[TriLUG] Customizing Ubuntu for UNC, got a T60p?

Cristóbal Palmer cristobalpalmer at gmail.com
Sun Jul 1 22:16:13 EDT 2007


Well, it feels like an ugly hack, but I've got something that works.

DO NOT USE THIS on something other than a lenovo T60p. It will do Bad
Things(r) to your machine. Namely, it will wipe your /dev/sda and it
will put in a likely-broken xorg.conf

Ubuntu with a completely unattended installer:

http://garp.metalab.unc.edu/ubuntu-7.04-unc-alt.iso

If you boot the CD, it will present you with a menu. The last option
(the default option) in the menu is to wipe the HD and install Ubuntu
unattended. It claims that it has "UNC presets" but that's currently a
fib. It's nothing but a vanilla Ubuntu with working graphics. Press
enter and it goes on its way. After about 15 minutes it will spit out
the CD and reboot. When it does, Xorg will fail, but about 30 seconds
later a script I wrote will finish up. That script installs the
correct drivers, a working xorg.conf, restarts gdm and deletes itself.
The user is then presented with a nice--working!--graphical login. :D

Currently it defaults to:

username: uncbuntu
password: (write me off-list if you don't know where on the iso to
find this out yourself)

Since Ubuntu doesn't install openssh-server by default, this isn't
much of a security risk. Now that I've spent all this time learning
how this works, I can fairly easily further modify the CD to have
other install options (eg. for the other CCI models, or to install
other packages upon reboot). If anybody is interested in the stuff I
learned this weekend (Ubuntu CD remastering, Ubuntu preseed installs)
I'd be happy to have a "luglet" on that. Just give me a place, time,
network and some food. :)

Cheers,
CMP

On 6/28/07, Cristóbal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/27/07, Magnus <magnus at trilug.org> wrote:
> >
> > Why not do a scripted network-based install?
>
> I do want to do that, but perhaps not first. I totally agree with you
> that that would be the ultimate way to go. If you know how to do that,
> I'd love your help. The reason I want to pursue the liveCD first is
> that it's quicker to test revisions, and it's my perception that there
> are more resources for people looking to create a derivative liveCD. I
> could be wrong, though, and I'm happy if that means there's an
> easier/better way. :)
>
> Turns out I'll have a T60p until Monday, btw, so if anybody wants to
> meet up over the weekend and help me resolve:
>
> * working video by default
> * working UNC wireless by default
> * seamless integration with UNC AFS space by default
>
> Then I'll buy you several beers.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Cristóbal M. Palmer
> administrator!!! please hope me!
>


-- 
Cristóbal M. Palmer
administrator!!! please hope me!


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