Question: Combustion for desktop ISO.

Hi experts,

I’m trying to automate installation of MicroOS for desktop with combustion.

Having downloaded Intel or AMD 64-bit desktops, laptops, and servers (x86_64) iso and writing to USB, I prepared a second USB following Combustion guide here: https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:MicroOS/Combustion#How_to_use_it

After plugging in both USB’s and booting the desktop, I am greeted by choice menu to boot or install microOS.

This is a brand new SSD, so there is nothing to boot, my expectation is that MicroOS is automatically installed, which did not happen. Why?

Secondly, my script installs a few packages, (incl. new shell, fish), creates a user and copies over conf files.
Since installing packages with with transactional-update requires reboot to activate changes, how would I go about setting default shell for user during Combustion initalization?

My combustion script:


#!/bin/sh
# combustion: network
# Set a password for root, generate the hash with "openssl passwd -6"
echo 'root:hidden' | chpasswd -e
# Install packages
transactional-update --non-interactive pkg install --no-recommends vim-small tmux fish exa btop
# Add a public ssh key and enable sshd
useradd -m -s /usr/bin/fish support
mkdir -pm700 /home/support/.ssh
cat id_ed25519.pub >> /home/support/.ssh/authorized_keys
systemctl enable sshd.service
# Change shell
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish
# Config files
cp .tmux.conf /root
cp .tmux.conf /home/support
cp .vimrc /root
cp .vimrc /home/support
cp config.fish /root/.config/fish
cp config.fish /home/support/.config/fish
# Leave a marker
echo "Configured with combustion" > /etc/issue.d/combustion

Kind regards,

Hi
You probably need to test the self install image in the appliance directory rather than the iso which has the installer, or perhaps use a combination of ignition/combustion.

https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/appliances/

Why do you expect it to be automatically installed? Can you provide link to documentation where it is stated?

AFAIK the only way to automate installation​ is autoyast.

https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1206087

Thanks for the tip, I will try with self install image.

Hi
I’ve mainly used ignition to setup root access, ssh keys/access, locale, hostname and ip address on vm’s with vagrant. Not played with combustion yet…

Just boot the installer DVD and provide an autoyast.xml file.
Which is exactly what I already told you.

Do you use ignition with the self-install image or with standard ISO

What do you call “standard ISO”? Showing full download link would be more useful and made it immediately obvious what you are using.

Hi
No, a vagrant box image, but I expect the self install image not the full image would work.

Sure, https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/iso/openSUSE-MicroOS-DVD-x86_64-Current.iso

Hmm, If I use https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/appliances/iso/openSUSE-MicroOS.x86_64-ContainerHost-SelfInstall.iso it just boots from USB without installing to desktop SSD. Is that expected?

Hi
The compressed file, image that onto the device your booting to openSUSE-MicroOS.x86_64-SelfInstall.raw.xz I need to test and see what happens…

This would require removing the SSD though.
I guess one could boot with systemrescue-9.00-amd64, then dd *.raw.xz to SSD, however this requires as much work as going through the MicroOS installer manually.

btw, thanks for your time and contribution!

Hi
Perhaps look at the pxe route? Did a quick test here via USB device that I zcated the image onto, the setup another USB with ignition files all worked except network as didn’t have the correct interface name… I need to use predictable naming…

Fixed that, didn’t take that long, less than 10 minutes for prep and boot to a running system. Ran, installed, then auto reboot and ready to go.

That sounds very promising!
But I’m new to PXE, is that an image? I don’t see it on downloads page: Portal:MicroOS/Downloads - openSUSE Wiki

Hi
See GitHub - openSUSE/yomi: Yet one more installer

You might want to browse https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/appliances/

This is image based on standard installer which can be automated using autoyast.

Yes. Default boot option is “Boot from hard disk”. You still need to manually select installation and confirm disk selection (and that disk will be overwritten).