From: Stuart Henderson <stu@spacehopper.org>
Subject: Re: Allow autoinstall response file to select default answer
To: obsd@mulh.net
Cc: tech@openbsd.org
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2026 17:54:22 +0100

On 2026/10/06 11:49, obsd@mulh.net wrote:
> After choosing the location of the sets you will be prompted for
> "Pathname to the sets"
> The path is unique for each OpenBSD version so for a common response
> file you leave that question out and let the installer take the default.
> That is easy.

FWIW I am dealing this by using network installs and generate install.conf
from a dynamic script which looks at the 'path' GET parameter. And I put
the site*.tgz on the http server which hosts the tgz (and add it to
index.txt). May or may not be applicable to your setup.

(This is for a bunch of workstations, configured to fallback to network
boot, and if I want to reinstall them remotely I can do that by blowing
away the partition table with dd, and rebooting).

Changes to the installer would make things a bit easier, but for my
situation I didn't think it was worth it, maybe it is for yours though.

> My patch allows for this:
> Pathname to the sets =
> Pathname to the sets = path/to/site/files

This method of having multiple different answers to the same question
feels rather awkward.

I think this might be better handled by having a different question for
additional/local sets, that is handled by install.conf but (probably)
not asked by the normal installer (as with the questions for ssh keys).
Say, "Pathname for site install files =", defaulting to whatever the
answer to "Pathname to the sets" is.

(I'd kind-of like some unique IDs for all of the questions rather than
this "best match" on the English text, but not a hill I'm going to die
on, and space is *seriously* limited in some install media).

> The first time the question is asked (installing OpenBSD sets)
> The installer reads the first line, see the blank and just like during an
> interactive installation a blank response to a prompt takes the default.
> 
> The second time the question is asked (installing the site* sets)
> The installer reads the second line, sees an answer and responds with that.
> 
> Without the patch:
> If I want to answer the second "Pathname to the sets" I MUST also answer the first.
> If I want to take the default answer on the first, I must take the default on all.
> 
> Yes you can answer the first and take default on the second but you don't want
> to be installing the site*.tgz files before installing the OpenBSD sets.
>