Installing RT4 with preseed on Ubuntu 12.4

[robc]

Hi All,

I'm trying use use puppet in masterless mode to automate the setup of an RT4 server.

I've used the example preseed define from http://projects.puppetlabs.com/projects/1/wiki/Debian_Preseed_Patterns.

I set up RT4 manually, dumped the debconf keys into a preseed file, rolled back the VM snapshot and tried to apply the manifest.

The apply failed with a bunch of errors from debconf-set-selections about missing questions from the debconf db. Which suggested to me that the debconf-set-selections was being done on an uninstalled package.

Sure enough, installing RT via apt, uninstalling (without purging) and re-running the manifest succeeded. The bits that set up MySQL and its root password work fine, but that package was selected at install time.

Is this a problem with the "responsefile" attribute of the apt package provider? Or am I doing something wrong? TBH, I haven't done much with automating Debian/Ubuntu installs before now, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm completely missing the point with debconf.

The relevant bit of my manifest looks like this:

define preseed_package ( $ensure ) {

  file { "/root/puppet/preseeds/$name.preseed":

    mode => 600,

    backup => false,

  }

  package { "$name":

    ensure => $ensure,

    responsefile => "/root/puppet/preseeds/$name.preseed",

    require => File["/root/puppet/preseeds/$name.preseed"],

  }

}

package { "apache2":  ensure => present }

preseed_package { "mysql-server":  ensure => present }

package { "mysql-client":  ensure => present }

# Don't want the default sqlite3 backend for RT

package { "rt4-db-mysql":

  ensure => present,

  before => Preseed_package["request-tracker4"]

}

preseed_package { "request-tracker4": ensure => present }

service { "mysql":

  ensure => running,

  enable => true,

  require => Preseed_package["mysql-server"],

}

TIA,

rob