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Can I pre-install Ubuntu on an SSD? (lemm.ee)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Hazmatastic@lemm.ee to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Ths might be a silly question, but asking those is how i learn sometimes. I'm trying to install my first Linux distro to set up a Plex server and one of the few things I know is you need a wired internet connection. My intended server location is across the house from my router, and there isnt much room there to set up temporarily. It would be possible, just a removed and a half. Is it instead possible to connect my SSD via SATA to USB to a laptop, install Ubuntu and wireless adapter drivers on it while connected to ethernet, then put the SSD in the server to boot? Or do I need to do all this through my intended setup?

Thanks for the help, just trying to make my first Linux install as painless as possible.

EDIT: Thank you all for your responses, I'm going to respond as I can since I'm at work. I The number one thing I learned is that I need to do more research. I recognize only a handful of these acronyms lol

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[-] geekworking@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

You don't need any internet connection to install Ubuntu. Just use the normal install, not minimal network installer. Install from a USB stick.

Also, there's no requirement for a wire either. If that were the case, you could never install on any modern laptop.

You would need some sort of functioning network to upgrade packages or install anything not in the base image, but this would all be after installation when you have a working OS and wired or wireless won't matter.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Ah okay. I just remember hearing that all your drivers need to be manually installed and updated in Linux, so for me that included ALL drivers, even basic ones like that. If I can get started wirelessly that would be perfect. Thanks!

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

It's almost completely the opposite, drivers are (almost completely) a windows problem. If you're willing and able to go the open source route, which for most people mean "I don't have an NVIDIA card or don't plan on getting every ounce of performance from it" you don't need to worry about drivers at all (bar some weird cards, but they're getting rarer and rarer, I don't remember the last time I had to install a driver that wasn't NVIDIA).

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Good to know I should avoid NVIDIA for Linux. The only NVIDIA card I have is on my gaming rig, so I don't plan on having to deal with that since I'm sticking with Windows on that until (hopefully) more studios start caring about Linux compatibility. Can't wait to cut that Microsoft umbilical cord permanently.

~~That said, do I need dedicated graphics on a Plex server?~~ I was going to go integrated, but your comment made me realize I never checked hardware requirements. Which are probably on Plex's website. Which I am now going to go check because Lemmy isn't Google and it's not your responsibility to hand me answers I can easily find.

Nope, not gonna be that guy today. Thanks lol

[-] fauntleroy@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago

Just to avoid any misunderstandings for the furture: you can run NVIDIA cards in ubuntu, you just have to install their proprietary driver. And on ubuntu, its pretty easy to do so. I used a few different nvidia cards on Ubuntu in the last years and never experienced any issues after installing the recommended driver. Before installing the driver, I got some flickering and artifacts, but with the right driver everything should be fine. And even for amd graphics you can install the proprietary drivers from their website to get out the maximum performance of the GPU. But for amd you can also use the "pre-installed" open-source driver, which has a much better performance in comparison to the open source driver for nvidia cards. Integrated grahipcs are supported out of the box in almost any cases.

[-] geekworking@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Even Nvidia video works out of the box without any additional drivers.

The thing with Nvidia is that although the default drivers work, they are more generic and don't take advantage of all of the features and performance of recent cards. Most people would want to load the proprietary drivers from Nvidia to take full advantage of the card.

Linux would normally include the better drivers, but Nvidia keeps them under a software license that prevents Linux distributions from bundling them.

Even with this, Ubuntu includes a tool that will download and install these drivers that they can't

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I think I wasn't clear, for NVIDIAs you need to take some action, on some distros is ticking one box during installation, on others is installing the driver afterwards, but they work, all of my current computers are NVIDIA. Even without installing the proprietary drivers NVIDIA cards work fine for 90% of things, the problem is that gaming will have less performance and you wouldn't be able use CUDA.

I know you're googling it, but in any case AFAIK Plex can run on integrated cards, most cards can decode video nowadays so it shouldn't be particularly hard. If you're looking into using Plex I recommend checking Jellyfin, it's an open source alternative, I've been using it for years and have nothing to complain about.

[-] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm not sure if Ubuntu requires a wired internet connection. I've installed a different distro yesterday and wifi worked fine during the installation. The installer asked me to connect to network and I used the wifi. I've never plugged a network cable into the machine. Maybe it's the same with Ubuntu. But sure, there are other possibilities. Offline installers and/or you can install Linux on a different machine and then swap the harddisk/ssd. Just take care not to overwrite the internal disk of your laptop. Make sure it writes to the correct disk (or unplug other ones).

