Automated installs

[andreamtp]

Given the inflexibility of the Linux Mint installer, we hope the lmde live-installer can be more flexible:
for various scenarios, it can be preferable to have an unattended installation of the OS.

Like in scenario described in #108 - closed by @clefebvre after 2 years with no clarification - we have to deploy a hundreds of linux hosts (for NGO and schools) and an interactive installer make it impossible - and imaging is not an option either: systems are not all the same, and different batches may be needed.

At the same time we need to customize the system before releasing them, and we prefer to do it via network (ansible), also to keep the installation process small and fast.

Till linux mint 20 we evaluated also the possibility to customize the official linuxmint image using cubic, but is not a path we'd like to follow, because by editing the image we renounce to the QA effort linux mint team put into that release.

So for all the reasons above, is there any plan in LMDE to be able to provide a simple answer file passing it at live media boot time to the installer, in order to have an unattended installation?

That would make Mint the real nobrainer for linux on the desktop, having a solid base (debian), an user friendly UI and an immediate UX and a simple way to deliver that to school labs, ngo point of presence, internet corner for migrants and whatever else scenario.

If not, can you please explain or point out why Mint is so careless about large scale installations?

[minuxlintebiandedition]

Find a spare classroom, set up tables around the outside, and get yourself one wheeled office chair for the middle, cram it full of target machines, burn a load of lmde thumb drives, visit each in turn to administer their installs.

Many years ago, I would set up 20 laptops at a time with images that came on 21 floppy disks, which needed to be changed over. I could do 20 in parallel in the amount of time it took to set up 2 in series.

If target machines are all different, you'd need to boot each different target to check if the install succeeded.

[andreamtp]

Many years ago, I would set up 20 laptops at a time with images that came on 21 floppy disks, which needed to be changed over. I could do 20 in parallel in the amount of time it took to set up 2 in series.

Sorry for this poor experience you had to go through.

But it has been a while since we don't use floppy, nor CDs...
Boot from network is a reality since 1999.
Linux installers, like anaconda, have introduced support to automation at least 20 years ago.

The lack of this feature make impossible to install Linux Mint @ scale and/or in context where there's no IT in place.

If I setup a dedicated network with PXE boot and netinstall, I can instruct user, if the computer does not work as intended, to boot from ethernet in order to do reinstall it, and that will be the only thing he have to do.

The other way round, we need usb pen drive (that got lost or stolen) and have non techie ppl to boot from usb and answer too many questions...

[clefebvre]

Hi @andreamtp

If not, can you please explain or point out why Mint is so careless about large scale installations?

There are two reasons.

• Mint doesn't use its own installer. It uses ubiquity, which is an Ubuntu component. Because of this, it's restricted in its design and in how much it can modify it.
• LMDE uses live-installer (this is its git repository). We can add automation support in live-installer, but so far we haven't. And the reason for this is... two other reasons.. :)

1. Until now live-installer was only designed for LMDE, which itself isn't the primary focus of the Linux Mint project. This could change in the future, either with LMDE getting more attention, or with live-installer being ported to Mint to replace ubiquity.
2. The mint developers, myself included, are not experienced with PXE, automation and large scale deployments. I just implemented OEM support in live-installer this week, and I did it so in a way which is perfect for individual users, but for manufacturers to take advantage of this, I need to understand their needs.

Those needs might sound obvious to you, because you have them, but they're not at all obvious to us.

PXE, netinstall, ini files, remote WWW files are technicalities, means to an end: Automation. They're important of course but they're for a further discussion. What we need to know first is what you want to automate.

If you had an ini file with all the automations you wanted to see happen, what would it look like?