------------
grml-debootstrap is a wrapper suite around debootstrap (and cdebootstrap if you
-want) for installing a plain Debian system (e.g. via Grml) very fast and easy.
+want) for installing a plain Debian system very fast and easy.
All you have to do is adjust a few variables in the configuration file
/etc/debootstrap/config or specify some command line options and invoke
Extra parameters passed to the debootstrap command.
+*--debug*::
+
+ Execute in very verbose way. Useful for debugging possible problems
+ with grml-debootstrap or identify what's actually executed.
+
*--filesystem* _filesystem_::
Filesystem that should be created when installing to a partition.
- If unset defaults to ext3. Valid values are all filesystems that
+ If unset defaults to ext4. Valid values are all filesystems that
can be created through mkfs._filesystem_.
*--force*::
*--hostname* _hostname_::
- Use specified hostname instead of the default (being 'grml').
+ Use specified hostname instead of the default (being $HOSTNAME or if unset 'grml').
*-i*, *--iso* _/mntpoint_::
Skip debootstrap, only do configuration to the target.
+*--nointerfaces*::
+
+ Do not copy /etc/network/interfaces from host system to the target.
+ This option is automatically enabled when using --vm or --vmfile.
+
+*--nokernel*::
+
+ Skip installation of default kernel images. This option might be
+ interesting for you if you want a Debian system which doesn't
+ need to provide regular boot, e.g. a system which provides
+ ISOs for booting via GRUB using grml-rescueboot.
+
*--nopackages*::
Skip installation of packages defined in /etc/debootstrap/packages.
Default directory: /etc/debootstrap/scripts/
*-t*, *--target* _target_::
+
Target partition (/dev/...) or directory (anything else without /dev at the
- beginning). To install grub using *--grub* make sure to use a _device_
- instead of a directory as _target_ (installation of grub as bootloader when
- using directories is NOT supported).
+ beginning).
*-v*, *--verbose*::
+
Increase verbosity.
+*--vm*::
+
+ Set up a Virtual Machine on an existing block device, which will be
+ partitioned.
+ This allows deployment of a Virtual Machine. The options needs to be
+ combined with the --target option.
+ Usage example: --vm --target /dev/mapper/your-vm-disk
+
*--vmfile*::
+
Set up a Virtual Machine instead of installing to a partition or directory.
This allows deployment of a Virtual Machine. The options needs to be
combined with the --target option.
Usage example: --vmfile --target /mnt/sda1/qemu.img
*--vmsize* _size_::
+
Use specified size for size of Virtual Machine disk file. If not specified it
defaults to 2G (being 2GB). Syntax as supported by qemu-img (see manpage
qemu-img(1) for details.
Usage example: --vmsize 3G
*-V*, *--version*::
+
Show version of program and exit.
-WARNING: the command line parsing of grml-debootstrap does not validate the provided
-arguments for the command line options. Please be careful and check docs and
-/etc/debootstrap/config for further information.
+WARNING: the command line parsing of grml-debootstrap usually does not validate
+the provided arguments for the command line options. Please be careful and check
+docs and /etc/debootstrap/config for further information.
Usage examples
---------------
/etc/debootstrap/config
-Main configuration file. You have to adjust it according to your needs
-if you want to execute grml-debootstrap in the non-interactive mode without
-any special command line arguments.
+Main configuration file. Adjust it according to your needs if you want to
+execute grml-debootstrap in the non-interactive mode without any special command
+line arguments.
/etc/debootstrap/chroot-script
Debian Packages dropped in this directory will be installed into the new Debian
system by default (Control variable: EXTRAPACKAGES)
- /etc/debootstrap/stages/
-
-The default directory for storing information about executed stages. Every
-single function of grml-debootstrap will write 'done' to the stages directory
-into a file named as the function itself if it has been executed successfully.
-You can adjust the location of the directory via configuration variable STAGES
-via /etc/debootstrap/config. Please notice that you have to remove the stages
-directory on your own if you want to re-execute grml-debootstrap after running it
-successfully once. This should avoid recurrent execution by error of
-grml-debootstrap (which might delete present data).
-
Customization
-------------
Set password of user root without prompting for it but set it to the given
argument. Usage example: password=AiTh5ahn
-Usage example for automatic installation:
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Usage example for automatic installation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
debian2hd target=/dev/sda1 grub=/dev/sda mirror=ftp://ftp.tugraz.at/mirror/debian password=foobar
[NOTE]
.lenny release
================================================================================
-[1] Please notice that lenny is the current old-stable release within Debian.
+[1] Please notice that lenny is an unsupported release within Debian nowadays.
grml-debootstrap can handle the release but you really should not use lenny
anymore unless you really know what you are doing. Choose Debian 6.0 (squeeze)
or Debian 7.0 (wheezy) instead.
================================================================================
[NOTE]
-.sid release
+.unstable and testing releases
================================================================================
-[2] Please notice that sid is Debian/unstable and due to its nature might not be
-always installable. What _might_ work instead is deploying a stable or testing
-release and upgrade it after installation finished.
+[2] Please notice that jessie (Debian/testing) and sid (Debian/unstable) might
+not be always installable due to their nature. What _might_ work instead is
+deploying a stable release and upgrade it after installation finished.
================================================================================
Bugs