How to create USB that automatically installs Ubuntu Server 20.04

autoinstall.md

Steps to create the bootable USB

1. Create folder

mkdir autoinstall-ISO
cd autoinstall-ISO

2. Download ubuntu-autoinstall-generator

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/covertsh/ubuntu-autoinstall-generator/main/ubuntu-autoinstall-generator.sh

3. Add execute permission

chmod +x ubuntu-autoinstall-generator.sh

4. Create folder for files that are going to be baked in to the ISO

mkdir server

5. Create user-data and meta-data files in the server directory (user-data is included as an attachement)

touch server/meta-data

Generate your password hash (replace PASSWORD with your password)

openssl passwd -6 -stdin <<< PASSWORD

Replace the passord hash in user-data. More information about the cloud-init config can be found here.

6. Create ISO image ubuntu-20.04-autoinstall.iso

sudo ./ubuntu-autoinstall-generator.sh -a -k -u server/user-data -m server/meta-data -d ubuntu-20.04-autoinstall.iso

7. Plug in your USB device that is going to be turned into bootable USB, discover it with lsblk → assume that the device has the name of sdX
8. Create a bootable USB using the dd command, don't forget to replace sdX with the actual name of your USB device
   ⚠️ This action erases all data from the USB device

sudo dd if=ubuntu-20.04-autoinstall.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1024k status=progress && sync

9. Plug in the USB into the machine where Ubuntu Server 20.04 will be installed
10. Turn on the machine
    ⚠️ This action installs Ubuntu Server 20.04 on the target machine and can not be reverted

Test the ISO

1. Download VirtualBox
2. Create new machine with at least 5 GB disk space (Create a virtual hard disk now), the Hard disk file type may be HDD (Parallels Hard Disk)
3. Right click on the newly created machine → Settings → Storage → Click on the empty → Set the source as the newly created ISO with the blue CD icon on the right
4. Click on Start and wait

Access the machine

1. Wait 5-10 mins after pressing the power button
2. Use nmap to identify the machine: port 22 will be open if ssh-server was installed (ssh section of the user-data file)
3. SSH into the device

ssh ubuntu@<IP of the device>

Useful links

• Example 1
• Example 2 (without ubuntu-autoinstall-generator)
• Example cloud-init config 1
• Example cloud-init config 2
• Automated server installation - Ubuntu Docs
• ubuntu-autoinstall-generator

user-data

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  identity:
    hostname: ubuntu-server
    password: $6$iAB8EhpFltgyVCE/$CUGLVkOKAw7ILpJMr4gQxz9WpEPTSNjzjRFRT1oXsgdYAia5XwfQrDj/YeqgH3DX0Gx09MvXnsYtmEQTfU3Pk0
    username: ubuntu
  keyboard:
    layout: en
    toggle: null
    variant: ''
  locale: en_EN.UTF-8
  ssh:
    allow-pw: true
    install-server: true
  packages:
    - build-essential
    - network-manager

Not runnable from macOS due to the use of isolinux :-(
(managed to brew install everything else)