Score:0

Make an installation USB fash drive to install 20.04 LTS desktop using http to image desktops and laptops

ie flag

This is about imaging desktops and laptops by field techs.

In rhel/centos, I can create a usb installation drive that will boot up a vmlinuz image, then pull the remaining info to boot up (eg initrd) by pulling it from an http server. It will then pull a kickstart configuration file from the http serverand build the system, again pulling everything from an http server. Easy, peasy.

What I can't find is how to do the same with Ubuntu. The info I find is to use pxe and tftp. Unfortunately, for security reasons, that's not an option for me. Is there any way to do something very similar with Ubuntu? It needs to be as close to "plug in and boot the flash drive, pick your http server, enter the system name, and go".

All input gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance.

guiverc avatar
cn flag
You haven't provided any release details; but on recent releases it can be accomplished by only having some files necessary to boot the system, as it checks for the remaining files; if those are not present (or are detected as being incomplete/flawed) a netboot is implemented. So to accomplish it for some releases merely corrupting part of an image written on the thumb-drive will accomplish it. (or writing the ISO to a bad thumb-drive will achieve it as well!)
muru avatar
us flag
I assume you meant HTTPS. I don't see how plain old HTTP is in any way more secure than TFTP.
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