On Tue, 19 Aug 2025, Jean-Francois Messier via linux wrote:
> Not sure whether this would work with Ubuntu, but for Red Hat, you
> could mount a separate ISO file as a secondary CDROM, or a Floppy
> image containing the autoinst.yaml and it would install it as per
> this YAML file. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As for not
> re-creating a whole new ISO file, I think Robert is right. Unless,
> of course you have new packages you also need to be added to the
> ISO.
>
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 9:31 AM Robert P. J. Day via linux <linux [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org> wrote:
>
> based on my perusal of a number of alleged tutorials related to how
> to configure auto-installation of ubuntu {desktop,server} 24.04+, here
> is what seems to be the most straightforward overview:
>
> https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-repackage-an-ubuntu-iso-image-for-autoinstall-using-yaml
>
> i'm about to give that a test run, but it would be just ducky if
> someone who's done this before can confirm that, since ubuntu
> 24.04(?), all that is necessary is to grab a standard ubuntu ISO, open
> it up, copy your autoinstall.yaml file into the root directory of the
> ISO, then pack it up again using "xorriso" or something similar.
>
> i ask since other tutorials suggested you needed to rebuild grub.cfg
> and other files in the ISO, but the tutorial above clearly implies
> that all you need to do is add that autoinstall.yaml file, and the
> installer will use that if it exists, and you don't need to do any
> further configuration.
>
> does that sound about right?
>
> rday
Based on what I've read, my plan for the afternoon is to pull an old
laptop off the shelf, then copy the Ubuntu Server 24.04.3 ISO to a USB
stick, and do nothing more with that USB stick than add a simple
autoinstall.yaml file to the top-level directory, and see if that
boots and processes the autoinstall content.
rday