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Sunday, August 7, 2022

Server chronicles - the OS on the old System76

The old System76 server has now new HDs and more RAM and is cleaned up.

Time to install the OS.

Note !

This specific server, the System76 one, is for the moment abandoned for problems to the fans.
Not having the necessary time to find a fix for the problem (see the Fan noise problem article) I decided to buy and install a new server, an HP ProLiant DL360 - This article doesn't apply to the new server and remains here only for reference.

Setting

The procedures described in this article were made BEFORE to consider to install the PiKVM !
I did hook up a monitor and a USB Keyboard + trackball while the server is on the table, opened. 

Choose the OS

The big question of course is .. which one ?

Surely Linux and the choice is quite restricted between the Pop!_OS, the Linux distribution of  System76 and Ubuntu.
Why these two and not consider maybe Suse, Debian or others ?

Well, so far I always used Ubuntu for my installation for years, so it make sense to keep something I know well and beside, works nicely !
Pop!_OS , the distribution prepared by System76, is based on Ubuntu and is supposedly tailored for their machines so it make sense trying to use it.

Failed attempts

Pop!_OS installation

The first trying to install the OS is with Pop!_OS.
Downloaded the latest version and did burn a DVD with it.

The first attempt failed miserably.
First of all it took ... forever. It started well but to reach what, I assumed. the start installation took up to 10 minutes !|
Many services failed to start, some I assume does make sense, however for others I'm not sure is correct to happens.

The installation after approx 10-15 minutes reached a stage where the screen simply was empty and nothing happened.

Abandoned.

Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

Like the Pop!_OS I did use a Ubuntu 20.04 LTS DVD version I had around, mostly to see what happens.
Like Pop!_OS it took quite some time to reach the empty screen and the LED on the DVD to stop.
Like before nothing happens.

This server is quite old and I remember now it had problems to handle the graphic.
i.e. the graphic card is so basic that no GUI is actually supported.

Abandoned.

Successful installation

Ubuntu 22.04 Server

A successful tentative was done downloading an image for the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Server edition.
The Ubuntu  server edition is headless and thus is perfect for my setting and in fact the installation went good and smooth.

During the installation I did choose to install also docker and performed the automatic update.

Caution !

By default the installation is using just 100GB for the main partition !!!
Didn't pay attention to that and ended up filling up the 100GB very quickly.
Allocate at least 500GB to the main partition in order to have space to load the necessary utilities and system.

Additional installation

In order to handle some System76 peripherals, special utilities need to be installed.
In order to do so :
  • create preference file for the system :
    sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/system76-apt-preferences
  • Add these lines in the file :
    Package: *
    Pin: release o=LP-PPA-system76-dev-stable
    Pin-Priority: 1001

    Package: *
    Pin: release o=LP-PPA-system76-dev-pre-stable
    Pin-Priority: 1001
  • save the file
  • Add the repository to the system
    • sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:system76-dev/stable
    • sudo apt-get update
  • Add utilities to the  system
    • sudo apt install system76-driver
    • sudo apt install system76-firmware
At this point is possible to add drivers to handle specific peripherals and functions.

Additional settings

Additional settings will be :
  • set fixed IP and not DHCP assigned
    Used the netplan option
    • the installation created a yaml file : /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml
      Edited this file in order to add the fixed IP and the gateway/DNS settings.

      This the content (some value were changed)

      # This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
      network:
        ethernets:
          eno1:
            dhcp4: no
            dhcp6: no
            addresses:
              - 192.168.<xx>.<xx>/24
            routes:
              - to: default
                via: 192.168.<xx>.<xx>
            nameservers:
              addresses:
                - 192.168.<xx>.<xx>
                - 8.8.8.8
          eno2:
            dhcp4: true
        version: 2

    • save the file
    • Activate the new configuration : 
      • sudo netplan generate 
      • sudo netplan apply
  • make user sudoers

Utilities and Packages

Basic things to install :
  • ipmitool
    the utility allows to monitor and control the motherboard parameters, this is especially necessary to handle the PWM fans
  • lm-sensors
    Like ipmitools allows to read some motherboard parameters like the CPU temperatures


Resources

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