Instead of customers flashing a different physical stick per workspace/
distro combination, one slim generic bootstrap medium (no live desktop
needed) stages the server-built personalized distro ISO into a small
partition on the target disk and boots it directly via GRUB loopback/
iso-scan (the same pattern Ventoy uses in production). The staging
partition is deliberately ephemeral - the real install's own
partitioning step wipes it along with the rest of the disk, keeping
Tuxflotte's own disk-touching code to a throwaway staging area only,
clearly inside the boundary already drawn against reimplementing the
actual install logic.
Also records the assessment that this is a genuine architectural
simplification, not just an Anaconda-specific workaround: it removes
the entire class of live-desktop/EROFS friction from recent days and
fits the project's own "orchestrate native installers" philosophy
better than the live-kiosk approach did.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the vague "separate netinstall media" fallback with a
concrete design: move the workspace/backend decision to the
self-service portal, before boot, and bake the finished kickstart/
autoinstall/preseed config into a personalized, distro-specific,
much smaller installer ISO at build time. Sidesteps the live-session
vs. native-installer-automation tension entirely, and the open
early-boot networking question from the two-stage-reboot plan, since
no runtime config fetch is needed. Consistent with backend_postinstall()
already being scoped to the installed system's first boot, not the
install phase.
Names the real cost honestly: demotes the interactive kiosk mode to
an optional secondary path, and requires real per-distro ISO-build
infrastructure server-side.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Further research showed the live-session-invocation limitation isn't
Fedora-specific: Ubuntu/Subiquity autoinstall and Ubiquity/preseed are
also strictly kernel-boot-parameter-triggered, and Calamares has no
unattended mode at all regardless of timing. Rather than switching
distros, the live session can instead set the right boot parameter
for a second boot and reboot into the installer's normal automated
mode - potentially avoiding a Fedora/Anaconda departure entirely.
Records the agreed test order: confirm Mint's actual installer,
test Fedora+kickstart-via-reboot first (lowest cost), then Mint/Ubuntu
with the same pattern, with the original ADR-0009 ultima ratio last.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Real test on Fedora 44 / Anaconda 44.30-2.fc44 (bypassing the liveinst
wrapper, which explicitly rejects kickstart on live media) confirmed
the documented restriction firsthand rather than just by reading
about it: --liveinst --kickstart in text mode silently drops rootpw/
user directives (require full manual re-entry, no error), and cmdline
mode exits cleanly with CmdlineError naming Installation Destination,
Root password, and User creation as unfinished despite being fully
specified in the kickstart.
Reimplementing install logic to bypass Anaconda entirely was
considered and explicitly rejected. Next step is re-evaluating
Ubuntu/Debian-based installer media instead of Anaconda's live mode;
switching Fedora to the officially supported inst.ks=/liveimg pattern
(separate netinstall media) remains a last resort.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
