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Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

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Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#21

Post by lukan »

ubavic wrote: post #18
Panino wrote: post #17

I've been thinking a lot about organizing an installfest sometime in the next year or so, which would be my first time in over 20 years. To anyone with current experience running one, do you have any advice? I'm also interested in smartphone operating systems like Ubuntu Touch and postmarketOS etc.

This is my third install fest and I planned to write some check list that I compiled in these years. I can share this: - make sure bring extension chords, and make sure you have enough fast wifi for all participants - bring enough USB-s. Installation on older laptops can take time - ventoy is useful - for beginners stick to Fedora/Debian. Popular distros come and go, but these two are constant and will be supported f…

So .. if you want to keep it simple and reduce the chance of scaring away interested people for good because of failure, don't offer dual boot, unless you know all the tricks. Too many ways this can go wrong in my experience and if it goes right, it likely means they just continue using what they know - windows.

For a risk free just trying out, have linux live usb sticks prepared.

Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#22

Post by swed420 »

rtp4me wrote: post #19
ubavic wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my third install fest and I planned to write some check list that I compiled in these years. I can share this: - make sure bring extension chords, and make sure you have enough fast wifi for all participants - bring enough USB-s. Installation on older laptops can take time - ventoy is useful - for beginners stick to Fedora/Debian. Popular distros come and go, but these two are constant and will be supported f…

I have never been to one of these "fests" but wouldn't be easier to just bring a small PXE server with an SSD and 10G NIC with an 8-port switch for net booting/install? Are the machines so old they can't boot off the network? The PXE server could easily handle 5-6 install clients via the 10G NIC.

Depends on what the main goals are.

First time users might appreciate seeing the USB drive method since that's probably what they'd attempt next time at home.

Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#23

Post by jononor »

swed420 wrote: post #22
rtp4me wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never been to one of these "fests" but wouldn't be easier to just bring a small PXE server with an SSD and 10G NIC with an 8-port switch for net booting/install? Are the machines so old they can't boot off the network? The PXE server could easily handle 5-6 install clients via the 10G NIC.

Depends on what the main goals are. First time users might appreciate seeing the USB drive method since that's probably what they'd attempt next time at home.

Yeah the USB stick enables the participants to replicate it more easily at home or with friends etc. Encouraging that the participants are in the driver seat also helps with this.

Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#24

Post by theandrewbailey »

rtp4me wrote: post #19
ubavic wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my third install fest and I planned to write some check list that I compiled in these years. I can share this: - make sure bring extension chords, and make sure you have enough fast wifi for all participants - bring enough USB-s. Installation on older laptops can take time - ventoy is useful - for beginners stick to Fedora/Debian. Popular distros come and go, but these two are constant and will be supported f…

I have never been to one of these "fests" but wouldn't be easier to just bring a small PXE server with an SSD and 10G NIC with an 8-port switch for net booting/install? Are the machines so old they can't boot off the network? The PXE server could easily handle 5-6 install clients via the 10G NIC.

A 10G NIC is unnecessary. I've used iVentoy with a dozen laptops installing Linux simultaneously with no obvious slowdowns hosted from a Dell Optiplex Micro 7050 (7th gen i5, 1G NIC, SSD).

https://www.iventoy.com/en/index.html

Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#25

Post by rtp4me »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #24
rtp4me wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never been to one of these "fests" but wouldn't be easier to just bring a small PXE server with an SSD and 10G NIC with an 8-port switch for net booting/install? Are the machines so old they can't boot off the network? The PXE server could easily handle 5-6 install clients via the 10G NIC.

A 10G NIC is unnecessary. I've used iVentoy with a dozen laptops installing Linux simultaneously with no obvious slowdowns hosted from a Dell Optiplex Micro 7050 (7th gen i5, 1G NIC, SSD). https://www.iventoy.com/en/index.html

Yes, I have used iVentoy very much in the past as well. However, running a dozen (+12) simultaneous installs of Linux seems a stretch for 1G NICs. Using a small PC with a 2.5G NIC could probably do just as well as the 10G one - just slightly less expensive. The 2.5G NIC hardware has really come down in price; you can get an 8-port 2.5G switch for $45, and many mini-PCs have 2.5G built-in.

Re: Linux Instal Fest Belgrade

#26

Post by m4rtink »

haunter wrote: post #4

I thought this would be a speedrun event like Games Done Quick 1:14 Arch record https://youtu.be/8utpbbdj0LQ (jokes aside the tmux trick is insane didn’t even know you could do that before I saw this video)

There was a talk from someone from Yahoo back in 2013 on the Fedora Flock conference in Prague about how they can re-provision baremetal machines in less than one minute.

They used the regular Anaconda installer (used for Feodra, RHEL and related distros) to install the rootfs from a tarball, even doing a live demo - tha machine was doingn something - the reybooted it into the installer, which wiped the storage, unpacked the tarball and configured the system. After reboot the new system was up, ready to do something else - all in less than 60 seconds, including 2 reboots, back in 2013.

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