ASL-Debian-ISO

Important

This script and repo is for relatively advanced Linux users to build "preseeded" Debian installers for various architectures and platforms. This repo is not for casual beginners or people who are wanting to simply install an appliance.

Full ISO Image

This repository creates a full Debian installer for AllStarLink v3. The objectives of this are:

1. Have asl3-appliance and all of its dependencies autoinstalled within Debian.

2. Create device/VM/VPS-specific autobuild configurations that are using the Debian preseed.cfg structure for installation.

Using This

The basic steps are:

1. Get this repo with git clone https://github.com/AllStarLink/ASL-Debian-ISO.git

2. cd ASL-Debian-ISO

3. Download the latest Debian ISO and place it in the ASL-Debian-ISO directory. An easy way to do this is browse to https://www.debian.org, right-click on the Download link, copy the link, and then do wget <LINK>. For example:

   wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-13.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso

4. If desired, create your own custom Preseed configuration in the preseeds/ directory within the repository. All attributes for a preseed.cfg are documented at https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/apbs04.en.html.

5. Construct the ISO with the isobuilder command. It takes three arguments:

   • -d FILE - This is the path to the Debian installer ISO downloaded above
   • -p FILE - The name of the preseed file. This must be in the preseeds/ directory and it will be built into the ISO as "the" preseed.cfg.
   • -v STRING - The version the file. This will be inserted at in the name like asl-debian-installer-$BUILD_VER.iso.

6. The ISO file is then ready for use.

Customization Nodes

The most problematic section of the preseed.cfg are those dealing with disks. The generic-hw-sda.cfg file expects the device to be /dev/sda and that it will consume all free disk space. The generic-qemu-vda.cfg will work for more new VPS-hosted Linux installations. The dell3040.cfg is a mostly-automated installer for Dell/Wyse 3040 units.

If you want to customize the disk layouts, pay particular attention to the elements in the - Partitioning - and - Bootloader - sections.

If you need WiFi, for the installation, you'll likely want to comment out all of the entries in - Network .

Other sections should be similarly self-explanatory - set the desired values or comment out the d-i lines to allow the installer to prompt.

It is strongly recommended to add any scripted customizations to post-install.sh and not late.sh.

Burning the Image

Note that Balena Etcher on Windows does not work correctly with Debian multi-mode installers and this extends to the ASL image based on Debian. For Windows, use Rufus in "dd mode".

cloud-init Template

This is for using cloud-init on a Debian installer for standard VPS. This is located in /cloud-init.