Setting up autoyast to ask for static network configuration settings during installation

This document (3769690) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

Situation

An autoyast configuration file has been set up to ask for static network configuration details during autoyast installation. However, after the installation, the configuration is always set to DHCP and not all of the network configuration details supplied during installation are effective once the installation is completed.

Resolution

This behaviour is typically caused by the use of incorrect syntax for the value in the directive that describes the location of the XML value to be changed and can be fixed by using the correct syntax.

Additional Information

For example, assume the following XML structure is used to set up two network interfaces:

<networking>
  <interfaces config:type="list">
    <interface>
      <bootproto>static</bootproto>
      <device>eth0</device>
      <ipaddr>10.0.0.1</ipaddr>
    </interface>
    <interface>
      <bootproto>static</bootproto>
      <device>eth1</device>
      <ipaddr>20.0.0.1</ipaddr>
    </interface>
  </interfaces>
</networking>

To ask the user for ip address for the first interface, eth0, the following fragment needs to be used:

<ask>
  <path>networking,interfaces,0,ipaddr</path>
  <question>Enter the server IP address:</question>
  <stage>initial</stage>
  <default>10.0.0.1</default>
</ask>

Note that the interface number needs to be specified in the <path></path> element and that interfaces are numbered starting from zero and refer back to the interfaces as defined in the <interfaces></interfaces> section.

To also ask for an IP address for the second interface during autoyast installation, the following fragment needs to be used:

<ask>
  <path>networking,interfaces,1,ipaddr</path>
  <question>Enter the server IP address:</question>
  <stage>initial</stage>
  <default>20.0.0.1</default>
</ask>

More details can be found in the SUSE AutoYaST documentation for the corresponding OS/SP version.

Disclaimer

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