How to use the new Ubuntu mini.iso file

Lounge Tips & Tricks
1

There is no mini.iso file for the newer versions of Ubuntu, but there is a new and different ‘mini.iso’ file

ubuntu-mini-iso-26.04-mini-iso-amd64.iso

available from

  • This file is small, 128 MB, and fits into most old USB pendrives as well as into a CD

  • It works in UEFI mode as well as in BIOS alias legacy mode

  • When you boot into it, you can choose between the currently supported versions of Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop.
    enter image description here
    You need a good internet connection in order to get the program packages necessary to install the selected system.

  • If you want to install a community flavour, for example Kubuntu, Lubuntu or Xubuntu, you can choose Ubuntu Server, and then, in a later menu ‘Ubuntu Server (minimized)’.
    enter image description here

    After installing Ubuntu Server (minimized) you can reboot and install a meta package for the community flavour for example with one of the following command lines,

    sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install lubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop

    into the Ubuntu Server system.

  • You can also install your own set of program packages into
    ‘Ubuntu Server (minimized)’ and get your own light-weight Ubuntu system, for example a server with a simple graphical desktop.

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Thanks for creating this @nio-wiklund

It’ll be useful to provide as a link in support.

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Impressive discovery - I had no idea that it even existed.

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I’ve just had a go at this and it seems as if it downloads the respective live installer ISO associated with each option. I find that rather wasteful, because when I want a minimized Ubuntu Server, which is probably just the minimal task, I still have to download the whole 2.7 GiB live server installer; from Canonical’s rather strained infrastructure no less – what if we are (becoming) the DDoS attack? (some hyperbole) :wink:

Is there no equivalent to Debian’s netinstall images? I half-expected mini.iso to be exactly that. :frowning:
I think we need a minimal image that provides a menu to select which installer program to download and run, in online mode, of course – not the whole disc image of every option imaginable. And thanks to tools like apt-cacher-ng the user can abort and restart the whole process anytime and as often as they like, without having to download at least 2.7 GiB again.

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I think this needs some additional love and care.

Currently, attempting to use it from five separate network locations, five separate IPs, and different bare metal or virtual deployments, the ISO is not even able to, 95% of the time, reach to releases.ubuntu.com to provide a list of releases available for download/install.

This is a problem, because then we end up with a screen that just says “Connecting to releases.ubuntu.com…” and all five of the IPs tied to that DNS record never respond.

While I’m going to assume that’s related to the anti-DDoS protections in place since that incident, that makes the mini ISO useless.

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stonking-mini-iso-amd64.iso works for me now, but it offers only the currently supported released versions of Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server. Is this an intended feature (that the mini-iso of the developing version offers to install the released versions but not the current developing version)? Or is it a bug?

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I have a feeling this is related to it checking the actual available releases, not the daily images. That sounds like a bug, but I wouldn’t trust it to do.

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We need some additional documentation required on this, as well as documentation on memory.

The mini ISO requires $MINI_ISO_SIZE + $FULL_ISO_SIZE_OF_SELECTED_RELEASE in memory in order to properly load items. That is, for an Ubuntu Desktop 26.04 selection, you must have at least 6220MiB of memory despite whether your target is less RAM. This makes for some confusion.

The Mini ISO should check the required memory and the available memory, and then give users an error of “Insufficient space - you require additional space to store the installation media.” - then display “Available Memory” and “Required Memory”. Rather than simply crashing into an unusable ‘debug shell’.

Your documentation should also indicate it requires that extra amount of space, and possibly make a note of that ON the release selection page in the ISO.

I think we need to check some things about allocations as well. The ISO says it has 2048MiB of space, but the system has 4096MiB (VM). Similarly, even with 8192MiB of RAM it says there’s only 6124MiB of RAM available. The Mini ISO is NOT 2GiB in size, so something is wrong with the ISO if it is ‘pre-reserving’ 2GiB of RAM.

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