Ubuntu 24 desktop autoinstall
Posted by Crabstick2551@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 2 comments
I spent two weeks trying to figure how to make autonomous ubuntu install, to use with PXE server but all i can't figure how to do it properly, either i'm encountering errors during gui boot-up or it's just outright not working.
Especially hard for me it due to requirements for every installation:
- LUKS + LVM
- admin account
- pre-entered ssh key for ansible server as well as allowance for ansible to execute commands without entering sudo password every time.
Is there any proper way to do exactly that, or desktop is not suitable for the autonomous setup?
Made4FunForced2Work@reddit
What exactly is the problem you are having?
I have 24.04 Desktop autoinstall from a PXE server that also acts as the DHCP server. I use isc-dhcp-server to set up the dhcp. I have tftpd-hpa serving my EFI bootx64 since we only use UEFI. I have the contents of the .iso in a nfs directory. I use http to serve the user-data file that sets the timezone and language, basic admin user. Then I have it perform a runcmd with a built in sleep to wait for network to initialize (only need 30 seconds sleep to ensure in my case) after the sleep it sends a POST command to my ansible server with the 24.04's IPV4 address.
On the ansible server I have a Flask/Python application that is just listening for POST calls with IP addresses, and when it receives a valid call, i.e. one with an IP address supplied (which is curl -X POST http://hostname:port/callback -d ip=$ip) it fires off an ansible playbook against the newly installed 24.04 which builds all the users, private keys, and the rest of the configuration.
Ansible should not need an ssh key to execute commands without a sudo password, it just needs credentials with privileges and then you use ansible become for it to elevate the commands...
I only use LVM but you can set up LUKS in your user-data as well.
You should be able to achieve at least the automatic installation of 24.04 with an admin account.
Alternatively if you are having server installations work for you without any issue, just add the package ubuntu-desktop to the list in your user-data and bam, you have a desktop environment.
piorekf@reddit
According to their page it's either a YAML file on the installation media (method that I used recently) or cloud-config via HTTP. Not sure if it's possible to use the local media YAML file if the installation media is server via PXE.