Comment 4 for bug 1572620

Hello,

Please consult Ubuntu Installation Guide, Appendix B. Automating the installation using preseeding, B.4. Contents of the preconfiguration file (for xenial), B.4.2. Network configuration.

https://help.ubuntu.com/16.04/installation-guide/s390x/apbs04.html#preseed-network

The question that is asked is netcfg/choose_interfaces, that is not currently preseeded. By default, if there is only one interface this question is not asked at all.

However on this system it appears that you have multiple interfaces available. And the PCI interfaces have probably detected link too.

Therefore preseeding "auto" will probably end up using the interface you do not want.

Instead you should preseed:
netcfg/choose_interface=encf500

in the param file, or if using preseed.cfg appended to the initramfs:
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select encf500

Given multiple activated and available interfaces on the system, one must pressed which one to use.

On a side note - does installation work at all with PCI networking only? (and no qeth devices activated?!)

I am inclined to mark this bug report as invalid, as the described behavior is normal for pressed installation with multiple available network cards, on any supported architectures on ubuntu.

Extract of guidance from section B.4.2:
"""
# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

# To pick a particular interface instead:
#d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth1
"""