Alternative way to provide the installer with a username to use
I've just tried to install Bazzite onto my Ally X for a dualboot setup. However, the one thing I absolutely require a wired keyboard for, apparently, is to input my desired username, as the installer doesn't provide a touch keyboard. Since that seems to be an issue that won't be fixed quickly, and I don't have access to a wired keyboard either, I was wondering if there was an alternative way to provide the installer with a username to use when installing. Maybe a text file I need to create on the USB flash drive?
45 Replies
Use the deck username
Which is default
How would I type that in without a wired keyboard?
It's the default
You can change it after if you're so inclined
But if you don't have a keyboard, what's all the fuss with the username
It isn't pre-filled in or anything
I thought we prefilled it
I cannot complete the installation without entering a username
I wish 😅
Using latest stable bazzite-deck
@Kyle Gospo @Skynet still no prefill?
Anaconda supports kickstart files which can include a username and password. You do need to make sure you select the right flavor when building the installer though as some of the flavors disable the user account creation portion of Anaconda. Is that what you need?
Solution
Bazzite should have prefilled deck deck on the deck iso
We didn't do it?
if that can be added to my USB stick post flashing the ISO to it with balena Etcher, then that would solve my problem, yeah
You could use the
additional_templates input variable to include a lorax template that adds the username and password to the kickstart file usr/share/anaconda/interactive-defaults.ks
See https://github.com/JasonN3/build-container-installer/blob/main/lorax_templates/install_set_installer.tmpl for how the template would lookGitHub
build-container-installer/lorax_templates/install_set_installer.tmp...
Creates an ISO for installing a container image as an OS - JasonN3/build-container-installer
You can always add to the kickstart file. For the most part interactive-defaults.ks gets used, but you can define your own as well
Would that be feasible for someone who has no experience with
- building an OS
- building a Fedora Atomic Desktop OS
- building Bazzite
- Anaconda
- Lorax
It doesn't sound like a solution that's accessible to me
The lorax template that could add it to the interactive-defaults.ks could be added to the Bazzite build, but that would be up to the Bazzite maintainers to decide if they want it there
I'n more asking if this could be as easy as editing one file on my USB stick
I don't think there is
But usbc to USB converters are very cheap
I have three, I just don't have a wired keyboard
and the Logitech wireless keyboard I tried didn't work (it uses a USB dongle)
Should be fine
With the dongle
but it just doesn't work :')
batteries are fresh too
Does it work in windows
Yknow what I haven't tested that
As long as the filesystem is read/write, it is as easy as editing one file. The issue is that, if I remember right, even when written to a USB drive, ISOs stay read-only
I'm out and about but can test later
I guess everyone still has keyboards
Because I thought we fixed this
And you're the first one to complain in months
Did you download the deck ISO
I don't think the latter is true
bazzite-deck stable
If you can tell me which file to edit and what edits to make, that would solve my problem, otherwise asking around if anyone has a wired keyboard for me to borrow for 10 seconds will be the easier solution 😄
Probably the latter is the better solution
And for us
Fixing it later
If it is read/write, you just need to add a file that says
and then add inst.ks=FILENAME.ks to the boot option
Didn't we do that for bazzite deck?
I remember us removing the root user and making it a default
What happened to that
I haven't heard a single user complain about it after that
it's removed, yea
But making the deck user default
Didn't we do that
not sure, I'll look at iso setup
Windows can't access it "without formatting" and diskmgmt.msc shows the partition as "RAW", it's probably not writeable by Windows after all
Windows won't understand the filesystem. It has to be linux or possibly even mac
I'm not sure if WSL has any support for linux filesystems while still on Windows
I just triple checked and nothing is prefilled for the user during installation
Don't bother find a keyboard
We will look into ut
I have ADHD, "don't bother" ain't an option 😂 /lh
I'm gonna try this
Even if I wanted to I couldn't do it
But gl
WSL might support mkksiso. If it does, you could write the same kickstart file and then run
mkksiso --ks=FILE.ks ORIGINAL_ISO.iso OUTPUT.iso and then write that ISO to the USB driveWould that modify my existing ISO?
And would it be equivalent to both of these steps, especially the second one?
the mkksiso command would copy the kickstart file into the ISO and modify the default boot options
I forgot to respond here, apologies. Turns out I used the wrong USB dongle for my wireless keyboard, it worked with the right dongle 😄
I've now installed it and only had a minor hiccup because I didn't know what to do on the MOK management screen (I had to Enroll MOK).
But yeah, having a prefilled user and password would have been great to avoid this whole ordeal 😄
Thank you everyone for your help!!