The firstboot.xml fails to configure network IP address

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2

Situation

When using /etc/YaST2/firstboot.xml from the yast2-firstboot package, the user is prompted to change the hostname, but never gets a chance to change the IP address or other network details. The firstboot.xml file contains the following entry:

<module>
<label>Network</label>
<name>inst_lan</name>
<enabled config:type="boolean">true</enabled>
</module>

Resolution

Modify the existing Network module entry in /etc/YaST2/firstboot.xml to include skip detection:

<module>
<label>Network</label>
<name>inst_lan</name>
<enabled config:type="boolean">true</enabled>
<arguments>
<skip_detection config:type="boolean">true</skip_detection>
</arguments>
</module>

Create an empty /var/lib/YaST2/reconfig_system file and reboot the server to correctly configure the network settings.

Cause

With later versions of SLES15 the default is to skip modifying network details if the network is already defined. Setting skip_detection to true overrides the default.

Disclaimer

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