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I have a Chromebook that I would like to install Ubuntu on. I previously had GalliumOS on it, but for several reasons, I choose not to use it. I then installed full Ubuntu on the laptop, leaving only a little more than a gb of free space left on the device.

I finally decided to install Ubuntu Minimal on the Chromebook. I have had experience with Ubuntu Minimal in the past, but never setting it up. However, my Chromebook does not have an Ethernet port on it. I could not download any utilities to connect to WiFi without WiFi.

My question is: is it possible to setup Ubuntu Minimal only using WiFi. If I can not, is there any good very lightweight replacement distributions you recommend? I have previously looked up this answer and got this result

I am not aware of any method to connect to a WPA network only with terminal commands.

While this seems pretty cut and dried, that post was from 2010. Things may have changed.

I have found several similar questions here, but most of them include installing another program. Which requires internet. Thanks for any feedback.

  • For connecting to wifi using only commands, please look at https://askubuntu.com/questions/461825/how-to-connect-to-wifi-from-the-command-line (yes it is possible to connect to WPA) Minimal installation does not provide all feature support (it's wasn't intended to) so it isn't suitable for all hardware. Light usually refers to low-memory usage, of which Lubuntu & Xubuntu would be lightest (non-Ubuntu are off-topic here). – guiverc Apr 01 '19 at 08:21
  • I think the answer to this question can be found here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/203122/how-do-i-do-a-minimal-install-without-an-internet-connection – Martial Apr 02 '19 at 19:35

1 Answers1

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I have tried many distribution on my laptop and I run into the same problem. I really dont like gnome but ubuntu-server doesnt work with wifi install. So I use a regular ubuntu desktop version. dd it to a usb and boot from it. Open a terminal and start type the following. Make sure you change your device. (as yours may not sda)


# create gpt table
sudo fdisk /dev/sda
sudo mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

cd /tmp && wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.114ubuntu1_all.deb
cd /tmp && dpkg -i debootstrap*.deb

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/usb
sudo mkdir /mnt/usb/boot
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/boot
sudo debootstrap bionic /mnt/usb http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/

sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/usb/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/usb/dev/pts
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/usb/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/usb/proc

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /mnt/usb/etc/apt/
sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get update


sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install grub-efi-amd64 sudo make git ssh linux-firmware linux-image-generic nano intel-microcode curl software-properties-common unzip network-manager net-tools wpasupplicant

# add your packages here, Install your driver here
# sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install papirus-icon-theme cpanminus gexec libcpan-distnameinfo-perl libcpan-meta-check-perl libfile-pushd-perl liblocal-lib-p$
# sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install xorg openbox obconf lxterminal conky tint2 feh pcmanfm xarchiver chromium-browser gmrun 
# sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install viewnior ttf-wqy-microhei 
# sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install transmission-gtk rar unrar zip evince scrot 
# sudo chroot /mnt/usb apt-get -y install alsa-utils pulseaudio bluez

sudo chroot /mnt/usb passwd

sudo echo -e "/dev/sda1  /boot       vfat    umask=0077      0       1" | sudo tee -a /mnt/usb/etc/fstab
sudo echo -e "/dev/sda2 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1"  | sudo tee -a /mnt/usb/etc/fstab
sudo echo -e "/dev/sda3 /home               ext4    defaults        0       2"  | sudo tee -a /mnt/usb/etc/fstab



sudo chroot /mnt/usb
# Following in chroot environment
apt-get install grub-efi-amd64
grub-mkdevicemap
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
update-grub
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi  --bootloader-id=grub_uefi --efi-directory=/boot

sudo shutdown -r now

After reboot get online with 


nmtui
Hairy Ass
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