Installing Ubuntu over the network

[Jimmy Stewpot]

Hi There,

I have been working on getting Ubuntu 7.10 to install over the network 
as we have loads of servers which we need to install. I am currently 
having a problem where I am unable to get the console redirection over 
serial to work through the installer. The screen never draws correctly.

Here is what I have on my pxelinux configuration for the ubuntu install 
in question

label ubuntu-console
   kernel ubuntu-installer/amd64/linux
     append tasks=standard debconf/priority=critical 
preseed/url=http://192.168.10.1/gutsy/gutsy-preseed.cfg 
netcfg/choose_interface=eth0 netcfg/dhcp_timeout=60 locale=en_GB 
console=ttyS0,19200n81 initrd=ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd.gz

In the gutsy-preseed.cfg config I have the following

# Ubuntu archive mirror hostname:
d-i     mirror/country  string  GB
d-i     mirror/http/countries   select  GB
d-i     mirror/protocol select  http
d-i     mirror/http/hostname    string  gb.archive.ubuntu.com
d-i     mirror/http/directory   string  /ubuntu/
d-i     mirror/suite    select  gutsy
d-i     mirror/codename string  gutsy
# Ubuntu archive mirror:
d-i     mirror/http/mirror      select  gb.archive.ubuntu.com
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/non-free      boolean false
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/use_mirror    boolean true
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/restricted    boolean true
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/universe      boolean true
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/multiverse    boolean true
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/contrib       boolean false
apt-mirror-setup        apt-setup/backports     boolean true

# Disk Setup
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
d-i partman-auto/method string regular
partman-auto    partman-auto/init_automatically_partition       select 
Guided - use entire disk
partman-auto    partman-auto/automatically_partition    select
d-i partman-auto/purge_lvm_from_device boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i  partman/choose_partition select Finish partitioning and write 
changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true


# Network Configuraiton
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname
d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain
# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string

d-i console-setup/variant   select  United Kingdom
d-i console-setup/charmap   select  UTF-8
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
d-i time/zone string Europe/London
d-i console-tools/archs select uk
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US

d-i passwd/root-login boolean true
d-i passwd/root-password-crypted password XXXXXX
d-i passwd/make-user boolean false


popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false
tasksel tasksel/first multiselect lamp-server
d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server ntp-server ntpdate dmsetup 
screen multipath-tools multipath-tools-initramfs lvm2 snmpd scsiadd

The install works perfectly If I plug a monitor and keyboard into the 
system, If I want to install remotely via the serial connection (as we 
have with Debian, Redhat and even SuSe) the screen does not draw 
correctly and results in the screen going blue and refreshing like mad 
as a blank screen. I have checked all the terminal settings and they are 
all 19200 N81.

Regards,

Jimmy