Appendix B. Automating the installation using preseeding $ debconf-get-selections --installer > file $ debconf-get-selections >> file However, a file generated in this manner will have some items that should not be preseeded, and the example file is a better starting place for most users. Note: This method relies on the fact that, at the end of the installation, the installer’s cdebconf database is saved to the installed system in /var/log/installer/cdebconf . However, because the database may contain sensitive information, by default the files are only readable by root. The directory /var/log/installer and all files in it will be deleted from your system if you purge the package installation-report . To check possible values for questions, you can use nano to examine the files in /var/lib/cdebconf while an installation is in progress. View templates.dat for the raw templates and questions.dat for the current values and for the values assigned to variables. To check if the format of your preconfiguration file is valid before performing an install, you can use the command debconf-set-selections -c preseed.cfg . The configuration fragments used in this appendix are also available as an example preconfiguration file from ../example-preseed.txt. Note that this example is based on an installation for the Intel x86 architecture. If you are installing a different architecture, some of the examples (like keyboard selection and bootloader installation) may not be relevant and will need to be replaced by debconf settings appropriate for your architecture. Details on how the different Debian Installer components actually work can be found in Section 6.3. During a normal install the questions about localization are asked first, so these values can only be preseeded via the initrd or kernel boot parameter methods. Auto mode (Section B.2.3) includes the setting of auto-install/enable=true (normally via the auto preseed alias). This delays the asking of the localisation questions, so that they can be preseeded by any method. The locale can be used to specify both language and country and can be any combination of a language supported by debian-installer and a recognized country. If the combination does not form a valid locale, the installer will automatically select a locale that is valid for the selected language. To specify the locale as a boot parameter, use locale= en_US . Although this method is very easy to use, it does not allow preseeding of all possible combinations of language, country and locale$^{2}$. So alternatively the values can be preseeded individually. Language and country can also be specified as boot parameters. # Preseeding only locale sets language, country and locale. d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US 2. Preseeding locale to en_NL would for example result in en_US.UTF-8 as default locale for the installed system. If e.g. en_GB.UTF-8 is preferred instead, the values will need to be preseeded individually. 91 B.4.1. Localization B.4. Contents of the preconfiguration file (for focal)