General informations

This repository contains unattended configurations for my personal devices running on Linux and Windows.

In addition to these configurations, I use chezmoi for managing dotfiles: https://github.com/f-bn/dotfiles

Devices

Device	Type	Operating system	Chassis	Configuration	Status
buran	Desktop	Windows 11 24H2	Custom	unattended.xml	✅
buran	WSL	Ubuntu 24.04	Virtual machine (WSL2)	ubuntu.user-data	✅
foton	Laptop	Ubuntu 25.10	Thinkpad P14s Gen 5 (Intel)	autoinstall.user-data	✅
soyuz	Server	Fedora CoreOS 42	Beelink SER5 PRO	ignition.yaml	✅

Devices (legacy configurations)

Device	Type	Operating system	Chassis	Configuration
buran	WSL	Fedora 43	Virtual machine (WSL2)	fedora.user-data)
foton	Laptop	Fedora 43	Thinkpad P14s Gen 5 (Intel)	kickstart.ks
proton	Server	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	ASRock DeskMini X300	autoinstall.user-data

How-to

Desktops/Laptop/Servers

For the desktops, laptops and servers installations, Ventoy autoinstall feature is used to pass autoinstall/user-data (Ubuntu), kickstart.ks (Fedora) or autounattend.xml (Windows) configuration files to the respective installer.

In order to setup Ventoy autoinstall, we need to create a hierarchy in the Ventoy partition (where ISOs are stored on the USB key) by placing the unattended configurations in expected folders. Here the current hierarchy used for this repository:

/autoinstall/
├── desktops/
│   └── buran_unattended.xml
├── laptops/
│   └── foton.user-data
├── servers/
│   └── proton.user-data
/ventoy/
└── ventoy.json
ubuntu-24.04.2-live-server-amd64.iso
ubuntu-25.04-desktop-amd64.iso
win11_24h2.iso

The ventoy.json file defines which unattended file(s) is to be used with a given ISO file. You can have multiple configurations for an ISO file if needed.

In the following configuration, I define that:

• Ubuntu Server ISOs are linked to my proton server unattended configuration
• Ubuntu Desktop ISOs (stable and beta) are linked to my foton laptop unattended configuration
• Fedora ISOs (stable and beta) are linked to my foton laptop unattended kickstart configuration
• Windows 11 ISOs are linked to my buran desktop unattended configuration

{
    "auto_install":[
        {
            "image": "/ubuntu-**.**.*-live-server-amd64.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/servers/proton.user-data"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/ubuntu-**.**-live-server-amd64.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/servers/proton.user-data"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/ubuntu-**.**-desktop-amd64.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/laptops/foton.user-data"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/ubuntu-**.**.*-desktop-amd64.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/laptops/foton.user-data"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/fedora-**-beta.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/laptops/foton.ks"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/fedora-**.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/laptops/foton.ks"
            ]
        },
        {
            "image": "/win11_****.iso",
            "template": [
                "/autoinstall/desktops/buran_unattended.xml"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Once done, simply boot the USB key on a device, then select the ISO in the Ventoy menu. You will have 2 options for each ISO:

• Boot without an installation template
• Boot with /autoinstall/**/** template depending on the selected ISO

If the boot option with installation template is chosen, the installation will be launched in a fully automatted manner !

WSL2

For WSL2, the new Cloud-Init WSL datasource is used. This allows to bring your own custom distribution image and provision it in a standard and automated way. Regarding requirements, the image must at least include systemd and cloud-init packages.

The default.user-data file located in wsl2 folder must be placed at %USERPROFILE%\.cloud-init\default.user-data.

As an example, we will import an official Ubuntu 24.04 WSL image provided by Canonical:

PS C:\WSL> wsl --import Linux <install folder> ubuntu.tar.gz

Launch the WSL2 by waiting for cloud-init to provision your instance:

PS C:\WSL> wsl -d Linux -- cloud-init status --wait
...................................................................................................
status: done

As cloud-init will shutdown the WSL distribution at the end of provisionning, shutdown the WSL and start it again to avoid any issues:

PS C:\WSL> wsl --shutdown
PS C:\WSL> wsl -d Linux

And voilà !

References

• Cloud-Init: https://cloud-init.io/
• Ubuntu autoinstall reference: https://canonical-subiquity.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/latest/reference/autoinstall-reference.html
• Ventoy: https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
• Ventoy Autoinstall plugin: https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_autoinstall.html
• Unattend Generator (Windows): https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/