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1.2 Operating system

We configure the PC and install the Ubuntu Server operating system.

Which operating system to use?

We use Ubuntu Server LTS (Long Term Support) OS, without a graphical user interface. This provides the best stability for the PC and makes the initial setup a breeze.

Ubuntu Server is based on the Debian Linux distribution, which is available for most hardware platforms. To make this guide as universal as possible, it uses only standard Debian based commands. As a result, it should work smoothly with a personal computer while still being compatible with most other hardware platforms running Debian.

Balena Etcher and Ubuntu Server

To flash the operating system (.iso file) to the pen drive, we will use the Balena Etcher application:

  • Go to the website and download the correct binary according to your OS.
  • Direct download Ubuntu Server 22.04.5 LTS by clicking here.

{% hint style="warning" %} Attention!! MiniBolt has currently been tested using Ubuntu Server 22.04.5 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), it has not been tested on other distributions or versions and there is no guarantee that it will work well on them. The steps may differ from the guide, and support won’t be facilitated in the provided groups. {% endhint %}

  • Start the Balena Etcher.
  • Select "Flash from file" -> Select the Ubuntu Server LTS (.iso) file previously downloaded.

Write the operating system to the pen drive

  • Connect the pen drive to your regular computer.
  • Click on "Select target".
  • Select your pen drive unit.
  • Click on "Flash!".

{% hint style="info" %} Balena Etcher will now flash the operating system to your drive and validate it {% endhint %}

{% hint style="success" %} It should display a "Flash Complete!" message after {% endhint %}

Start your PC

  1. Safely eject the pen drive from your regular computer.
  2. Connect the pen drive to your selected PC for the MiniBolt node.
  3. Attach a screen, a keyboard, and the Ethernet wire of the Internet (not the case for Wi-Fi connection) to the PC and start it.
  4. Press the key quickly to enter THE BIOS setup or directly to the boot menu to select the pen drive as the 1st boot priority device (normally, F9, Esc, F12, or Supr keys).

{% hint style="info" %} In this step, you might want to activate the Restore on AC / After power failure or similar in the BIOS setup.

Normally found in Advanced -> Power / ACPI Configuration, switching to Last State / Memory or similar (System power on depends on the status before AC lost) or Power ON / Full on or similar (Always power on the system when AC back) depends on your preference.

With this, you can get the PC to start automatically after a power loss, ensuring services are back available in your absence. {% endhint %}

  1. If you configured boot options in BIOS, save changes and exit. This starts automatically with the Ubuntu Server guided installation. You will keep selecting [Try or Install Ubuntu Server] and press ENTER, or wait 20 seconds for it to start automatically.

Ubuntu Server installation

Use your keyboard's UP, DOWN, and ENTER keys to navigate to the options. Follow the next instructions:

1. On the first screen, select the language of your choice (English recommended).

2. If there is an installer update available, select "Update to the new installer", press ENTER, and wait.

3. Select your keyboard layout and variant (Spanish recommended to Spanish native speakers) and press [done].

4. Keep selecting "Ubuntu Server" as the base for the installation, down to [done], and press ENTER.

5. Select the interface network connection you use (Ethernet recommended) and take note of your IP obtained automatically through DHCP. (Normally 192.168.x.xx). Press [done].

{% hint style="info" %} The router reserves the IP address of the device for a time after going out (i.e. after power failure), but if the device goes out some time, the next time that the device starts, the router could assign a different IP. You could lose access to your node temporarily. To avoid this, you need to set a static IP on your node, avoiding the delivery decision of the DHCP server of the router. Go to the Static IP & custom DNS servers bonus guide for further instructions on how to do this.


🚨 Be careful by setting the static IP! If you change the router, the new one may not work in the same IP address range as the old one, the MiniBolt will not register and will be completely offline. To avoid this, previously to the change, follow the Set the DCHP (automatic) configuration section of the bonus guide to ensure that the DHCP server auto assigns an IP to the node in the range you are working on, and if you want, after the change of the router, reconfigure the static IP address again following the Option 2 section. {% endhint %}

6. Leave the empty next option if you don't want to use an HTTP proxy to access it. Press [done].

7. If you don't want to use an alternative mirror for Ubuntu (more common), leave it empty and press [done] directly.

8. Configure a guided storage layout, with 2 options:

8.1. Check "Use an entire disk", if you have only one primary unit storage (2+ TB). In this case, ensure that you uncheck "Set up this disk as an LVM group" before select [done] and press ENTER. Then, continue with step 9.

8.2. Check "Custom storage layout", if you want to use one secondary disk, e.g. primary for the system and secondary disk for data (blockchain, indexes, etc) (2+ TB). For this case, go to -> the Case 1 of Store data in a secondary disk bonus guide, to get instructions about how to follow, and then continue with step 10.

9. Confirm destructive action by selecting the [Continue] option. Press ENTER.

{% hint style="danger" %} This will delete all existing data on the disks, including existing partitions! {% endhint %}

10. Keep selecting [Skip for now], when the [Upgrade to Ubuntu Pro] section appears you press ENTER on the done button.

11. The username admin is reserved for use by the system, to use in the first place, so we are going to create a temporary user called "temp" which we will delete later. Complete the profile configuration form with the following:

{% hint style="danger" %} Very IMPORTANT step! {% endhint %}

{% code fullWidth="false" %}

> name: temp
> user: temp
> server name: minibolt
> password: PASSWORD [A]

{% endcode %}

12. Press ENTER to check "Install OpenSSH server", down to select the [done] box, and press ENTER again.

{% hint style="danger" %} Very IMPORTANT step! {% endhint %}

13. If you want to preinstall some additional software (not recommended), select them, if not, press [done] directly to jump to the next step.

14. Now all before configurations will be applied and the system installed. This would be a few minutes depending on the hardware used. You can show extended logs by pressing [View full log].

{% hint style="info" %} ⌛ Wait until the installation finishes, when it happens, [Reboot now] will appear. Select it and press ENTER {% endhint %}

15. When the prompt shows you "Please remove the installation medium, then press ENTER", extract the pen drive of the PC and press ENTER.

{% hint style="success" %} Now the PC should reboot and show you the prompt to log in. You can disconnect the keyboard and the screen of the MiniBolt node, and proceed to connect remotely from your regular computer to continue with the installation {% endhint %}

GIF showing an example of Ubuntu installation using automatic (DHCP)

{% hint style="info" %} The GIF before is only a recreation of a scenario made with a virtual machine, (VBOX_HARDDISK_...) is the example name for the disk's name. In your case, this probably will not match exactly {% endhint %}