XPost: linux.debian.maint.boot

Hi,

and thanks for the report.

João Pedro Gonçalves Lenzi <jpglenzi@hotmail.com> (2025-04-08):

I noticed what looks like an error in the Debian Installer manual for
preseed files, specifically in the "Partitioning" section at:

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/apbs04.en.html

The guide uses this line:

d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true

But based on testing and community recommendations, it seems the correct line should be:

d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true

Are you sure?

Looking in all repositories at once, I'm only finding two hits with the
old names:

partman-base/debian/changelog
3249: - templates: make partman/confirm_write_new_label translatable

kickseed/handlers/clearpart.sh
68: ks_preseed d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true

The former only contains a trace in the changelog, as the relevant
templates were removed during the reorganization mentioned below. The
latter isn't really maintained to the best of my knowledge.

You'll find the new names in the relevant components, which are (mainly) partman-partitioning and (tangentially) netboot-assistant.

Not sure if this changed recently or if it's just an old leftover, but
I figured it might be helpful to fix it for others relying on the documentation for automated installs.

I suppose this depends on your definition of “changed recently”. :)

That was reorganized in 2007:
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/partman-partitioning/-/commit/28a001e094311652aa551b25d3b94c8dcc3c3c9d

At the time everything was still in a big svn repository, so you'll see
both the addition in debian/partman-partitioning.templates (with the new, current names) and the code change in storage_device/label/do_option
switching from partman/* to partman-partitioning/*.

This was reflected in the installation guide in 2009:

installation-guide (20090901) unstable; urgency=low
[…]
[ Colin Watson ]
* partman/confirm_write_new_label was renamed to
partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label in r50363, December 2007.
Adjust preseeding documentation to match.

See: https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/installation-guide/-/commit/a9eee7c6f96a0f010d88c173945b210c8c60d958

You could add DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer on the kernel command line before starting the installer and inspect what variables are getting queried via
the debconf protocol if you really wanted to make sure (you'll find the
extra lines in /var/log/syslog in the d-i context, and in /var/log/installer/syslog in the installed system).


Cheers,
--
Cyril Brulebois (kibi@debian.org) <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant

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