diff --git a/lam-packaging/docker/.env b/lam-packaging/docker/.env
index ffac751d..38897874 100644
--- a/lam-packaging/docker/.env
+++ b/lam-packaging/docker/.env
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+#
+# LAM setup
+#
+# skip LAM preconfiguration (lam.conf + config.cfg), values: (true/false)
+# If set to false the other variables below have no effect.
+LAM_SKIP_PRECONFIGURE=false
 # domain of LDAP database root entry, will be converted to dc=...,dc=...
 LDAP_DOMAIN=my-domain.com
 # LDAP base DN to overwrite value generated by LDAP_DOMAIN
@@ -8,13 +14,15 @@ LDAP_SERVER=ldap://ldap:389
 LDAP_USER=cn=admin,dc=my-domain,dc=com
 # default language, e.g. en_US, de_DE, fr_FR, ...
 LAM_LANG=en_US
-
 # LAM configuration master password and password for server profile "lam"
 LAM_PASSWORD=lam
 
-# docker-compose only, LDAP organisation name for OpenLDAP
+#
+# docker-compose only, LDAP server setup
+#
+# LDAP organisation name for OpenLDAP
 LDAP_ORGANISATION="LDAP Account Manager Demo"
-# docker-compose only, LDAP admin password
+# LDAP admin password
 LDAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=adminpw
-# docker-compose only, password for LDAP read-only user
+# password for LDAP read-only user
 LDAP_READONLY_USER_PASSWORD=readonlypw
diff --git a/lam-packaging/docker/start.sh b/lam-packaging/docker/start.sh
index 15e15b69..8c4cf85d 100755
--- a/lam-packaging/docker/start.sh
+++ b/lam-packaging/docker/start.sh
@@ -23,28 +23,33 @@
 set -eu # unset variables are errors & non-zero return values exit the whole script
 [ "$DEBUG" ] && set -x
 
-LAM_LANG="${LAM_LANG:-en_US}"
-export LAM_PASSWORD="${LAM_PASSWORD:-lam}"
-LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA=$(php -r '$password = getenv("LAM_PASSWORD"); mt_srand((microtime() * 1000000)); $rand = abs(hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(5)))); $salt0 = substr(pack("h*", md5($rand)), 0, 8); $salt = substr(pack("H*", sha1($salt0 . $password)), 0, 4); print "{SSHA}" . base64_encode(pack("H*", sha1($password . $salt))) . " " . base64_encode($salt) . "\n";')
-LDAP_SERVER="${LDAP_SERVER:-ldap://ldap:389}"
-LDAP_DOMAIN="${LDAP_DOMAIN:-my-domain.com}"
-LDAP_BASE_DN="${LDAP_BASE_DN:-dc=${LDAP_DOMAIN//\./,dc=}}"
-LDAP_ADMIN_USER="${LDAP_USER:-cn=admin,${LDAP_BASE_DN}}"
+LAM_SKIP_PRECONFIGURE="${LAM_SKIP_PRECONFIGURE:-false}"
+if [ "$LAM_SKIP_PRECONFIGURE" != "true" ]; then
 
-sed -i -f- /etc/ldap-account-manager/config.cfg <<- EOF
-	s|^password:.*|password: ${LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA}|;
-EOF
-unset LAM_PASSWORD
+  LAM_LANG="${LAM_LANG:-en_US}"
+  export LAM_PASSWORD="${LAM_PASSWORD:-lam}"
+  LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA=$(php -r '$password = getenv("LAM_PASSWORD"); mt_srand((microtime() * 1000000)); $rand = abs(hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(5)))); $salt0 = substr(pack("h*", md5($rand)), 0, 8); $salt = substr(pack("H*", sha1($salt0 . $password)), 0, 4); print "{SSHA}" . base64_encode(pack("H*", sha1($password . $salt))) . " " . base64_encode($salt) . "\n";')
+  LDAP_SERVER="${LDAP_SERVER:-ldap://ldap:389}"
+  LDAP_DOMAIN="${LDAP_DOMAIN:-my-domain.com}"
+  LDAP_BASE_DN="${LDAP_BASE_DN:-dc=${LDAP_DOMAIN//\./,dc=}}"
+  LDAP_ADMIN_USER="${LDAP_USER:-cn=admin,${LDAP_BASE_DN}}"
 
-sed -i -f- /var/lib/ldap-account-manager/config/lam.conf <<- EOF
-	s|^ServerURL:.*|ServerURL: ${LDAP_SERVER}|;
-	s|^Admins:.*|Admins: ${LDAP_ADMIN_USER}|;
-	s|^Passwd:.*|Passwd: ${LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA}|;
-	s|^treesuffix:.*|treesuffix: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
-	s|^defaultLanguage:.*|defaultLanguage: ${LAM_LANG}.utf8|;
-	s|^.*suffix_user:.*|types: suffix_user: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
-	s|^.*suffix_group:.*|types: suffix_group: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
+  sed -i -f- /etc/ldap-account-manager/config.cfg <<- EOF
+    s|^password:.*|password: ${LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA}|;
 EOF
+  unset LAM_PASSWORD
+
+  sed -i -f- /var/lib/ldap-account-manager/config/lam.conf <<- EOF
+    s|^ServerURL:.*|ServerURL: ${LDAP_SERVER}|;
+    s|^Admins:.*|Admins: ${LDAP_ADMIN_USER}|;
+    s|^Passwd:.*|Passwd: ${LAM_PASSWORD_SSHA}|;
+    s|^treesuffix:.*|treesuffix: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
+    s|^defaultLanguage:.*|defaultLanguage: ${LAM_LANG}.utf8|;
+    s|^.*suffix_user:.*|types: suffix_user: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
+    s|^.*suffix_group:.*|types: suffix_group: ${LDAP_BASE_DN}|;
+EOF
+
+fi
 
 echo "Starting Apache"
 rm -f /run/apache2/apache2.pid