I don’t have spare peripherals like a monitor and a keyboard. How do you suggest I do a bare-metal install of Debian on a computer (meant to be a server)?
Also, the word you’re looking for is: “headless”, as in, “headless install”
PXE boot? It must be enable in the bios already. Then you could prep a image and deploy it that way.
I don’t think it’s enabled, but I guess I can’t check
While I agree with most people here that finding a keyboard and screen would be the easiest option, you do have a couple of other options:
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Use a preseed file A preseed lets the installer run completely automatically, without user intervention. Get it to install a basic system with SSH and take it from there. You’ll want to test the install in a VM, where you can see what’s going on before letting it run on the real server. More information here: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed
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Boot from a live image with SSH Take a look at https://wiki.debian.org/LiveCD in particular ‘Debian Live’. It looks like ssh is included, but you’d want to check the service comes up on boot. You can then SSH to the machine and install to the harddrive that way. Again, test on a VM until you know you have the image working, and know how to run the install, then write it to a USB key and boot the tsrget server from that.
This all assumes the target server has USB or CD at the top of its boot order. If it doesn’t you’ll have to change that first, either with a keyboard and screen, or via a remote management interface sych as IPMI.
Once upon a time you could use a thing called
debootstrapto install Debian on the hard disk in a chroot on another machine, then switch the hdd to the target machine. Not sure if that thing is still around.Yes, that’ll work too, it does involve adding the disk to your machine temporarily though, so just be carefully which disk you format to do it. Please don’t ask why I say that, it brings back painful memories…
You could just use the installer
I did look at Preseed and it’s probably a good idea if I’m doing many installs at once. I will still look at it but I’ll likely have to purchase a monitor anyway. It is unfortunate because I don’t have any thrift stores nearby
It’s going to be a balance between your time getting an automated approach to work and the cost/effort of getting a monitor. Getting preseed working can be a bit fiddly, but it does mean you’ve learnt a new skill, getting a monitor sounds like it’ll be a pain, and you might only need it once.
Exactly. It’s junk after that
Putting a simple preseed file on a debian install image is probably going to be your best bet. Assuming you can run a VM on your current machine it shouldn’t be too difficult to test it until you’re happy with it.
I’ll have to try that. Thanks!
example preseed file which I use to provision new servers (VMs)
Thank you!
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If you really, really, really don’t want to buy a keyboard and monitor, you can buy a USB KVM console, but it’ll likely cost more. Something like this: https://www.startech.com/en-us/server-management/notecons01
Wow that’s expensive. But thanks something to keep in mind. I’m planning to build my own $25 KVM with Chinese parts off of Aliexpress and PiKVM (if that’s possible)
https://github.com/philpagel/debian-headless
It is possible but I wouldn’t do it. Too much effort for too little result.
Just plug your main monitor / keyboard into the server, run the setup and don’t install a DE. Afterwards login, enable SSH, unplug the monitor and do whatever you need over SSH.
Let’s face it, you’ll have to do this procedure once every xyz years, there’s no point in complicating this stuff. Also depending on your motherboard you may or may not be able to boot into the installer without a screen / keyboard attached. Another option is to install the OS in another computer and the move the hard drive to the target server - this is all fine until you run into UEFI security or another detail and it doesn’t boot your OS.
All I have is a laptop. I’m getting these machines for free from a friend
I picked up a second hand monitor from a goodwill shop for like $7USD. It would be worth having a display of some sort for troubleshooting.
You’re going to want a monitor and keyboard anyway. It’s going to be pretty hard to troubleshoot a boot issue in the future without them.
Well I see your problem, but you’re going to have a bad time without a screen. Maybe you can get something second hand / cheap or even ask a friend to borrow one for a few days?
Can you remove the boot disk?
Do you have a second computer running Linux? If you do install virtual manager and then pass though the disk. (LUN passthough)
Next boot the VM with the Debian installer and install. Finally shutdown the VM and plug it into the physical device.
Yes
Connect it to your PC or laptop and do a netinstall. Configure SSHD and a static ip. Plugin the disk to your server and then connect via ssh to admin it.
You could also set your laptop or PC to boot from the attached disk in the bios to test the services you want to start are starting
Planning to do that yes
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My go-to solution is to use a vm and pass it raw access to the os disk on my normal desktop. Then I just put the disk into the server.
The traditional way is to use a serial console from another device.
When i was doing a headless install, i spend a hour or two trying to figure out how to pre setup configs for the debian installer or how to do it over network or what before i finally lugged the new machine to the other room and plugged it into the monitor and keyboard of the main rig, installed it all (and set up ssh so i can later get into from the main rig), and unplugged it.
My point is, even if it isnt trivial to have the keyboard and monitor, it may be much easier to get them than to really do an install without them.
I guess so. It’s just going to be junk that I can’t take with me when I move though
A Debian preseed I guess
Buy a keyboard and monitor
If OP has a thrift store nearby it’s pretty likely they can get both for under $30.
I bought a 21 inch 1080p Viewsonic monitor from a thrift store just the other day for $6. I got it just for this use case.
I had a spare for this purpose up until about a month ago when the backlight went out on one of my daily drivers.
Also, a couple of days ago I got a pretty nice steelcase apex 3 keyboard with RGB lights for $5.
No thrift stores nearby though
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters IP Internet Protocol SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage SSD Solid State Drive mass storage SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
4 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 3 acronyms.
[Thread #808 for this sub, first seen 16th Jun 2024, 10:05] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
I use a KVM over IP.
I made my own tiny pilot device for less than £100 and it has worked flawlessly for a few years.
This assumes your server has a hdmi output, if not you will need a VGA to hdmi or similar converter, danger of it becoming a bit of a hodge-podge of adapters, but hey, if it works, it works!
I’m planning to use a Raxda Zero 3W/Banana Pi Zero for this. Do you think this will suffice? I don’t need speed or power, it just needs to be usable.
I’ve no experience with either of those devices. So long as they’re comparable in terms of USBC features (otg) to emulate the keyboard and mouse then you should be good as the overhead of running the software seems to be minimal from my usage.
Without that, you’ll get video without keyboard and mouse support.
Thanks, I’ll take a look!
Plug drive in main computer, install Debian on it along with network config and SSH access, put drive back into server and power on.
I guess technically you can also make an ISO that will just auto wipe the drive and install upon booting it but you still need a keyboard to get into the boot menu.
Yes that’s an option I’m looking at. Thanks
Not sure about debian, but the archlinux iso has ssh on per default, so if you have no other bootable drives in your server other than the usb with the iso, just fire it up and try to connect to it via ssh.
Arch linux install wouldn’t be a problem really because the way the install is done. Pretty sure I could it all over SSH. Unfortunately, Debian isn’t exactly that…
