This repository is intended to produce a bootable UEFI image that allows installing a full bare metal system.
Originally for using ZFS on root disks, the project is expanding to support other debian-style distributions and other filesystems.
Be aware that it is not intended for building dual-boot systems. While you are given the ability to choose which disks are used, the EFI boot system will wipe other OS entries.
It uses an Ubuntu kernel and a minimal ramdisk builder to host the scripts used to perform the actual install.
Quick start:
- Download the installer image:
- use a released iso image file from github
- Alternatively, build the image (see the below section on building)
- Boot the image (using one of the boot options below)
- Install
There are two different installer image files created:
- IMG file
- ISO file
In most circumstances, the IMG image is the normal version to use as it is a standard EFI bootable disk image.
These installer image files can be downloaded from the github release page - Use the most recent release for your download.
Once your image file is downloaded, the simplest way to use it is to put the
image onto a USB stick, with a tool like dd or Etcher
For dd:
-
First, determine what disk to write to:
lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,LABEL(carefully select the correct disk device)
-
Then write the image to the disk:
echo "Verify and run: sudo dd if=boot.iso of=$DISK"
This installer creates boot images that will not work with Secure Boot, so be sure to turn this feature off if your computer has it.
You will need to set your computer to boot using EFI (as opposed to "legacy" or "BIOS" boot mode) and may need to manually interrupt the boot sequence to select booting from the USB stick (systems that have an existing operating system installed on the hard drive will probably need this manual step)
The installer is built using the EFIShell tool, which will automatically load a "startup.nsh" script to start the install process. However, if your system has more than one disk with a "startup.nsh" script, it may not run the correct one.
If you find that the EFIShell is running the wrong script, you should reboot and interrupt the EFIShell by pressing "ESC" when it prompts you and then manually start the installer by typing "install" at the "Shell>" prompt.
This boot process can take a significant amount of time - it needs to load and uncompress >200Meg of data from the (sometimes quite slow) USB stick.
TODO - make a joke about the pen (supermicro boot menu)
Once booted, the VGA screen on the computer show a status page provided by the
htop tool. The installation can be started simply by using the F10 key
to exit the status page.
At the start of the installation, some basic questions will asked (See below for a complete list with explanations) - the default values are mostly all fine and will result in a system installed with a gnome desktop environment.
The default root password is root and should be changed. You should also fill
in the User login, password and Full Name.
The installer will then detect your storage devices and suggest a ZFS layout. The suggested layout will be shown to you in two phases:
- A series of tick boxes allowing you to check and confirm which disks will be partitioned or formatted during the installation
- The command line to be used to create the ZFS filesystem will be shown for editing - allowing advanced users to make additional changes (or just correct mistakes in the automated layout detection)
Once the install is complete, you will be prompted to reboot
Note that the installer can also be run from the command line, and that there is an unattended mode which asks no questions - to assist with automation.
The installer has a number of options available to tune the installed system.
| Env Name | Config prompt | Default |
|---|---|---|
| CONFIG_DESKTOP | Desktop Package(s) | ubuntu-gnome-desktop |
| CONFIG_ROOT_PW | Root Passwd | root |
| CONFIG_USER | User Login | |
| CONFIG_USER_PW | User Passwd | |
| CONFIG_USER_FN | User Full Name | |
| CONFIG_LOCALE | System Locale | en_HK.UTF-8 |
| CONFIG_TIMEZONE | System Timezone | Asia/Hong_Kong |
| CONFIG_PROXY | HTTP Proxy | |
| CONFIG_POOL | ZFS Zpool Name | tank |
| CONFIG_HOSTNAME | Installed system's hostname | Based on a generated name |
The interactive installation keeps a log of the installation process in "/installer/install.log". If the install fails, this file can be checked for error messages.
TODO
- change this log file to be kept after a successful install
To ensure that two installs are not running on the same system, when the installer is started, it creates a lock file "/installer/installer.lock".
If the installation fails for a temporary reason, this lock file will need to be manually deleted before retrying the install (or, simply reboot the installer)
Unless you have built your own image, the default root password used by the
installer is root
The installer image is running an ssh server. If you built your own image, there is an easy process to add ssh authorized keys to the installer.
For simple network discovery, the installer image is also running a mactelnet
server. If you are on the same network segment as a booted installer, you can
quickly discover the IP address it has used with the mactelnet-client software:
mactelnet -l will wait for broadcasts and show the systems detected. (If
you build your own image, you could add a mactelnetd.users file to allow logins
via this service, but by default it is simply for network discovery)
A serial console is started on ttyS1, it is running at 115200 bits per second and is expected to be used when installing server equipment (Configure your IPMI Serial-over-LAN and connect remotely to this console)
In addition to the default htop status screen, there is a login prompt on the virtual console 2 - this can be reached with Ctrl-Alt-F2, and the htop status screen returned to with Ctrl-Alt-F1
If you are booting using a BMC and wish to use the virtual media to boot from then you will most probably need the CDROM ISO image.
Attach the boot.iso file using the virtial media controls
When using the ISO image, be aware that some EFI versions do not support booting from the stick as if it was a cdrom.
The ISO file is mainly built for people who are remotely installing a server using a IPMI or BMC controller and a Virtual CDROM.
The install image is a EFI bootable disk, and this may require you to change your firmware boot order to select the installer. The boot image has a startup.nsh file that tells the EFI Shell the file to load and the parameters to use in order to boot (This is the place where the serial console is specified)
There are two files built for use with pxebooting.
kernel/ubuntu.amd64.kernel - This is the bootable linux kernel combined.initrd - This is the initrd containing the installer
Using pxelinux, the following stanza could be added to your pxelinux.cfg:
label baremetalzfs
linux kernel/ubuntu.amd64.kernel
append initrd=combined.initrd console=ttyS1,115200
menu label Bare metal Installer with ZFS on root
Before building the image for the first time, ensure that all required software is installed:
make build-depends
Then build the main installer images:
make bootable-images
The completed boot.iso and boot.img can be used to boot a system.
Not all the dependancies are correctly managed, so if you need to ensure a full rebuild is done, a clean can be done before the build:
make clean
If the cached large downloads are also out of date, they can be removed with the really clean target:
make reallyclean
To allow simpler examination of the system and further development, there are a number of test targets available:
test_quick - By directly booting the kernel, avoid loading the EFI and thus boot the system faster (broadly similar to a PXE boot)
test_efi - Boot via EFI - allowing confirmation that the built image is a valid EFI boot disk. This target does not open a graphics window and assumes only a serial console is in use.
test_efigui - Boot via EFI with a graphic console. This is basically the same as "test_efi", except that a window showing the VGA screen is opened in addition to the serial console output on the terminal.
test_efigui_persist - The same as "test_efigui" with the addition of a virtual hard drive. This can be used to test running the installer scripts to completion and then booting the installed system. The virtual hard drive is only created if it is missing, so it will persist between test runs (if this is not desired, either delete the file manually, or run "make reallyclean".
- configure apt proxy settings from install environment to installed environ
- Ctrl-Left keystroke sequence doesnt work on text console (x11 is OK)