[Feature Request] Add script option to use 18.04 Minimal install option

[Patrick M. Womack]

Useful for installation minimization.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

debug:debconf (developer): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug-debconf (developer): --> 1 false
--
debug:debconf (developer): <-- SET ubiquity/minimal_install true
debug-debconf (developer): --> 0 value set
debug:debconf (developer): <-- FSET ubiquity/minimal_install seen true
debug-debconf (developer): --> 0 true
--
debug:May 1 11:27:24 debconf (filter): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug:debconf (developer): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug-debconf (developer): --> 1 true
--
debug:May 1 11:27:24 debconf (filter): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug:debconf (developer): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug-debconf (developer): --> 1 true
--
debug:May 1 11:31:22 debconf (filter): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug:debconf (developer): <-- GET ubiquity/minimal_install
debug-debconf (developer): --> 1 true

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Adding this to the data/preseed.txt file will do a minimal install (which takes up about 3.5 GB instead of 5.5 GB)

ubiquity ubiquity/minimal_install boolean true

I'll figure out a way to control this from the main curtinator script.

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

Which should I add? The first comment of changes to debconf? or just minimal_install boolean true?

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Just this line:

ubiquity ubiquity/minimal_install boolean true

Add it next to the other lines that start with "ubiquity" so it looks nice.

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

Tried this, didn't work. I've attached my preseed.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Looks similar to the one I used...

let me dig into this a bit, will update soon.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Maybe you just had bad luck because the preseed looks fine, I've been experimenting with this setting and a version of curtinator with a nice "-m" switch will be up soon. I'll mark this bug Fix Released when it's ready.

There'll be one additional dependency (gettext-base) to be able to use the envsubst utility.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

1.4G May 2 10:55 18.04-desktop-minimal/minimal.tgz
1.6G May 2 11:06 18.04-desktop-normal/normal.tgz

Those are tar.gz sizes. I checked inside the VMs to ensure the minimal install one was done correctly (it was; the system reporter thingy on first boot said "minimal": "true"). Also checked actual usage inside the VMs.

Normal uses 4277 MB
Minimal uses 3722 MB

So the gain is not huge, 555 MB, or about 15%. In any case, it's supported now, and should be safely ignored on releases that don't understand the minimal desktop install.

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

I'll wipe and redownload my copy and test the -m flag again. It's possible that I didn't write it correctly (not really fully versed on the way that preseed works)

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

Attempted this again using the -m flag, and got the same result. Now I am testing with the root.qcow2 image instead of the tar.gz (because I'm a bit lazy and don't want to bother wiping and reloading a mass image every time). I'm going to redownload the image and try again, but as of right now I am still seeing a full image (libreoffice etc installed).

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

Scratch that, it's an issue with my ISO.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

yes, I was about to comment it could be an outdated ISO :)

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

Now this isn't directly related to this issue, but could you check https://launchpad.net/cubic and see why I would be having issues?

Do note you have to replace the .disk folder on the custom iso so that Curtinator will still find the preseed path.

For reference I'm using Cubic to add two files to the iso so that I have a service ready to go after install. I can provide the files if you'd like to review them.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

I don't know how cubic modifies the iso, but you're probably going about this the hard way. What curtinator produces is a tar.gz with the files exactly as they will be uncompressed on the installed filesystem. So you can simply uncompress that tar.gz, put the files you need in place, and then recompress it. Just make sure to do this as root and use the -numeric-owner option to tar.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Actually it may be worth trying - gunzip the .gz file, so you obtain a .tar, then you could potentially tar -r the new files directly without having to untar the whole thing. Then simply gzip the .tar again and you're done.

You may have to play a bit with the tar options and paths for your files so they appear in the right place in the image.

Example of appending files to an existing tarfile:

roadmr@blackdog:/tmp$ tar -cf foo.tar /etc/passwd
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
roadmr@blackdog:/tmp$ tar -rf foo.tar /etc/group
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
roadmr@blackdog:/tmp$ tar -tvf foo.tar
-rw-r--r-- root/root 2734 2017-11-22 20:48 etc/passwd
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1196 2018-01-22 21:08 etc/group

[Patrick M. Womack (ipat8)]

After some digging I determined this is an issue with Cubic. For some reason Cubic removes the minimal install manifest which Ubiquity relies on for the minimal install. After modifying the ISO to restore the file the install worked, and booted to a minimal install. I've logged a bug with the Cubic team.