Content.id – How to Switch Oracle Ubuntu VM to Debian. Sometime someone want to use debian instead of ubuntu on oracle. If you one of this kind here is how to switch your oracle VM from Ubuntu to Debian Os.
Refs:
1. http://mirror.cs.pitt.edu/archlinux/iso/2023.09.01/archlinux-bootstrap-2023.09.01-x86_64.tar.gz
2. https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.18/releases/x86_64/alpine-virt-3.18.0-x86_64.iso
3. https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Replacing_non-Alpine_Linux_with_Alpine_remotely
4. https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/apds03.en.html
Prerequirment:
- Oracle account
- Oracle VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro
- Ubuntu OS Installed
- COFFEE
Requirement:
Console access.
Step By Step How to Convert your Ubuntu to Debian on your Oracle
Prepare alpine linux, which can be configured to run from ram only.
Alpine is leveraged to do the conversion.
1. In any linux (ubuntu/debian/arch tested) become root first:
sudo su -
cd /tmp && wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.18/releases/x86_64/alpine-virt-3.18.0-x86_64.iso
dd if=alpine-virt-3.18.0-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sda && sync && reboot
2. After reboot, go to your Oracle account. Login to Oracle and access the “Console Access” menu on the left.
In Alpine with console:
3. [Bring up networking]
ip li set eth0 up udhcpc eth0
4. [Setup SSH, answer RET, yes, RET]
setup-sshd
5. [set temp alpine password for alpine login over SSH]
passwd
After you Add the password for root, at this point it’s easier to use SSH to copy & paste. E.g. “ssh root@”]
6. Login to Oracle VM using SSH client or PuTTY or any SSH Client you love to use.
7. [Per Ref #3. Move alpine to ram only]
mkdir /media/setup cp -a /media/sda/* /media/setup mkdir /lib/setup cp -a /.modloop/* /lib/setup /etc/init.d/modloop stop umount /dev/sda mv /media/setup/* /media/sda/ mv /lib/setup/* /.modloop/
8. [Setup apk and bring in pacman]
setup-apkrepos
9. [enable community] by uncomment on the community repo
vi /etc/apk/repositories
10. Do update for the alpine and install dosfstools e2fsprogs util-linux-misc debian-archive-keyring debootstrap arch-install-scripts
apk update apk add dosfstools e2fsprogs util-linux-misc debian-archive-keyring debootstrap arch-install-scripts
11 [Disk partitioning & mounting]
Use gpt table, set esp partition 15 size 256M), set root partition 1 size remaining
Follow this on fdisk: g, n, 15, RET, +256m, t, 1, n, RET, RET, RET, p, w
fdisk /dev/sda
12. Check /dev/ folder if there is sda15 and sda1
ls /dev/sda*
# if sda1 or sda15 is missing, do “/etc/init.d/devfs restart”
13. Format the partition
mkfs.vfat /dev/sda15
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
14. Mount the partition
mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt mkdir /mnt/boot mount /dev/sda15 /mnt/boot
15. Debootstrap debian system to /mnt/
# [Per Ref #4] Coffee time.
debootstrap --include systemd --arch amd64 bookworm /mnt/ http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
15. chroot to /mnt/
arch-chroot /mnt/
16. Create root password for debian
# This is your debian root password. Choose carefully and remember it
passwd
17 Edit fstab
cat > /etc/fstab << EOF # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # file system mount point type options dump pass /dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 0 1 /dev/sda15 /boot vfat nosuid,nodev 0 2 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 EOF
18. Bring the interface up
cat >> /etc/network/interfaces << EOF auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto ens3 iface ens3 inet dhcp EOF
19. Add nameserver
cat > /etc/resolv.conf << EOF nameserver 1.1.1.1 nameserver 4.2.2.2 nameserver 8.8.8.8 EOF
20. Add hostname in /etc/hostname
echo deb12 > /etc/hostname
21. Add debian repo
cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list << EOF deb http://security.debian.org/ bookworm-security main EOF
22. Install update and linux-image
apt update && apt -y install linux-image-cloud-amd64 grub-efi-amd64 ssh
23. Add SSH authorize keys
cat > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys << EOF EOF
24. install grub to /boog
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
vi /etc/default/grub # Better console. Comparison below: #GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=ttyS0,115200"
# Or use perl/sed to replace
# perl -pi.bak -e “s/quiet/console=ttyS0,115200/” /etc/default/grub
# sed -i.bak -e “s/quiet/console=ttyS0,115200/” /etc/default/grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
25. Exit from debian
exit
26. Reboot
reboot
Now your systemc at oracle switched from ubuntu to debian.
