/mount_style
    • d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label
    • d-i passwd/make-user
    • d-i passwd/root-login
    • d-i passwd/root-password
    • d-i passwd/root-password-again
    • d-i passwd/root-password-crypted
    • d-i passwd/user-default-groups
    • d-i passwd/user-fullname
    • d-i passwd/username
    • d-i passwd/user-password
    • d-i passwd/user-password-again
    • d-i passwd/user-password-crypted
    • d-i passwd/user-uid
    • d-i pkgsel/include
    • d-i pkgsel/language-packs
    • d-i pkgsel/updatedb
    • d-i pkgsel/update-policy
    • d-i pkgsel/upgrade
    • d-i preseed/early_command
    • d-i preseeding
    • d-i preseed/late_command
    • d-i s390-dasd/auto-format
    • d-i s390-dasd/dasd
    • d-i s390-dasd/force-format
    • d-i s390-zfcp/zfcp
    • d-i time/zone
    • d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak
    • d-i user-setup/encrypt-home

If unknown or syntax error, might be error output for recheck and feedback.

If we have interpreter, we can make ubuntu autoinstall generator.

also from kickstart (ks)

1 Like

To me, it was not obvious that the user-data was applied during install-time and the auto-install user-data key is the user-data applied at the first boot of the target system.

Maybe add a section clarifying this, since I believe this is a very common use-case.
Or, add this to the tutorial.

Andrew does a great job explaining the feature in more detail in an answer to a question I posted about this on askubuntu.com.

It would be helpful to show an example of an early-command and how you can use that to affect the install. In my case, I’d like to fork a small script to go ask the person installing what static IP and hostname they’d like to use, then use that to add an “identity” section to file for it to be used. I’m probably going to need to do the same thing for disk storage … assuming I can figure out how those commands work. – Thanks

This document doesn’t make it obvious how to set the timezone of the new system.

I’m not sure if this is the officially recommended method, but this worked for me:
user-data:
timezone: America/New_York

I think this would be a good thing to add, as this is a common thing to want to configure on new systems.

I have not been able to determine a way (other than custom late-commands scripts) to tell the system to attempt automated geolocation to set the system time zone or to indicate that the hardware clock uses local time, rather that CUT (as might be done with systems that dual boot into MS .Windows). If either of these things are possible, instructions would be appreciated.

To follow up for anyone else looking how to do early-commands, especially if you need user input. In your yaml file do:

early-commands:
  - bash /cdrom/get_data.sh

That assumes your “get_data.sh” script sits in the top level dir of your ISO.

Then make sure in your script you always reference /dev/tty1, like:

echo "Hostname [$default_hostname]: " > /dev/tty1
read hostname < /dev/tty1

Note: because the script isn’t called in an environment with a real tty, you can’t do:

echo -n "Hostname [$default_hostname]: "
read hostname

to have the cursor wait on the same line. But you can accomplish that with a Perl script like:

default_hostname=unknown
hostname=$(perl -e '($p,$d)=@ARGV; open(W, ">/dev/tty1") or warn "W FAILED\n"; open(R, "</dev/tty1") or warn "R FAILED\n"; print W "$p [$d]: "; $h=<R>; chomp($h); $h ||= $d; print $h' "Hostname" "$default_hostname")

Of course, once you have that info, then you can write it out:

echo "identity:
  hostname: \"$hostname\"" >> /autoinstall.yaml

When your get_data.sh script ends, the autoinstall will reread the newly altered /autoinstall.yaml file and pick up your new directives. This technique is useful for grabbing the ethernet interface names and other things to in order to write out directives with values that can only be determined at install time.

Important note: You can only have 1 of each section (e.g. “identity”); so if you have both static and dynamic directives, you must put them all together in your script. Writing out the static info at the top of the yaml file, then using your early script to add another section with the same name with the dynamic values at the bottom of the yaml file will cause a crash. (Yep, learned that the hard way.)

Back to my nightmare of trying to figure out a complex storage layout with crash files that don’t tell me enough about what’s wrong…sigh.

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I noticed, that adding a section below the field user-data does not have any effect.

Could you include an example in the documentation on how to e.g. add a user using the user-data section? This could be a user with e.g. an empty password, SSH-Access and sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL settings.

Several tries using something like this failed (even though the yml is syntactically correct):

user-data:
  users:
    - default
    - name: foobar
      gecos: Foo B. Bar
      primary_group: foobar
      groups: users
      selinux_user: staff_u
      expiredate: '2032-09-01'
      lock_passwd: false
      passwd: "$6$exDY1mhS4KUYCE/2$zmn9ToZwTKLhCw.b4/b.ZRTIZM30JZ4QrOQ2aOXJ8yk96xpcCof0kxKwuX1kqLG/ygbJ1f8wxED22bTL4F46P0" # ubuntu

looks like you did not “add a section to user-data” but you instead added a new top-level object called “users” … yaml requires proper indentation of the blocks …

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Sorry, this was a formatting error, when pasting to the forum. The .yml file was idented correctly, so the issue still persists.

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If you have an identity section then the users section is not used. I have examples at https://askubuntu.com/a/1385096/376778

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Thank you very much, that helped. The documentation should then maybe include your example and explicitly state, which section takes precedence:

If you supply this, your identity section is ignored and the users section is taken instead (but then it’s your responsibility to make sure that you can log into the installed system!).

The hostname must then be set also in the user-data section, instead of the identity section.

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