[-] ursakhiin@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago

I believe the answer is no. I think it installs over Wi-Fi, fine, so long as the adapter isn't a weird of brand or something.

[-] fauntleroy@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's it. I have installed Ubuntu many times connected over Wi-Fi without any problems, except one special case many years ago. In that case, the system had some brand new Wi-Fi adapter, so I had to install the driver over Ethernet. But in almost any case it just should work and you can simply try to get a wireless connection in a live sytem to find out. And as mentioned above, internet connection is not necessary while installing from USB stick with the usual image. Its just recommended to save time and install the latest updates of some components during the initial system installation. But of course, you can do it later and of course you can do it over Wi-Fi (except some very rare special cases as mentioned at the beginning).

[-] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

Same as Debian since Bookworm (12). Nonfree firmware comes in the installation files now, so you can opt in or out at that stage and not have to scramble if you forgot.

[-] WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Off topic. Can I suggest you to also explore Jellyfin instead of Plex? Just give it a shot before you pay to Plex folks is all I am asking. Use whichever you find better.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I don't mind suggestions at all, is there a reason to prefer one over the other? Is there Plex controversy? I just went with it because I had a buddy who used it years ago and I remember it being effective

[-] WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

I went with jellyfin because it's free and open-source. I have never used Plex, but there are few issues with Plex that I had noted as cons

  1. Your authentication happens through Plex servers and not locally
  2. Alongside your own content, Plex pushes other content as well , etc etc.

However, there is one con in Jellyfin, the clients are not as polished as it is for Plex.

[-] ScottE@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Neither of these points are entirely correct.

While remote authentication is the default, you can configure Plex to not require any sort of auth at all for local users. That's how mine is setup, and we can watch content around the house even when our ISP is offline.

I also don't get ads or anything else pushing other content - I only ever see my own. You just have to not show those things in the sidebar. So again, the defaults can be changed.

Definitely worth trying Jellyfin if it works for a particular case. I've tried Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex - but only found the latter to be reliable enough for OTA DVR via an HDHomeRun which is our primary use case.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If you don't authenticate through Plex don't you lose profile support? Meaning no personalized preferences, no watch list, no parental controls etc.

For me that would make it unusable.

[-] ScottE@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Profiles work fine, but you might have to set things up initially with working Internet. No idea about watch lists or parental controls though - we don't use them.

[-] WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I could be wrong. This was a few years ago when I was new.

[-] TeddE@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Yes, at the beginning of the pandemic it was discovered that Plex Inc had been tracking, reporting home, and selling user watching habits to advertisers. Basically the exact thing many Plex users were trying to get away from.

This inspired many developers (who were otherwise stuck at home due to said pandemic) to fork Emby and thus Jellyfin was born.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Jellyfin is free and open source. To me that's always the preferred option. Plus, it works very nicely. Haven't used Plex in a very long time but when I tried it, I didn't like it.

[-] theredcaps@social.theredcaps.net 6 points 10 months ago

Yes you can do that, make sure you are on the same CPU infrastructure (ie, don't try to install linux on an SSD from an intel laptop if you're going to be running it on an arm based processor or something).

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I'll look into the hardware compatibility

[-] CosmicApe@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

If you're going to be using it as a Plex server, aren't you going to need some sort of network connection anyways?

[-] theredcaps@social.theredcaps.net 3 points 10 months ago

I think the premise was the plex server will be running off of wifi and they didn't think they would have wifi drivers available to them during install so they wanted to install hard wired.

No how wise it is to run a plex server off of wifi is another discussion all together but maybe for a different time.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This is exactly what I was asking. I would be interested in hearing why wifi isn't a good idea though. I didn't think bandwidth would be too much of a problem, so is this a security concern?

[-] scottywh@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I've run my Plex server on wifi for the last 7 years and it works fine.

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No, not with modern wifi security isn't an issue. If bandwith is an issue for installing the OS then bandwidth will be 10x an issue for using the plex server.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Oh I meant bandwidth for the Plex part, not the install. Yeah for an OS requiring less than 3 gigs of storage, if bandwidth is an issue in installation Plex should be off the table

[-] theredcaps@social.theredcaps.net 2 points 10 months ago

Mostly for bandwidth and connection stability reasons.. if the plex server is only serving your own home then likely not much to worry about but if you are serving plex content for ppl outside your home it can be troublesome if your wifi starts acting up and they don't know why they suddenly start buffering.

