Autoinstall quick start for s390x¶

This guide provides instructions on how to use autoinstall with a current version of Ubuntu for the s390x architecture in a virtual machine (VM) on your computer.

For older Ubuntu releases, substitute the version in the name of the ISO image. The instructions should otherwise be the same. See Autoinstall quick start for instructions on installing on the amd64 architecture.

Download the ISO¶

Download the latest release of the Ubuntu Server image (ISO) from the Ubuntu ISO download page (currently 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)).

Mount the ISO¶

Make the content of the ISO image accessible from a local directory:

mkdir -p ~/iso
sudo mount -r ~/Downloads/ubuntu-<version-number>-live-server-s390x.iso ~/iso

Change <version-number> to match the number of the release you have downloaded.

Write your autoinstall configuration¶

Create a cloud-init configuration:

mkdir -p ~/www
cd ~/www
cat > user-data << 'EOF'
#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  identity:
    hostname: ubuntu-server
    password: "$6$exDY1mhS4KUYCE/2$zmn9ToZwTKLhCw.b4/b.ZRTIZM30JZ4QrOQ2aOXJ8yk96xpcCof0kxKwuX1kqLG/ygbJ1f8wxED22bTL4F46P0"
    username: ubuntu
EOF
touch meta-data

The encrypted password is ubuntu.

Serve the cloud-init configuration over HTTP¶

Leave the HTTP server running in a terminal:

cd ~/www
python3 -m http.server 3003

Create a target disk¶

In a new terminal, install the qemu-img utility:

sudo apt install qemu-utils
...

Create the target VM disk for the installation:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk-image.qcow2 10G
Formatting 'disk-image.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 size=10737418240 cluster_size=65536 lazy_refcounts=off refcount_bits=16

qemu-img info disk-image.qcow2
image: disk-image.qcow2
file format: qcow2
virtual size: 10 GiB (10737418240 bytes)
disk size: 196 KiB
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false

Run the installation¶

Install the kvm command:

sudo apt install qemu-kvm
...

Add the default user to the kvm group:

sudo usermod -a -G kvm ubuntu   # re-login to make the changes take effect

Run the installation in a VM. Change <version-number> in the following command to match the release ISO you downloaded:

kvm -no-reboot -name auto-inst-test -nographic -m 2048 \
    -drive file=disk-image.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=none,if=virtio \
    -cdrom ~/Downloads/ubuntu-<version-number>-live-server-s390x.iso \
    -kernel ~/iso/boot/kernel.ubuntu \
    -initrd ~/iso/boot/initrd.ubuntu \
    -append 'autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://_gateway:3003/ console=ttysclp0'

This command boots the VM, downloads the configuration from the server (prepared in the previous step) and runs the installation. The installer reboots at the end. The -no-reboot option to the kvm command instructs kvm to exit on reboot.

Boot the installed system¶

kvm -no-reboot -name auto-inst-test -nographic -m 2048 \
    -drive file=disk-image.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=none,if=virtio

This command boots the installed system in the VM. Log in using ubuntu for both the user name and password.