Modify preseed file to automatically install packages in /pool/extra

Question

I want to modify the preseed file of an unpacked (using UCK) GNU/Linux ISO, and then re pack it (using UCK).

What I am trying to do is, modify the preseed file in such a manner that what all packages in .deb format I copy to the pool/extras folder, they get installed automatically during the OS installation. For that I will need to add something in the preseed file. I have not been able to figure out what it is. Can someone please help me out?

Answer 1

Why don't you create a metapackage which depends on all the packages you want installed, and simply set up the preseed to install that.

equivs was designed for this sort of thing, although it's not very hard to create a metapackage from scratch with the standard packaging tools, either.

To instruct the installer to install packages, you can include the line

d-i pkgsel/include string package1 package2

in your preseed file. If you just want to install all the *.deb files from a directory (not a full Apt repository with Packages.gz etc) then maybe

d-i preseed/late_command string in-target dpkg -i /pool/extras/*.deb

but I would actually prefer a full repo; basically it just takes a run of dpkg-scanpackages.