Ubuntu For Surplus

These notes are for a image of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS we put together specifically for putting onto machines destined for surplus.

• This page is obsolete - please use this link UbuntuLiveInstall

Imaging The Machine

1. Wipe the disk using DBAN (see WipeDiskDBAN for instructions)

Boot

Configure the BIOS

1. Enter the BIOS (usually by pressing DELETE, F2, F1, or F12; it should tell you which on boot, if you miss it just reboot and try again (CTRL-ALT-DELETE at asimov PXE menu))
2. Look for Boot option (Often a tab at the top selected using the left/right arrow keys)
   • On certain BIOSes (Dell mostly) the BIOS is arranged into pages cycled through by pressing a hot key (usually Alt+P) and exited at any point by pressing a different hotkey (F10 on Dell), instructions for using these BIOSes are located at the bottom of the screen not the right.
3. Under Boot Options (or possibly just loose somewhere in a general/main area) Look for Priority settings, and select it (usually with the Up/Down arrow keys and enter to select
4. If the Priority is a heading and cannot be selected then the following applies to below it, instead of in its popup
5. Select the first device and press enter (if nothing happens or it beeps at you, skip to below)
6. Look for an entry indicating network boot or PXE, if none is found then go to the advanced tab and ensure that it is enabled and select it using the arrow keys and pressing enter
7. If pressing enter did not bring up a popup, select Network Boot (identified as explained above) and use the keys explained on the right of the BIOS screen to move it tor the top (usually F5/F6)
8. If in a subpanel/popup press escape to exit. Otherwise skip this step
9. Select the Exit option (Probably the same way you selected the boot options)
10. Select Exit Saving Changes (NOTE THE SAVING PART, otherwise you'll be doing this twice)
11. It will likely confirm your choice, just check that it will save and press yes/OK
12. Wait for the computer to reboot and load Ubuntu.

Load Acronis

1. Boot machine over PXE on VLAN 420 (If this doesn't work see Local Boot below)
2. Select Acronis PXE Images -> Acronis 10 Backup and Recovery (Not the TESTING one)
3. Wait for it to boot
4. Verify newtork settings (Should be on 192.168.x.x network, if not reboot)

Prepare Disks

1. Click on Run Management Console
2. As the disk has been wiped it will tell you that it is not initialized, click on Yes.
3. For some reason it won't actually initialize the disk, so click on Disk Management (near the bottom)
4. Under the label "Basic Disks" RIGHT-click on the DIAGRAM of the disk, click Initialize
5. Make sure the disk is selected, partitioning scheme is set to MBR, and Type is set to Basic.
6. Now click OK.
7. Click the yellow button labeled "Commit 1 Operations" (You will actually have to click twice, once to give the window focus, and once to select the button
8. Click Proceed
9. It will now do its thing, wait it may take a minute
10. Click close

Install The Image

1. Click on Recover
2. Under What to recover -> Archive, click Change
3. At the bottom in Path type (without quotes) "smb://asimov/IMAGES/research/surplus-images" -> Enter
4. It will ask for credentials, give it your usual asimov credentials
5. Wait for it to load
6. Select the image called "Ubuntu-10.04-LTS-SURPLUS-First" (created April 10, 2012)
7. Click OK
8. Wait
9. Under What to recover -> Data type, change Volumes to Disks
10. Wait
11. Where to recover -> Recover 'Disk 1' to, click Change
12. Wait
13. Select Disk 1, click OK
14. Ensure When to recover -> Recover is set to Now and Recovery options -> Settings is set to Default
15. Click OK
16. Wait 2-3 minutes
17. Click Close
18. Click the X button in the Upper right hand corner
19. Reboot

Configure the BIOS

1. Enter the BIOS (usually by pressing DELETE, F2, F1, or F12; it should tell you which on boot, if you miss it just reboot and try again (CTRL-ALT-DELETE at asimov PXE menu))
2. Look for Boot option (Often a tab at the top selected using the left/right arrow keys)
   • On certain BIOSes (Dell mostly) the BIOS is arranged into pages cycled through by pressing a hot key (usually Alt+P) and exited at any point by pressing a different hotkey (F10 on Dell), instructions for using these BIOSes are located at the bottom of the screen not the right.
3. Under Boot Options (or possibly just loose somewhere in a general/main area) Look for Priority settings, and select it (usually with the Up/Down arrow keys and enter to select
4. If the Priority is a heading and cannot be selected then the following applies to below it, instead of in its popup
5. Select the first device and press enter (if nothing happens or it beeps at you, skip to below)
6. Find an entry that says HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or WDC (Western Digital Corporation), Seagate, Maxtor or another hard drive manufacturer, select it and press enter
7. If pressing enter did not bring up a popup, select the Hard Drive (identified as explained above) and use the keys explained on the right of the BIOS screen to move it tor the top (usually F5/F6)
8. If in a subpanel/popup press escape to exit. Otherwise skip this step
9. Select the Exit option (Probably the same way you selected the boot options)
10. Select Exit Saving Changes (NOTE THE SAVING PART, otherwise you'll be doing this twice)
11. It will likely confirm your choice, just check that it will save and press yes/OK
12. Wait for the computer to reboot and load Ubuntu.

Boot Ubuntu For The First Time

1. Ubuntu may fail to boot with error "Errors were found while checking the disk drive for /" press F to fix automatically
2. May also present an error about /tmp, wait this one out
3. Errors were encountered it will now reboot and should boot successfully (If you encounter an error not mentioned here, you're on your own, try the first listed option)

Update Ubuntu

When Ubuntu loads the desktop press CTRL+ALT+T to open a terminal, and type the following commands, pressing enter after each one:

sudo -s
(enter the password)
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade (this may need a confirmation, just press enter)
exit
exit

Shut Down and Finish

1. If updates were installed, close the update manager (click its taskbar entry, click close)
2. Shutdown: Power Icon Menu -> Shut Down... -> Shut Down
3. That's it! The computer can now be surplussed.