Ubuntu Installer

autoinstall

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/1235723/automated-20-04-server-installation-using-pxe-and-live-server-image
• https://tlhakhan.medium.com/ubuntu-server-20-04-autoinstall-2e5f772b655a - really helpful
• https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/automated-server-installs/16612

Legacy Installer

The LCFG installer for Ubuntu 19.10 (eoan) and 20.04 (focal) is based on the Minimal ISO. It's important to note that Ubuntu now provide the netboot files in a legacy images directory which might imply that at some future date they will remove support for this installation solution. We could switch to installing with an ISO (even when PXE booting) but we would prefer not to have to load large ISOs into memory during the install if we can help it.

• Eoan netboot files
• Focal netboot files

For those running an SL7 based PXE server there is an ubuntu-netboot package which provides all the files needed for eoan and focal in /var/lib/tftpboot/ubuntu-netboot, there is also an ubuntu-netboot-iso package if you also need the mini.iso files.

The install process is driven by the debian-installer preseed scripts. A CGI script is provided in the lcfg-install-preseed package which translates the LCFG XML profile into a suitable collection of seed files and install scripts. Much of the process can be controlled via resources in the LCFG install component, when a greater level of control is required site-specific templates may be provided to override or extend the standard template files.

Useful Notes

• https://cptyesterday.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/notes-on-using-expert_recipe-in-debianubuntu-preseed-files/
• https://cptyesterday.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/get-expert_recipe-mdraid-lvm-gpt-and-grub2-playing-together-on-ubuntu-lucid-and-debian-squeeze/
• https://github.com/ahamilton55/Blog-Scripts/blob/master/debian_ubuntu_preseeds/ubuntu-partitions.preseed
• https://www.bishnet.net/tim/blog/2015/01/29/understanding-partman-autoexpert_recipe/
• https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/blob/master/doc/devel/partman-auto-recipe.txt

-- squinney - 2020-04-30