[Tech] Partimus / PXE unattended install solution

Christian Einfeldt einfeldt at gmail.com
Fri Mar 20 13:50:35 PDT 2015


Hi,

I have gotten some feedback from the teacher, Abigail Rudner.  She says
that she has been having trouble with the Chrome browser crashing.  I don't
know what that is all about.  Maybe the conflicts that James Howard
experienced between Firefox and iTalc have been resolved, and maybe we can
remove Chrome as she requests:


*I am currently running:*
Google docs
GIMP
Blue Fish editor (html)
Firefox
Chrome (which crashes a lot and needs to get removed)

*It would be great to have:*
3d  modeling software
video editing software
sound editing softwaredrawing software

Thanks!

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 11:34 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Christian, All,
>
> Hello :-)
>
>
> I'd like to get the ball rolling first by outlining what we're actually
> trying to do. I've added my notes to the shared document, and below.
>
> *@Christian,* please let me know if I've gotten carried away. As you
> haven't yet given a wishlist, I have dreamt one up....!
>
>
> At this point in time, the outline points are educated guesses on my part
> - I've looked into PXE and unattended installs in the past, and worked with
> some pre-setup ones in past positions, but not yet had a project goal to
> work to myself - hence I am taking this opportunity :-).
>
> It may be full of holes.
>
> Please do poke those holes and suggest/add any improvements/changes!
>
>
> If anybody has a burning desire to look into any one Task in particular,
> maybe let the group know/put your name next to it so we're not doubling
> effort - and of course, add sub/tasks as you see necessary :-)
>
>
>
> I look forward to working on this with you all!
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Tai
>
>
> /============
>
> Following from my earlier notes, I would like to suggest attaining the
> goals outlined below, to wit:
>
> ## Goal workflow for workstation install:
>
>         * teacher inserts CD into machine and reboots it from said CD
>         * teacher needs to only click a couple of times to launch the
> install process
>         ---- this may also involve choosing a network name for the PC
>         * teacher can remove the CD and walk away, whilst the PC does its
> thing on the network
>
>
> ## Server install/maintenance
>
> Installation of the server may need sending someone onsite, or we can
> prepare an image that the teacher can install, with a post-install script
> to finish the job.
>
> The server should be able to just run headless and will probably be in
> command line mode unless specified otherwise (who normally performs
> maintenance?)
>
> System updates may or may not be installed by a remote technician, or
> automatically. From a break-prevention point of view I prefer the former
> (or a technician at the school can be trained); for the school's
> independence, the latter may be more relevant.
>
> At any rate, since the server is to host a master image, I'd like to
> insist that the machine /needs/ keeping up to date and secure from any
> non-authorized users in the school, or super-savvy/curious students :-)
>
>
> ###
>
> I propose the following deliverables:
>
>         * An install image with the required software and
> very-few-questions-asked
>         * PXE server serving the image
>         * Pre-seed file served from PXE server
>         * PXE server install image itself (in case the server needs
> resetting) and/or install procedure
>         * Delivery on DVDs for archival and off-Internet purposes
>         * Hopefully, a full build manual for future maintainers
>
> ###
>
> Tasks to attain this, as far as I can see, are:
>
> * Create custom "ISO" of target desktop setup (rather, dir structure for
> serving over the web) from Ubuntu server
> * Prepare the pre-seed file (which needs to include installation of
> Lubuntu desktop) (this is the workaround I can imagine to get around
> Lubuntu's lack of netboot)
> * Prepare a PXE server setup
> * Prepare an image of the PXE setup (which will include the contents of
> the target ISO)
>
> ===
>
> Resources I've found most relevant so far:
>
>
>    - UnattendedInstall CD :
>    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/UnattendedCD
>    - Custom CD incl pre-seed :
>    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization
>    - PXE setup : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallServer
>
>
> For Lubuntu, this may require using tasksel to install Lubuntu on top of a
> server base, as the std Lubuntu CD does not have the requisite config files
> ( /netboot )
>
> =============/
>
>
>
>
> ===
> Tai Kedzierski
>
> IT Services Specialist
> http://helpuse.com
> +44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
>
>   I use www.libreoffice.org
>
> *"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
> https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
>
>
> On 18 March 2015 at 23:01, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Thanks to everyone for your replies over the past couple of days about
>> moving forward with the Ascend Linux lab, and thanks to each of you for
>> your interest in the project.  I have gotten some good feedback from you
>> all about this project, and I greatly appreciate what I have heard from
>> each of you.  I have introduced each of you in an invitation to the google
>> docs document, so that you hopefully might have an idea as to who everyone
>> is.  To that list I will add Jim Stockford, who runs a tech company called
>> Systemateka.com that provides a wide array of open source computer
>> solutions.  Jim is one of our leading volunteers in our lab projects, and
>> has been a major backbone of our work on our Linux labs in schools.
>>
>> Partimus has always moved forward by relying on preserving the goodwill
>> of the members of the projects we work on and as a board all of our
>> decisions thus far have been unanimous decisions, as far as I can see.  I
>> think the fact that our formal votes are unanimous reflects the fact that
>> we value the input of each of our participants, and we want to build
>> consensus and goodwill, rather than focus on short term outcomes.
>>
>> Partimus also tends to be a do-ocracy, meaning that people who have the
>> greatest passion and time for a given project tend to take the reigns of a
>> project, and the others tend to support them.  So if you see something that
>> interests you, please feel free to take the ball and run with it.
>>
>> And so at this time, it appears that Tai Kedzierski, Mike Rojas, and Jim
>> Stockford have the kind of time and expertise needed to bring completion to
>> the PXE bootable .iso project.  It seems that Elizabeth and Grant have the
>> expertise, but are slammed with projects at this time and so might not be
>> among the first responders on this project; Jim Stockford describes himself
