I had the idea to present the user with a PXE menu to install Ubuntu. After researching the idea, I decided to forgo this option, and utilize instead a zenity menu that could also be accessed by epoptes: github.com/jphein/boxen/…
However if you are interested in the PXE boot menu, and netbooting into a Ubuntu install here is some great info:
Alternatively,
<pre>#Add to MAC of second server your existing dhcp conf to tell it to run the installer by default when it PXE boots
[<mac address>]
filename /ubuntu-installer/amd64/pxelinux.0
#Log in remotely into second server, after install
ssh [email protected]<ip from dhcp syslog> -p ubuntu
</pre>
General Info
* Create PXE menu installer for both client and server.
* Client –> LTSP menu (default)
* Install boxen baby (wifi or vpn remote) client — ubuntu bionic desktop minimal install with xfreerdo-ngihtly
* Install boxen brain server — preseeded ubuntu with boxen install script
* Boot first HD
* netboot.xyz netboot.xyz/booting/tftp…
wiki.ubuntu.com/UEFI/PXE…
help.ubuntu.com/communit…
* Create Preseed file for PXE installers.
PXE booting
help.ubuntu.com/lts/inst…
This file contains bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
| #### Contents of the preconfiguration file (for wheezy) | |
| ### Localization | |
| # Preseeding only locale sets language, country and locale. | |
| d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select us | |
| d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US | |
| d-i console-tools/archs select at | |
| d-i console-keymaps-at/keymap select American English | |
| d-i debian-installer/keymap string us | |
| d-i keyboard-configuration/toggle select No toggling | |
| # Pick the interface to configure | |
| d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth0 | |
| # If you want the preconfiguration file to work on systems both with and | |
| # without a dhcp server, uncomment these lines and the static network | |
| # configuration below. | |
| d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed note | |
| d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually | |
| # Any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take precedence over | |
| # values set here. However, setting the values still prevents the questions | |
| # from being shown, even if values come from dhcp. | |
| d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname | |
| d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain | |
| # Disable that annoying WEP key dialog. | |
| d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string | |
| # If non-free firmware is needed for the network or other hardware, you can | |
| # configure the installer to always try to load it, without prompting. Or | |
| # change to false to disable asking. | |
| d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean true | |
| ### Mirror settings | |
| d-i mirror/country string manual | |
| d-i mirror/http/hostname string ftp.uk.debian.org | |
| d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian | |
| d-i mirror/http/proxy string | |
| # Suite to install. | |
| d-i mirror/suite string wheezy | |
| # Suite to use for loading installer components (optional). | |
| d-i mirror/udeb/suite string wheezy | |
| ### Account setup | |
| # Skip creation of a root account (normal user account will be able to | |
| # use sudo). | |
| d-i passwd/root-login boolean true | |
| # skip creation of a normal user account. | |
| d-i passwd/make-user boolean false | |
| # Root password, either in clear text | |
| d-i passwd/root-password password r00tme | |
| d-i passwd/root-password-again password r00tme | |
| ### Clock and time zone setup | |
| # Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC. | |
| d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true | |
| # You may set this to any valid setting for $TZ; see the contents of | |
| # /usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid values. | |
| d-i time/zone string Europe/London | |
| # Controls whether to use NTP to set the clock during the install | |
| d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true | |
| # NTP server to use. The default is almost always fine here. | |
| #d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string ntp.example.com | |
| ### Partitioning | |
| ## Partitioning example | |
| # If the system has free space you can choose to only partition that space. | |
| # This is only honoured if partman-auto/method (below) is not set. | |
| d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition select biggest_free | |
| # Alternatively, you may specify a disk to partition. If the system has only | |
| # one disk the installer will default to using that, but otherwise the device | |
| # name must be given in traditional, non-devfs format (so e.g. /dev/hda or | |
| # /dev/sda, and not e.g. /dev/discs/disc0/disc). | |
