Installing Cubbli Linux

These are internal instructions for Cubbli maintainers. Cubbli shouldn't be installed outside University premises. 

Cubbli USB install and rescue environment

Currently the install and rescue environment can be booted from network boot (in the University network) or with a USB stick. 

• It can install Cubbli in any network, where cubbli.cs.helsinki.fi server is available (normal network, eduroam, CS Wifi , HY VPN, install network)
• Can do automatic AD joining (this was first implemented for fuxi laptops 2017)
• Works with UEFI and Secure boot
• Installs Cubbli from a premade filesystem image, so installation is much faster than with Debian installer
• The USB sticks loads to a ramdisk, so the stick can be removed immediately after boot
• It provides an ssh server to which Cubbli admins can login remotely if there are installation or rescue problems on Cubbli hosts (this probably won't work on eduroam)
• It does LUKS encrypted installations

CHECK FIRST!

• If the machine has a NVidia GPU, you MUST TURN SECURE BOOT OFF from the BIOS. Otherwise the GPU won't work on the finished installation. The result is a black screen on boot. 

Create the USB install and rescue disc

If your USB stick is older than 2016-06-04, you need to upgrade it. Installing Cubbli with it will no longer work. 

You need a USB stick where you have no data that you wish to keep of at least 4G size or at least 32G size if you want to save a local copy of install image to it. Larger sticks work fine too and you can add new partitions to the larger sticks. 

Option A: To upgrade an existing USB stick, boot from it and click "Call home". After that you should have an option to upgrade your USB stick visible on the desktop.

Option B: Boot from University PXE boot and you can use "upgrade your usb stick

Option C: see helpdesk non pulic wiki for download instructions or ask Cubbli admins for help.

If you have a USB stick of at least 32G size you can answer yes here to have the install image saved to the disk too: 

Using the Cubbli USB stick

• DO NOT RUN THE INSTALLER ON A HOST WHERE THERE IS DATA TO BE PRESERVED. IT WILL WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVES.
• Make sure that you have USB boot enabled in BIOS
• You don't need to turn off secure boot: as long as MS UEFI key is enabled in the system BIOS the stick should boot even with secure boot on
• With HP BIOS hold down F9 when you turn the machine on (Enters boot menu):

• With Lenovo BIOS hold down F12
• Select your USB stick with UEFI boot
• If you are confident that there are no bits to be preserved in the host to be installed, you can select AUTOMATICAL WIPE AND INSTALL from the menu. It will attempt install Cubbli with no further questions asked
• With Cubbli ramdisk Live Install boot option you can use the stick as a rescue media to doublecheck that there is no data that needs preserving

• Wait while the ramdisk loads and the nice penguin walks
• After the desktop is loaded, you can safely remove the usb drive (RECOMMENDED)
• If you didn't select AUTOMATICAL WIPE, you should see a desktop with University of Helsinki logo
• If everything goes well, the installer will guess your settings based on your hardware, including the keytab file for AD joining. However, even when there is no premade AD machine account the installation will work find, although it will ask you to which hard drive Cubbli should be installed. 

Finishing the installation

When newly installed Cubbli is first started, you will see the First login to a Cubbli Linux host screen, where updates (and BIOS updates) are first installed.  Use Onify to precreate the computer account for the Cubbli host. Login to the first login screen with your la_* user account, to join the installed Linux host to AD.HELSINKI.FI.

Problems?

If there are problems with the installer, you can write down the IP address of the Linux host and notify Cubbli group with Teams or with a ticket. They can then remotely debug what went wrong.