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)?
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.
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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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
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.
yep, a tiny boot error and suddenly you need to punch commands into initramfs. good luck with that headlessly.
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.
Yeah at those price points it isn’t worth it at all to attempt a headless install.
Take out the hard drive out of your laptop and put the drive for the server in it, install Debian using the built in monitor and keyboard of your laptop.
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?
Usually I want to see the BIOS settings at least once. So that’s enough reason to carry a keyboard + monitor there.
Otherwise that network boot option with a TFTP server comes to my mind. But I have never tried it on a new, empty machine.
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
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)
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!
There’s a bunch of other variants like PiKVM and BIiKVM as well. Even some cheap knockoffs on Aliexpress that may do the job.
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!
A Debian preseed I guess
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…