>> as interested in the PXE boot project but says that he has not done such an
>> .iso yet, but thinks he can help out; and Eric Burke has said that coding
>> is not his forte but is interested in following the project and is writing
>> a doctoral thesis on open source projects; and I absolutely suck at
>> coding.  Please correct me if I have not correctly stated anyone's interest
>> or availability correctly, and my apologies in advance if I have made a
>> mistake.
>>
>> If anyone would like to have an IRC chat about this project, I am up for
>> that.  Please just remember that Tai is in Scotland.  The rest of us are in
>> the San Francisco Bay Area, at least right now.
>>
>> Eric has found a documentation page that might be helpful for us in
>> starting out the PXE boot project:
>>
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PXEInstallMultiDistro
>>
>> Tai has sent me an email about the Google doc that I circulated.
>> Elizabeth tells me that doc is actually for a specialized manual install
>> .iso, not a PXE-boot .iso, so again my apologies if I have started us down
>> the wrong road, and thanks for that correction, Elizabeth.  Here is a link
>> to that Google doc:
>>
>>
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
>>
>> Eric Burke's link above might be a better starting point, I'm not sure
>>
>> More comments below in response to a recent email from Tai:
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 4:21 AM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Christian
>>>
>>> Thanks - I wasn't expecting the "League of Extraordinary Sysadmins"
>>> gathering!
>>>
>>> Good to know there are others who will be able to provide insight!
>>>
>>> Rather than muck around in the document you provided (which has the
>>> initial vital info!) would it be possible you share a separate empty Google
>>> doc to serve as a collaboration/communication area? I'll dump the following
>>> in it afterwards
>>>
>>
>> Thanks, Tai.  As I said above, I think I might have started us off on the
>> wrong document, and maybe Eric Burke's link would be better?  I don't know.
>>
>> At any rate, the document that I circulated is a copy, it is not the
>> original, so if you would like to add the text below to that document, it
>> doesn't bother me.  If you would like to start another google document,
>> that would be fine as well.
>>
>> More from Tai below:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> ===
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I had a quick look at PXE setup yesterday [2015/03/17] and it seems the
>>> straightforward setup simply serves the installation media over the network
>>> instead of reducing steps to install - James's notes seem to align with
>>> this, as in there is customization done but the teacher still has to
>>> manually sit through the initial install screens (select languages, accept
>>> partitions, choose various options etc)?
>>>
>>>
>>> Probably what we are looking for then is an "Unattended install"?
>>>
>>> To that end I wanted to ask what the intended/acceptable workflow was -
>>> when I was at the University of Edinburgh IT desk, our workflow for
>>> installing was:
>>>
>>> * Go to physical machine
>>> * Reboot to special CD
>>> * hit enter
>>> * walk away with CD whilst the PC automatically downloaded from the
>>> network and installed everything
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ##
>>> Another issue I encountered was a lack of netboot/pxeboot.cfg files on
>>> the Lubuntu ISO which might need working around (though have not yet had
>>> time to check if there are alternative methods).
>>>
>>> I'm sure there's a straighforward solution however.
>>>
>>> ##
>>> I think Machine #3 (P4 @ 1.8 GHz + 500MB RAM) will be the target
>>> candidate for becoming the server.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ===
>>> Tai Kedzierski
>>>
>>> IT Services Specialist
>>> http://helpuse.com
>>> +44 (0) 7526 963 612 (portable GB)
>>>
>>>   I use www.libreoffice.org
>>>
>>> *"Open Source Free Software is a matter of liberty, not price."*
>>> https://bitly.com/1gXkUcc
>>>
>>>
>>> On 17 March 2015 at 21:12, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> thanks for your reply, Tai.  Comments in line below....
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 12:33 PM, Tai Kedzierski <dch.tai at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Christian
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll see what I can do as fastest for this.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks so much!
>>>>
>>>>> For proper PXE + Customized ISO it would require work to integrate it
>>>>> all;
>>>>>
>>>>> However we can break it into PXE as first goal; and until ISO
>>>>> customization os done, I can certainly envisage a fully automating script
>>>>> for the rest of the installation of custom s.w and settings.
>>>>>
>>>> Hi, thanks for that info.  I have found some of the notes from one of
>>>> our Linux gurus about what he did with regard to making a Lubuntu PXE boot
>>>> disc for another teacher.  I have invited you to the google doc so that you
>>>> can see it and possibly get a little bit of a jump on the project.  In the
>>>> meantime, I am going to try to assemble our gurus for a chat about the
>>>> document, either in IRC or elsewhere, perhaps even in a chat in the
>>>> document itself.  I have invited you to the document, but here is a link to
>>>> it:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgt_fkGUVdANcnZ1W2S5Rv15Hx3S92Ynn9Mui3xB_E/edit?usp=sharing
>>>>
>>>> Here is a link to the summary of the Ascend school's Linux lab:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_s0E7w40zs80yZNrVRqupml6jqADKjD9XoJ3uFkhQMw/edit?usp=sharing
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Can you provide them a server to serve as core PXE master, or will we
>>>>> repurpose a desktop PC to this end?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We will be looking for a server, but for now, we will probably
>>>> repurpose a desktop machine.
>>>>
>>>>> How frequently do they need to do installs?
>>>>>
>>>> Initially, they will want to flash all 25 machines.  Then it will be a
>>>> couple times a month as the older machines fail.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Are you mostly installing Ubuntu derivatives?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes, that is all that we are doing.  We try to use as few distros as
>>>> possible, and one of our board members, Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph, is a
>>>> Ubuntu Community Council member.  Plus Ubuntu has good documentation, which
>>>> is good for a simple end user like me.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for your interest!
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Christian Einfeldt
>>
>
>


-- 
Christian Einfeldt
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