Nothing about plex itself is limited by wifi it's just a potentially a high bandwidth / throughput service and typically you wouldn't want that on wifi.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah I want to do wired eventually, wifi is just a stopgap so I can phase out paid streaming asap without completely interrupting service for other people on my plans

[-] theredcaps@social.theredcaps.net 1 points 10 months ago

are you doing the entire *arr stack as well? There are some cool tools to connect to plex as well allowing for things like requesting of shows that then integrate with he *arr stack.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

This is baby's first Linux and also plex server, so I have no idea what that is. But I'll definitely look into that, it sounds really useful to be able to integrate the two

[-] alteropen@noc.social 1 points 10 months ago

@Hazmatastic @theredcaps I think it is a bandwidth concern, especially if multiple people will be streaming from the server. WiFi is unstable too its part in parcel, wired is just required if you need something that's stable

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Wired is a long-term goal for sure, I just can't afford multiple streaming services any longer and wanted to give the people on my plans an alternative before unsubscribing. Not sure if being on the same network will help, hurt, or not affect it, but at this point it will probably hurt if anything. I know DL and UL are in separate "buckets" as far as bandwidth goes, but I don't know enough about network structure to even reliably guess. It probably has to go through Plex anyways. My basic plan is implementing first and fixing problems as I find them, which is always the best plan right?

[-] SheeEttin@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago

I suppose you could put all the media on it by sneakernet and directly connect it to your TV.

[-] jrgd@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Yes, just make sure that the boot setup for the distro install is compatible with what you intend to install it onto (I.E. if your server is going to be using EFI to boot an OS, install your Ubuntu instance as GPT, EFI onto the SSD). Depending on what wireless modules you are using and where you are sourcing them and how you are installing them, you might need to ensure Secure Boot is disabled in the BIOS of your server. This will be the case if the kernel module package you are installing doesn't sign the wireless adapter driver you intend to use. Otherwise, most drivers you could possibly need should be baked into the kernel and you should be good to go.

(One further sidenote coming from someone who has not used Ubuntu in a long time (since 16.04's release), it would be good to check in the /etc/fstab file that the filesystem references are using either UUID or PARTUUID. Depending upon the drive layout of the server you are mounting the intended drive into, traditionally labeled references such as sda or nvme0n1 can change depending upon the slots each drive is seated. Using UUID or PARTUUID in the fstab reference alleviates any potential complications from this scenario where fstab might reference the wrong drive in mounting partitions. I do believe Ubuntu would likely do this by default nowadays, but it can't hurt to check.)

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Thanks for all the info. I have no comment since I need to watch like 3 youtube videos and spend another hour reading before I really understand that second paragraph, but I will definitely be referring back to it.

What I did pick up was that the kernel actually comes with basic hardware drivers, which is a huge relief. I have pretty standard wifi hardware on standby, so I can try that.

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 5 points 10 months ago

Since when do you need a wired internet connection? You need it to get updates, but it should install offline just fine. Just use the dvd installer?

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

I think i just misunderstood how "DIY" Linux was and thought it came with essentially no drivers. I thought it was kind of like rooting an Android, you get more control in exchange for having to do everything yourself. I mistakenly lumped all drivers under "everything"

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago

More exotic software will probably come from the internet, but the basics should be on the DVD. Good luck with your journey, reach out if you need any help, im sure everyone here would be happy to assist.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I once transferred an SSD with a Linux Mint installation on it to another computer. It booted up without any issues whatsoever so I'd say it's perfectly doable.

[-] badbytes@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Kinda, but some hardware need drivers. So it sorta depends.

[-] atomp@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Probably not the ideal method, but I've used a virtual machine with the disk connected via USB and then mounted to the VM to achieve something like this. It doesn't interfere with the existing disks or UEFI of any actual hardware then.

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I've heard VM's aren't ideal as well, so I'm trying to avoid it. If it ends up being needed though, this is good to know. Thanks!

[-] Oisteink@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago

https://fai-project.org can help you

[-] Hazmatastic@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

This looks like a great resource, but I'm going to go ahead and do it the hard way. Maybe for a first install, just to get the ball rolling, but I typically go the long way around so I can understand what I just did some more. Like when I bought my 3d printer unassembled, so I could learn about it as I put it together. I'll bookmark the site though. If I'm currently biting off more than I can chew, I'll probably end up using it. Thanks!

[-] NotATurtle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

You could try using usb tethering to provide internet for the installation.

this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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