0

I'm given the task to create a unified Debian image for all my teammates laptops. My plan is to create a KVM with all the necessary software and settings and copy this image later with dd to the hard disks of my colleages' laptops.

  • Can I use a KVM image as the source for a bootable image for a hardware device such as a laptop?
  • I think the answer to the previous question is yes, but since this is the first time I'm doing this, I'm not quite sure how a pro administrator would handle such a task. Is that the right way to do it?
manifestor
  • 6,079
  • 7
  • 27
  • 39
  • 1
    Given that such image would immediately become stale, and accessing hard drives is non-trivial on most laptop hardware, preparing a minimal configuration to be copied to standard installation media on an USB flash drive could be quicker and lower maintenance in integrating future updates. – anx May 12 '22 at 15:01
  • 1
    In many environments, "virtual machine with KVM" does not necessarily also mean "virtual machine with working EFI" - but this matters, because broken-by-default pre-EFI-compatibility modes are not something you want to use on business laptops nowadays. – anx May 12 '22 at 15:04
  • 2
    I'd rather create a scripted debian-installer kickstart config that includes credentials for Ansible, boot that over PXE, create a post-install action that triggers server webhook for Ansible to connect to the machine and make necessary provisioning steps. This way you'll end up with up to date consistent environment, that you can easily replicate on any hardware or virtual platform. – Peter Zhabin May 13 '22 at 11:02

0 Answers0