12mo ago

Can I pre-install Ubuntu on an SSD?

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

47 comments

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.
- 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!
  
  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).

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).
- 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.
  
  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).
  
  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.

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.
- 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
  
  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
  Your authentication happens through Plex servers and not locally
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.

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

If you're going to be using it as a Plex server, aren't you going to need some sort of network connection anyways?
- 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.
  
  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?
- I suppose you could put all the media on it by sneakernet and directly connect it to your TV.

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?
- 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"
  
  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.

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.)
- 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.

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.

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

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.
- 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!

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

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

47 comments