| # For example, to use the first SCSI/SATA hard disk: | |
| #d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda | |
| # In addition, you'll need to specify the method to use. | |
| # The presently available methods are: | |
| # – regular: use the usual partition types for your architecture | |
| # – lvm: use LVM to partition the disk | |
| # – crypto: use LVM within an encrypted partition | |
| d-i partman-auto/method string regular | |
| # If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned | |
| # contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a | |
| # warning. This can be preseeded away… | |
| d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true | |
| # The same applies to pre-existing software RAID array: | |
| d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true | |
| # And the same goes for the confirmation to write the lvm partitions. | |
| d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true | |
| d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true | |
| # You can choose one of the three predefined partitioning recipes: | |
| # – atomic: all files in one partition | |
| # – home: separate /home partition | |
| # – multi: separate /home, /usr, /var, and /tmp partitions | |
| d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select atomic | |
| # This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation, provided | |
| # that you told it what to do using one of the methods above. | |
| d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true | |
| d-i partman/choose_partition select finish | |
| d-i partman/confirm boolean true | |
| d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true | |
| ## Controlling how partitions are mounted | |
| # The default is to mount by UUID, but you can also choose "traditional" to | |
| # use traditional device names, or "label" to try filesystem labels before | |
| # falling back to UUIDs. | |
| d-i partman/mount_style select uuid | |
| ### Base system installation | |
| # Configure APT to not install recommended packages by default. Use of this | |
| # option can result in an incomplete system and should only be used by very | |
| # experienced users. | |
| d-i base-installer/install-recommends boolean false | |
| # By default the installer requires that repositories be authenticated | |
| # using a known gpg key. This setting can be used to disable that | |
| # authentication. Warning: Insecure, not recommended. | |
| d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated boolean true | |
| # Individual additional packages to install | |
| d-i pkgsel/include less file sudo openssh-server build-essential | |
| # Whether to upgrade packages after debootstrap. | |
| # Allowed values: none, safe-upgrade, full-upgrade | |
| d-i pkgsel/upgrade select none | |
| # Some versions of the installer can report back on what software you have | |
| # installed, and what software you use. The default is not to report back, | |
| # but sending reports helps the project determine what software is most | |
| # popular and include it on CDs. | |
| popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean true | |
| # Avoid that last message about the install being complete. | |
| d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note | |
| # This will power off the machine instead of just halting it. | |
| d-i debian-installer/exit/poweroff boolean true | |
help.ubuntu.com/lts/inst…
www.syslinux.org/wiki/in…
#ltsp: This is the place for support of LTSP. Ask your question and hang around for an answer. Check IRC logs at http://irclogs.ltsp.org [19:56] == jphein [[email protected]/web/freenode/ip.184.23.134.40] has joined #ltsp [19:56] -ChanServ- [#ltsp] Welcome to the Linux Terminal Server Project's irc channel [19:58] Hello to everyone. =] I have a nice LTSP install in KVM. It's using Ubuntu 18.04.1, with the chrootless dnsmasq proxy method [19:59] However, when I run ltsp-update-kernels my pxe config doesn't pick up the changes I make in /etc/ltsp/udpate-kernels.conf [20:00] my /var/lib/tftpboot/amd64pxelinux.cfg/ directory remains unchanged [20:01] When I make the changes directly in the files it works well [20:09] Am I missing something? [21:56] jphein: yes, /usr/share/ltsp/update-kernels [21:56] This transfers /etc/ltsp/update-kernels.conf to /boot/pxelinux.cfg/default [21:56] Then ltsp-update-image puts it in /opt/ltsp/images/amd64.img [21:57] And finally ltsp-update-kernels gets it from amd64.img and puts it to tftp [21:57] Thank you! I'll try it out. =] [21:57] It's so complicated that I wanted to get rid of it and just use a static file :D [21:59] hahaha [22:08] So it never goes to /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/amd64/pxelinux.cfg/ ? [22:17] I'd like to install Ubuntu as a pxe option before my ltsp menu [22:32] jphein: sure, it goes to pxelinux.cfg after the 4 steps I mentioned above [22:38] lol!
