B AutoYaST FAQ—frequently asked questions #

On all SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro versions, the automatic installation gets invoked by adding autoyast=<PATH_TO_PROFILE> to the kernel parameter list. So for example adding autoyast=http://MYSERVER/MYCONFIG.xml will start an automatic installation where the profile with the AutoYaST configuration gets fetched from the Web server myserver. See Section 9.3, “Invoking the auto-installation process” for more information.

A profile is the AutoYaST configuration file. The content of the AutoYaST profile determines how the system will be configured and which packages will get installed. This includes partitioning, network setup, and software sources, to name but a few. Almost everything that can be configured with YaST in a running system can also be configured in an AutoYaST profile. The profile format is an ASCII XML file.

You have to create the AutoYaST profile manually. For details refer to Section 3.2, “Creating/editing a control file manually”.

The most efficient way to check your created AutoYaST profile is by using jing or xmllint.

See Section 3.2, “Creating/editing a control file manually” for details.

If a section has not been defined in the AutoYaST profile the settings of the general YaST installation proposal will be used. However, you need to specify at least the root password to be able to log in to the machine after the installation.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE profile>
<profile xmlns="http://www.suse.com/1.0/yast2ns" xmlns:config="http://www.suse.com/1.0/configns">
  <users config:type="list">
    <user>
      <encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
      <user_password>linux</user_password>
      <username>root</username>
    </user>
  </users>
</profile>

Use the following sound section in your profile:

<sound>
  <autoinstall config:type="boolean">true</autoinstall>
  <configure_detected config:type="boolean">true</configure_detected>
</sound>

Put the profile in the root of the DVD. Refer to it with file:///PROFILE.xml.

To merge two profiles, a.xml with base.xml, run the following command:

> /usr/bin/xsltproc --novalid --param replace "'false'" \
--param dontmerge1 "'package'" --param with "'a.xml'" --output out.xml \
/usr/share/autoinstall/xslt/merge.xslt base.xml

This requires sections in both profiles to be in alphabetical order (<software>, for example, needs to be listed after <add-on>). If you have created the profile with YaST, profiles are automatically sorted correctly.

The dontmerge1 parameter is optional and an example of what to do when you use the dont_merge element in your profile. See Section 6.4, “Merging of rules and classes” for more information.

Actually the order is not important. The order of sections in the profile has no influence on the AutoYaST workflow. However, to merge different profiles, sections need to be in alphabetical order.

linuxrc found an unsigned file, such as a driver update. To use an unsigned file, you can suppress that message by passing insecure=1 to the linuxrc parameter list (together with the autoyast=... parameter).

You need to pass ifcfg to linuxrc. This is required to set up the network, otherwise AutoYaST cannot download the profile from the remote host. See Section C.3, “Advanced network setup” for more information.

There is an AutoYaST mailing list where you can post your questions. Join us at http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-autoinstall/.