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There's an existing PXE installation that installs Ubuntu 18.04 which I didn't set up. I'd like to to have it install Ubuntu 18.04.05.

When I look for an .ISO, this is what I see:

find . -name "*.iso"
./www/ubuntu/bionic/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
./www/ubuntu/bionic/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hwe-netboot/mini.iso
./www/ubuntu/bionic/dists/bionic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
./www/ubuntu/bionic.orig/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-amd64/current/images/hwe-netboot/mini.iso
./www/ubuntu/bionic.orig/dists/bionic-updates/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
./www/ubuntu/bionic.orig/dists/bionic/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso

The mini.iso confuses me as it seems like it's the minimal installation which I can't seem to find in the Ubuntu ISO download. There are also multiple of .iso files. Each of them weighs ~55MB.

I'm really frustrated by this. Am I looking at the wrong thing? The ISO for ubuntu from their website is ~1GB.

Thanks ahead.

rogersjoshmac123
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  • the netboot ISO can be found here https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/18.04/ with the amd64 ISO being mini.iso 2020-08-05 12:43 76M – guiverc Apr 11 '21 at 11:38
  • Thank you SO MUCH!! I see there's only one version. there's no 18.04.3 or 18.04.5. When I install a PXE server with it, in /etc/os-release, it just says Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Does it mean that netboot only allows installing the oldest version of Ubuntu 18? – rogersjoshmac123 Apr 11 '21 at 11:46
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    Ubuntu 18.04 is deb based (thus yy.mm format); Ubuntu releases using the yy format are snap only releases, eg. Ubuntu Core 18 and refer to a different product. Netboot is a network boot loader so there is little on it (it boots then downloads everything... so little changes), and it'll always download the latest versions (from the size it's clear to see it's all downloaded) – guiverc Apr 11 '21 at 11:58
  • So essentially installing from mini.iso would result the latest version? Even though the OS doesn't specify the exact version number (such as 18.04.5?) – rogersjoshmac123 Apr 11 '21 at 12:01
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    Yep... unless on a restricted/controlled network where only older versions of software can be found (ie. not on a real internet connection) – guiverc Apr 11 '21 at 12:04

1 Answers1

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the netboot (minimal network installer) ISO can be found here

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/18.04/

with the amd64 ISO being mini.iso 2020-08-05 12:43 76M

-- Additional details from comments --

Ubuntu 18.04 is deb based (thus yy.mm format); Ubuntu releases using the yy format are snap only releases, eg. Ubuntu Core 18 and refer to a different product.

Netboot is a network boot loader (see https://help.ubuntu.com/18.04/installation-guide/ for instructions on usage) so there is little on it (it boots then downloads everything... so little changes), and it'll always download the latest versions (from the size it's clear to see it's all downloaded)

guiverc
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