and
#ltsp: This is the place for support of LTSP. Ask your question and hang around for an answer. Check IRC logs at http://irclogs.ltsp.org [21:36] == jphein [[email protected]/web/freenode/ip.184.23.134.40] has joined #ltsp [21:36] -ChanServ- [#ltsp] Welcome to the Linux Terminal Server Project's irc channel [21:37] Hello! =] Does anyone know where I would put my install-ubuntu kernels so that update-kernels picks them up and presents them on the PXE menu? [21:39] Or, do I have to edit the pxelinux.cfg/default symlink manually? [21:39] == vagrantc [[email protected]/vagrantc] has joined #ltsp [21:41] This is my https://github.com/jphein/boxen/blob/master/etc/ltsp/update-kernels.conf [21:44] I suppose I can edit my dnsmasq.d/ to add the mac address of the client I'd want to install. With the ubuntu-install pxe boot config. [21:48] I'm also having issues with the chrootless method in the Azure cloud. Seems the Azure kernel may not have all the right input drivers for KVM? [22:25] jphein: I'm not sure what you're asking; why do you need more than one kernel? [22:25] If you only keep one kernel, then ltsp will pick them up [22:26] Now if you want multiple kernels, ltsp will pick up the latest [22:26] Sorry, let me rephrase that. Do you know of a simple way to present the PXE client user with a menu to install Ubuntu? [22:26] So if e.g. azure has 4.1, and you manually install 4.15, then the server will have 4.1 and the clients 4.15, without involving any configs [22:26] cool [22:26] jphein: ah sure, you just expose the .iso etc [22:27] But the "ltsp way to install a client" is to netboot it and cp -a /run/initramfs/rofs /target [22:27] I.e. to clone the ltsp image... [22:27] that's exactly what i want [22:28] You can also easily netboot it, and run: kvm -cdrom /path/to/windows -hda /dev/sda, so that you can even install windows while booted as an ltsp client [22:28] All those don't involve pxelinux at all [22:28] You do those via epoptes after the client boots normally via ltsp [22:28] oh yes kvm [22:28] (or locally) [22:29] with epoptes [22:29] nice [22:29] I usually don't want to leave my chair, so I do all clients via epoptes [22:29] haha =] [22:29] So I can be installed 3 different OSes on 3 clients without me going there [22:30] *I can install, meh [22:30] I can be installing. OK, got it :P [22:30] thank you , again! [22:30] np [22:30] I like that solution a lot. [22:31] Do you know the simplest way to preseed an Ubuntu installation with a few changes? [22:32] wcp -a /run/initramfs/rofs /target [22:32] Do I make a screen script? [22:33] jphein: let's clear something up [22:34] cp is for cloning the ltsp image [22:34] kvm is for installing ubuntu from an .iso [22:34] preseeding only applies to the iso [22:34] So which one are you asking about? [22:35] hahaha, I'm just very curious [22:35] =] [22:35] i like all of them [22:35] but I want to know more about the cp -a [22:35] it's a simple as that? [22:36] cloning [22:36] I don't make screen scripts for such simple things; I do make scripts that I run either from epoptes or directly from the client [22:36] cp, add user, install grub [22:36] You can also have a vm on the server, and use dd, to avoid all that [22:36] oh i see [22:37] using qcow? [22:37] or raw img [22:37] E.g. I have bionic-mate in vbox, then i expose it via nbd, and I dd if=/dev/nbd2 of=/dev/sda on the clients, and it's ready [22:37] Both can be done, qemu-nbd supports qcow and vdi and vmdk and raw [22:38] so many ways [22:38] that is the one i'll use since I already have the vm [22:38] You can even login normally as a user on the client, so that your image is accessible by sshfs in /home/username [22:38] So then you do dd if=/home/username/vms/myvm of=/dev/sda, done [22:38] No scripts, no screen scripts, nothing [22:39] You may only need to resize2fs /dev/sda1 afterwards, so that it extends to all the disk size [22:39] right [22:41] and you're doing this in a user with sudo privledges or something? [22:41] yes [22:41] Yup, with LDM_HASH_PASSWORD=True; or via epoptes :) [23:34] Which commands do you run after a cp -a /run/initramfs/rofs /target ? Install grub? [00:16] jphein: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt; cd /mnt; for d in proc sys dev dev/pts; do mount --bind /$d $d; done; chroot . dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc; umount dev/pts dev sys proc